diff --git a/CMakeLists.txt b/CMakeLists.txt
index 465d158..8fe1c48 100644
--- a/CMakeLists.txt
+++ b/CMakeLists.txt
@@ -129,6 +129,8 @@ target_compile_definitions(cppjit PRIVATE
     CPPINTEROP_INCLUDE_DIR="interop/include"
     CPPJIT_CLANG_MAJOR="${LLVM_VERSION_MAJOR}"
     CPPJIT_CLANG_INCLUDE_DIR="interop/lib/clang/${LLVM_VERSION_MAJOR}"
+    # cling-only code paths need the flavor at compile time, not just in cmake
+    $<$<BOOL:${CPPJIT_USE_CLING}>:CPPJIT_USE_CLING>
 )
 
 target_include_directories(cppjit PRIVATE
diff --git a/src/cpyrt/CPPInstance.cxx b/src/cpyrt/CPPInstance.cxx
index 59cde8a..edd2344 100644
--- a/src/cpyrt/CPPInstance.cxx
+++ b/src/cpyrt/CPPInstance.cxx
@@ -869,23 +869,30 @@ static PyObject* op_str(CPPInstance* self) {
   }
 
   // 2. Cling's pretty printing (not done through backend for performance
-  // reasons)
+  // reasons). Cling only: clang-repl has no cling namespace to look up, so the
+  // whole path compiles out and str() falls through to the generic repr.
+#ifdef CPPJIT_USE_CLING
   if (!ScopeFlagCheck(self, CPPScope::kNoPrettyPrint)) {
     static PyObject* printValue = nullptr;
     if (!printValue) {
       PyObject* gbl =
           PyDict_GetItemString(PySys_GetObject((char*)"modules"), "cppjit.gbl");
-      PyObject* cl = PyObject_GetAttrString(gbl, (char*)"cling");
-      printValue = PyObject_GetAttrString(cl, (char*)"printValue");
-      Py_DECREF(cl);
+      // no cling namespace exists unless user code declares one
+      PyObject* cl =
+          gbl ? PyObject_GetAttrString(gbl, (char*)"cling") : nullptr;
+      printValue =
+          cl ? PyObject_GetAttrString(cl, (char*)"printValue") : nullptr;
+      Py_XDECREF(cl);
       // gbl is borrowed
       if (printValue) {
         Py_DECREF(printValue); // make borrowed
         if (!PyCallable_Check(printValue))
           printValue = nullptr; // unusable ...
       }
-      if (!printValue) // unlikely
+      if (!printValue) {
+        PyErr_Clear();
         ScopeFlagSet(self, CPPScope::kNoPrettyPrint);
+      }
     }
 
     if (printValue) {
@@ -929,6 +936,7 @@ static PyObject* op_str(CPPInstance* self) {
     // if not available/specialized, don't try again
     ScopeFlagSet(self, CPPScope::kNoPrettyPrint);
   }
+#endif // CPPJIT_USE_CLING
 
   // 3. Generic printing as done in op_repr
   return op_repr(self);
diff --git a/test/test_regression.py b/test/test_regression.py
index 638fc50..df90a6d 100644
--- a/test/test_regression.py
+++ b/test/test_regression.py
@@ -1,7 +1,7 @@
 import os
 import sys
 
-from pytest import mark, raises, skip
+from pytest import mark, raises, skip, xfail
 from support import (
     IS_CLANG_REPL,
     IS_CLING,
@@ -1637,3 +1637,58 @@ def test51_nontype_enum_template_arg(self):
 
         # ...nor leave the interpreter unable to compile a later call wrapper
         assert ns.probe(41) == 42
+
+    def test52_str_fallback_without_ostream_insertion(self):
+        """str() of an instance with no operator<< used to crash.
+
+        With no ``cling`` namespace in the interpreter, the pretty-print
+        fallback dereferenced the failed ``cppjit.gbl.cling`` lookup and the
+        process died. A regression is therefore fatal, not an assertion
+        failure, so run the repro in a subprocess: the runner survives and the
+        output identifies which failure happened.
+        """
+
+        import os
+        import subprocess
+        import sys
+
+        repro = """\
+import cppjit
+
+cppjit.cppdef("namespace StrFallback { struct Bare { int x; }; }")
+print(repr(str(cppjit.gbl.StrFallback.Bare())))
+"""
+
+        # A build system can put cppjit on sys.path without PYTHONPATH (bazel
+        # gives the runner a bootstrap instead), so hand the child this
+        # process's own path.
+        env = dict(os.environ)
+        env["PYTHONPATH"] = os.pathsep.join(p for p in sys.path if p)
+
+        popen = subprocess.Popen(
+            [sys.executable, "-c", repro],
+            env=env,
+            stdout=subprocess.PIPE,
+            stderr=subprocess.STDOUT,
+        )
+        stdout, _ = popen.communicate()
+        output = stdout.decode("utf-8", "replace")
+
+        # the guard holds: cling prints the @0xADDR form through printValue and
+        # ClangRepl falls back to the generic repr, and neither crashes
+        if popen.returncode == 0:
+            return
+
+        # Interpreter::toString is an assert(0) stub upstream. str() tries the
+        # ostream path first, which reaches it whenever assertions are on.
+        if "toString is not implemented" in output:
+            xfail(
+                "toString stub aborts, see compiler-research/CppInterOp#1100: "
+                "%s" % (output[:300],)
+            )
+
+        # a crash banner and its top frames come first, so keep the head
+        raise AssertionError(
+            "str() without an ostream inserter did not fall back cleanly: "
+            "returncode=%s output=%r" % (popen.returncode, output[:2000])
+        )