Maven or Gradle dependency resolution failure

What this failure means

The Java build could not resolve one or more dependencies or plugins from the configured artifact repositories.

Symptoms

Faultline looks for one or more of these log fragments:

could not find artifact
failed to read artifact descriptor
PluginResolutionException
pluginresolutionexception
transfer failed for
sbt.ResolveException
unresolved dependency:
module.*was not found

Diagnosis

The Java build could not resolve one or more dependencies or plugins from the configured artifact repositories.

Fix steps

1. Verify the artifact coordinates and version in pom.xml, build.gradle, or version catalogs.
2. Check repository credentials in Maven settings or Gradle properties if the dependency is private.
3. Re-run the build with dependency refresh enabled, for example mvn -U package or ./gradlew --refresh-dependencies build.
4. Confirm the repository URL is reachable from the CI runner.

Validation

• Re-run the failing workflow step.
• Confirm the original dependency resolution error is gone.

Why it matters

Repository credentials may be missing, the artifact version may not exist, or a mirrored repository may be unavailable. Maven and Gradle both fail early when a required artifact descriptor cannot be downloaded.

Prevention

• Pin repository configuration in source control rather than relying on runner-local defaults.
• Mirror critical private artifacts in a repository you control.
• Add a dependency resolution smoke test to catch repository drift before release jobs run.

Try it locally

mvn -U package
./gradlew --refresh-dependencies build
mvn -U package

How Faultline detects it

Use faultline explain maven-dependency-resolution to see the full playbook.

faultline analyze build.log
faultline explain maven-dependency-resolution

Generated from playbooks/bundled/log/build/maven-dependency-resolution.yaml. Do not edit directly.