You didn't instantiate auto; read the docs ( https://docs.python.org/3/library/enum.html#using-automatic-values ): auto is a class, you instantiate it to make instances for use. If you omit the parens, it's just a plain class, not a special value for automatic value assignment.

You want:

    class E(enum.Enum):
        A = enum.auto()
        B = enum.auto()