Kotlin Gradle Build

Kotlin Gradle Build

Own the build graph and reproducibility boundary; defer source semantics to kotlin-stable and behavioral test design to kotlin-testing.

Inspect first

• Read wrapper properties, settings, root and module builds, version catalogs, convention plugins, and CI workflows.
• Record Kotlin Gradle plugin, Gradle, AGP if present, Java toolchain, JVM target, repositories, and dependency locking policy.
• Run gradle projects, gradle tasks, and dependency insight only for the relevant configuration.
• Verify versions against official compatibility documentation before upgrades.

Build rules

• Prefer the checked-in Gradle wrapper for projects; keep wrapper checksum validation enabled in CI.
• Use Kotlin DSL and convention plugins for shared policy. Keep root builds declarative.
• Declare Java toolchains and Kotlin compiler options explicitly; align jvmTarget with the selected runtime contract.
• Centralize versions in a catalog or coherent platform, but do not obscure ownership of dependency scopes.
• Use api only for types exposed by the public ABI; otherwise prefer implementation.
• Make custom tasks lazy, cache-correct, and explicit about inputs, outputs, environment, and side effects.
• Keep credentials in Gradle providers or CI secrets. Never write tokens into source, properties committed to Git, logs, or generated metadata.
• Separate production modules from the dedicated <project>-test whole-project acceptance module used by migrations.

Multi-module pattern

project/
├── settings.gradle.kts
├── build-logic/
├── core/
├── adapters/
└── project-test/       # cross-module acceptance and source-parity suite

Verification

./gradlew --no-daemon projects
./gradlew --no-daemon check
./gradlew --no-daemon build

For publishing, add artifact inspection, reproducible metadata, signing, and a clean consumer-project test. Do not accept a build that works only from an IDE.