apereo/cas · error · GradleException

Unable to determine version for dependency

Error message

Unable to determine version for dependency ${artifact}

What it means

When generating the CAS BOM pom.xml, a helper resolves each artifact's version from the loaded version catalogs (looking up version catalog version constraints); if no version (including strict versions) can be determined for an artifact, it throws GradleException("Unable to determine version for dependency ${artifact}").

Solutions

1. Add the dependency's version to the appropriate version catalog under the matching group@name key.
2. Fix group/name typos in the dependency so the lookup key matches the catalog entry.
3. Ensure the catalog version entry is a concrete (strict) version, not an unresolved placeholder.
4. Verify the version catalog files are actually loaded/registered in the build before BOM generation.

Example fix

// before: dependency used without catalog entry
// after (libs.versions.toml)
[versions]
bcprov = "1.78.1"
[libraries]
bcprov = { module = "org.bouncycastle:bcprov-jdk18on", version.ref = "bcprov" }

// confirm the artifact resolves a version from catalogs before BOM generation
def key = "${group}@${name}"
assert dependencyVersions.collect { it.keySet() }.flatten().contains(key) : "add ${key} to version catalog"

static boolean hasCatalogVersion(String group, String name, Map versions) {
    return versions.containsKey("${group}@${name}");
}

When it happens

Trigger: createDependency-style BOM generation encounters a dependency whose group:name has no entry (or no strict/resolved version) in any available version catalog.

Common situations: A new dependency added to a module is missing from the version catalog; artifact notation typos (wrong group/name) so the catalog lookup key doesn't match; version declared without strictVersion in the catalog.

Understand the failure class

Background: "not installed", "pip install", "required for": how missing-dependency errors surface across open-source libraries — this error's family across 34 libraries.

Related errors

• SNAPSHOT versions found in
• Current Java version
• Missing required project metadata for

AI-assisted analysis of apereo/cas@e7288fc434 (2026-09-08). Data as JSON: /api/errors/c850ea655b6d68df. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at support/cas-server-support-bom/build.gradle:196

        }

        if (artifact.hasProperty("versionConstraint") && artifact.versionConstraint != null) {
            def vc = artifact.versionConstraint

            if (vc.requiredVersion) {
                return vc.requiredVersion.toString()
            }

            if (vc.preferredVersion) {
                return vc.preferredVersion.toString()
            }

            if (vc.strictVersion) {
                return vc.strictVersion.toString()
            }
        }

        throw new GradleException("Unable to determine version for dependency ${artifact}")
    }

    static void createDependency(dependencies, group, name, version, dependencyVersions) {
        def key = "${group}@${name}"
        def dependency = dependencies.appendNode("dependency")
        dependency.appendNode("groupId", group)
        dependency.appendNode("artifactId", name)

        if (name.matches(getProjectNamePattern())) {
            dependency.appendNode("version", "\${cas.version}")
            dependencyVersions.put("cas.version", version)
        } else {
            def versionProp = "${group}.${name}.version"

            dependency.appendNode("version", String.format("\${%s}", versionProp))
            dependencyVersions.put(versionProp, version)
        }
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to e7288fc434)