apache/maven · error · IllegalArgumentException

Invalid dependency scope:

Error message

Invalid dependency scope: 

What it means

Session.requireDependencyScope(id) looks the id up in the DependencyScope enum and throws IllegalArgumentException for unknown ids. Maven 4 scopes are case-sensitive, hyphen-separated ids: none, '' (undefined), compile, compile-only, runtime, provided, test, test-only, test-runtime, system. Note the Maven 4 additions (compile-only, test-only, test-runtime) and that underscores or uppercase variants are NOT accepted.

Source

Thrown at impl/maven-impl/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/impl/AbstractSession.java:1028

    public Language requireLanguage(String id) {
        return getService(LanguageRegistry.class).require(id);
    }

    @Override
    public Packaging requirePackaging(String id) {
        return getService(PackagingRegistry.class).require(id);
    }

    @Override
    public ProjectScope requireProjectScope(String id) {
        return getService(ProjectScopeRegistry.class).require(id);
    }

    @Override
    public DependencyScope requireDependencyScope(String id) {
        DependencyScope scope = DependencyScope.forId(requireNonNull(id, "id"));
        if (scope == null) {
            throw new IllegalArgumentException("Invalid dependency scope: " + id);
        }
        return scope;
    }

    @Override
    public PathScope requirePathScope(String id) {
        return getService(PathScopeRegistry.class).require(id);
    }

    @Override
    public void setCurrentTrace(RequestTrace trace) {
        getTraceHolder().set(trace);
    }

    @Override
    public RequestTrace getCurrentTrace() {
        return getTraceHolder().get();
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e4093d4e12)

Solutions

1. Use one of the exact enum ids: none, compile, compile-only, runtime, provided, test, test-only, test-runtime, system (or DependencyScope enum constants directly)
2. Validate first with DependencyScope.forId(id) and report the supported list on null
3. Prefer passing DependencyScope enum values instead of strings throughout your code

Example fix

// before
DependencyScope scope = session.requireDependencyScope(userScope); // throws for 'compile_only'

// after
DependencyScope scope = DependencyScope.forId(userScope);
if (scope == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException('Unknown scope "' + userScope + '"; valid: ' + Arrays.toString(DependencyScope.values()));
}

DependencyScope scope = DependencyScope.forId(scopeId);
if (scope == null) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
            'Invalid scope "' + scopeId + '"; valid ids: ' + Arrays.toString(DependencyScope.values()));
}

static boolean isValidScope(String id) { return DependencyScope.forId(id) != null; }

When it happens

Trigger: Calling session.requireDependencyScope('TEST'), requireDependencyScope('compile_only'), or a legacy/typo string like 'compille' or Maven-3-style 'import'/'system' variants that are not in the enum.

Common situations: Porting Maven 3 code that manipulated scope strings; parsing scopes from user input or plugin parameters without validation; confusion between Maven 3 and Maven 4 scope vocabularies (e.g. expecting 'test-runtime' vs 'testruntime' vs 'TEST_RUNTIME'); 'import' scope which exists only in dependencyManagement and is not a DependencyScope id.

Related errors

• Unsupported Artifact class:
• Illegal request type: " + requestType
• Illegal event type: " + eventType
• Repository identifier missing
• URL missing for repository " + id

AI-assisted analysis of apache/maven@e4093d4e12 (2026-08-21). Data as JSON: /api/errors/ed08e64e7e91ca43. Report an issue: GitHub.