SonarSource/sonarqube · error · IllegalArgumentException

Manifest field does not have correct format:

Error message

Manifest field does not have correct format: 

What it means

RequiredPlugin.parse() throws this IllegalArgumentException when a 'sonar-plugin.requiredPlugins' manifest value does not match the expected 'key:version' regex. The parser splits on ':' and requires exactly a plugin key plus a parseable version, so malformed manifest entries are rejected fail-fast.

Solutions

1. Fix the RequiredPlugins manifest value to use 'pluginKey:version' format, e.g. 'base-plugin:9.4.0'.
2. Ensure the version segment is a valid semver (Version.create must succeed).
3. Rebuild the plugin with the correct 'sonar-plugin.requiredPlugins' configuration so the manifest is regenerated.
4. Contact/upgrade from the plugin vendor if the shipped manifest is malformed.

Example fix

// before (in MANIFEST.MF)
sonar-plugin.requiredPlugins: base-plugin-9.4.0
// after
sonar-plugin.requiredPlugins: base-plugin:9.4.0

private static final Pattern REQUIRED = Pattern.compile("[a-zA-Z0-9._-]+:[0-9][a-zA-Z0-9._-]*");
boolean isValidRequiredPlugin(String s) {
  return s != null && REQUIRED.matcher(s).matches();
}

boolean isValidRequiredPlugin(String s) {
  return s != null && s.contains(":") && !s.startsWith(":") && !s.endsWith(":");
}

try {
  RequiredPlugin rp = RequiredPlugin.parse(value);
} catch (IllegalArgumentException e) {
  log.error("Malformed requiredPlugins entry '{}' — expected 'key:version'", value);
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling RequiredPlugin.parse(String) with a string missing the colon separator, having empty key/version segments, extra segments, or an unparseable version (Version.create fails), typically read from a plugin manifest's RequiredPlugins attribute.

Common situations: A plugin author hand-editing MANIFEST.MF and writing 'base-plugin-1.0' instead of 'base-plugin:1.0'; typos or spaces around the separator; an invalid semver string like 'abc' in the version position.

Understand the failure class

Background: "Invalid ... format", "must be in format X", "does not look like a ..." — invalid argument format errors across CLI tools and libraries — this error's family across 17 libraries.

AI-assisted analysis of SonarSource/sonarqube@184c821202 (2026-09-09). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d1b70af0d5c60528. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at sonar-core/src/main/java/org/sonar/core/platform/PluginInfo.java:461

    private final String key;
    private final Version minimalVersion;

    public RequiredPlugin(String key, Version minimalVersion) {
      this.key = key;
      this.minimalVersion = minimalVersion;
    }

    public String getKey() {
      return key;
    }

    public Version getMinimalVersion() {
      return minimalVersion;
    }

    public static RequiredPlugin parse(String s) {
      if (!PARSER.matcher(s).matches()) {
        throw new IllegalArgumentException("Manifest field does not have correct format: " + s);
      }
      String[] fields = StringUtils.split(s, ':');
      return new RequiredPlugin(fields[0], Version.create(fields[1]).removeQualifier());
    }

    @Override
    public boolean equals(Object o) {
      if (this == o) {
        return true;
      }
      if (o == null || getClass() != o.getClass()) {
        return false;
      }
      RequiredPlugin that = (RequiredPlugin) o;
      return key.equals(that.key);
    }

    @Override

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