diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/error.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/error.py
index cd979839f2d..0d0d3103ca7 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/error.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/error.py
@@ -3,6 +3,86 @@
 #
 # SPDX-License-Identifier: (Apache-2.0 OR MIT)
 
+import inspect
+import sys
+
+import llnl.util.tty as tty
+
+#: at what level we should write stack traces or short error messages
+#: this is module-scoped because it needs to be set very early
+debug = 0
+
 
 class UtilityError(Exception):
-    """Base error for all errors from the utility package"""
+    """This is the superclass for all Spack errors.
+    Subclasses can be found in the modules they have to do with.
+    """
+
+    def __init__(self, message, long_message=None):
+        super().__init__()
+        self.message = message
+        self._long_message = long_message
+
+        # for exceptions raised from child build processes, we save the
+        # traceback as a string and print it in the parent.
+        self.traceback = None
+
+        # we allow exceptions to print debug info via print_context()
+        # before they are caught at the top level. If they *haven't*
+        # printed context early, we do it by default when die() is
+        # called, so we need to remember whether it's been called.
+        self.printed = False
+
+    @property
+    def long_message(self):
+        return self._long_message
+
+    def print_context(self):
+        """Print extended debug information about this exception.
+
+        This is usually printed when the top-level Spack error handler
+        calls ``die()``, but it can be called separately beforehand if a
+        lower-level error handler needs to print error context and
+        continue without raising the exception to the top level.
+        """
+        if self.printed:
+            return
+
+        # basic debug message
+        tty.error(self.message)
+        if self.long_message:
+            sys.stderr.write(self.long_message)
+            sys.stderr.write("\n")
+
+        # stack trace, etc. in debug mode.
+        if debug:
+            if self.traceback:
+                # exception came from a build child, already got
+                # traceback in child, so print it.
+                sys.stderr.write(self.traceback)
+            else:
+                # run parent exception hook.
+                sys.excepthook(*sys.exc_info())
+
+        sys.stderr.flush()
+        self.printed = True
+
+    def die(self):
+        self.print_context()
+        sys.exit(1)
+
+    def __str__(self):
+        msg = self.message
+        if self._long_message:
+            msg += "\n    %s" % self._long_message
+        return msg
+
+    def __repr__(self):
+        args = [repr(self.message), repr(self.long_message)]
+        args = ",".join(args)
+        qualified_name = inspect.getmodule(self).__name__ + "." + type(self).__name__
+        return qualified_name + "(" + args + ")"
+
+    def __reduce__(self):
+        return type(self), (self.message, self.long_message)
+
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_json.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_json.py
index 579d0469851..89e07b44a6a 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_json.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_json.py
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
 import json
 from typing import Any, Dict, Optional
 
-import spack.error
+from .error import UtilityError
 
 __all__ = ["load", "dump", "SpackJSONError"]
 
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@ def dump(data: Dict, stream: Optional[Any] = None) -> Optional[str]:
     return None
 
 
-class SpackJSONError(spack.error.SpackError):
+class SpackJSONError(UtilityError):
     """Raised when there are issues with JSON parsing."""
 
     def __init__(self, msg: str, json_error: BaseException):
diff --git a/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_yaml.py b/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_yaml.py
index 2ca9acbed73..e581f50db10 100644
--- a/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_yaml.py
+++ b/lib/spack/spack/util/spack_yaml.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
 
 from llnl.util.tty.color import cextra, clen, colorize
 
-import spack.error
+from .error import UtilityError
 
 # Only export load and dump
 __all__ = ["load", "dump", "SpackYAMLError"]
@@ -493,7 +493,7 @@ def name_mark(name):
     return error.StringMark(name, None, None, None, None, None)
 
 
-class SpackYAMLError(spack.error.SpackError):
+class SpackYAMLError(UtilityError):
     """Raised when there are issues with YAML parsing."""
 
     def __init__(self, msg, yaml_error):