diff --git a/source/coral/files.cpp b/source/coral/files.cpp
index 967456b..09f746e 100755
--- a/source/coral/files.cpp
+++ b/source/coral/files.cpp
@@ -7,6 +7,15 @@ export namespace coral {
 	 * Platform-generalized identifier for a resource in a [fs].
 	 */
 	struct path {
+		/**
+		 * Errors that may occur during a path joining operation.
+		 *
+		 * [join_error::overflow] signals that the given path join exceeds the maximum valid length of a path.
+		 */
+		enum class join_error {
+			overflow,
+		};
+
 		/**
 		 * Maximum path length.
 		 */
@@ -83,14 +92,11 @@ export namespace coral {
 		}
 
 		/**
-		 * Returns a new [path] composed of the current path joined with `text`.
-		 *
-		 * *Note:* should the new path exceed [max] bytes in size, an empty [path] is returned instead.
-		 *
-		 * *Note:* should the new path exceed [max] bytes in size, an empty [path] is returned instead.
+		 * Attempts to create a new path composed from the current path joined with `text`, returning it or a
+		 * [join_error] if it failed.
 		 */
-		constexpr path joined(slice<char const> const & text) const {
-			if (text.length > this->buffer[max]) return path{};
+		constexpr expected<path, join_error> joined(slice<char const> const & text) const {
+			if (text.length > this->buffer[max]) return join_error::overflow;
 
 			path joined_path = *this;