diff --git a/kyaml/fn/runtime/runtimeutil/functiontypes.go b/kyaml/fn/runtime/runtimeutil/functiontypes.go
index c25ba4a6a0..f0448ea28d 100644
--- a/kyaml/fn/runtime/runtimeutil/functiontypes.go
+++ b/kyaml/fn/runtime/runtimeutil/functiontypes.go
@@ -238,7 +238,7 @@ func getFunctionSpecFromAnnotation(n *yaml.RNode, meta yaml.ResourceMeta) (*Func
 	}
 	n, err := n.Pipe(yaml.Lookup("metadata", "configFn"))
 	if err != nil {
-		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to LookUp configFn: %w", err)
+		return nil, fmt.Errorf("failed to look up metadata.configFn: %w", err)
 	}
 	if yaml.IsMissingOrNull(n) {
 		return nil, nil
diff --git a/kyaml/runfn/runfn_test.go b/kyaml/runfn/runfn_test.go
index ad7f6c9e21..dbd2d6f0af 100644
--- a/kyaml/runfn/runfn_test.go
+++ b/kyaml/runfn/runfn_test.go
@@ -287,6 +287,21 @@ metadata:
 				{
 					explicitFunction: true,
 					value: `
+apiVersion: example.com/v1alpha1
+kind: ExampleFunction
+metadata:
+  annotations:
+    foo: bar
+`,
+				},
+			},
+		},
+		{
+			name: "invalid input object",
+			in: []f{
+				{
+					explicitFunction: true,
+					value: `
 foo: bar
 `,
 				},