The following example leads to an assertion from printtyp.ml when loaded in utop. I made the example as small as I could, but unfortunately it still depends on a package called Future which in turn depends on Core. To run it you'll have to do: $ opam pin add future https://github.com/agarwal/future Then hit Y to install the package. $ cat tmp.ml open Future_std let f items = Pipe.peek_deferred items >>= function | `Comment _ -> return () #require "future.std";; # #use "tmp.ml";; Fatal error: exception "Assert_failure typing/printtyp.ml:583:12" Raised at file "bytes.ml", line 220, characters 25-34 Doing the equivalent in the standard ocaml toploop or compiling with ocamlc/ocamlopt doesn't exhibit this assertion. You correctly get the real error reported: $ ocamlfind ocamlc -package future.std -thread tmp.ml File "tmp.ml", line 5, characters 4-14: Error: This pattern matches values of type [? `Comment of 'a ] but a pattern was expected which matches values of type ('b Future_std.Deferred.t as 'b) Future_std.Deferred.t The second variant type does not allow tag(s) `Comment The assertion is also avoided if you replace `open Future_std` with a copy/paste of the relevant part of Future_std.