gradle/gradle · error · InvalidUserDataException

Publication name '${publicationName}' is not valid for publi

Error message

Publication name '${publicationName}' is not valid for publication. Must match regex [A-Za-z0-9_\-.]+.

What it means

After project evaluation, the publishing plugin validates that every publication name matches [A-Za-z0-9_\-.]+, throwing InvalidUserDataException otherwise. Publication names are used to build task names (publish<Pub>PublicationTo<Repo>, generateMetadataFileFor<Pub>Publication) and metadata file paths, so they must stay identifier-safe.

Source

Thrown at platforms/software/publish/src/main/java/org/gradle/api/publish/plugins/PublishingPlugin.java:107

        extension.getPublications().all(publication -> {
            PublicationInternal<?> internalPublication = Cast.uncheckedNonnullCast(publication);
            projectPublicationRegistry.registerPublication(projectIdentity, internalPublication);
        });
        validatePublishingModelWhenComplete(project, extension);
    }

    private void validatePublishingModelWhenComplete(Project project, PublishingExtension extension) {
        project.afterEvaluate(projectAfterEvaluate -> {
            for (ArtifactRepository repository : extension.getRepositories()) {
                String repositoryName = repository.getName();
                if (!repositoryName.matches(VALID_NAME_REGEX)) {
                    throw new InvalidUserDataException("Repository name '" + repositoryName + "' is not valid for publication. Must match regex " + VALID_NAME_REGEX + ".");
                }
            }
            for (Publication publication : extension.getPublications()) {
                String publicationName = publication.getName();
                if (!publicationName.matches(VALID_NAME_REGEX)) {
                    throw new InvalidUserDataException("Publication name '" + publicationName + "' is not valid for publication. Must match regex " + VALID_NAME_REGEX + ".");
                }
            }
        });
    }

}

View on GitHub (pinned to 534f27719b)

Solutions

1. Rename the publication using only letters, digits, underscore, hyphen, and dot: publications { maven(MavenPublication) { ... } } or a sanitized container name.
2. If names are generated, sanitize them: publicationName.replaceAll(/[^A-Za-z0-9_\-.]/, '-').
3. Print publishing.publications.names in a helper task to catch bad names early.

Example fix

// before
publishing {
    publications {
        'lib publication'(MavenPublication) {
            from components.java
        }
    }
}

// after
publishing {
    publications {
        lib(MavenPublication) {
            from components.java
        }
    }
}

// fail fast on illegal publication names
publishing.publications.all { pub ->
    if (!(pub.name ==~ /[A-Za-z0-9_\-.]+/)) {
        throw new GradleException("Publication name '${pub.name}' will fail validation; use [A-Za-z0-9_\-.] only")
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Creating a publication with an illegal name: publishing { publications { 'my pub'(MavenPublication) { ... } } }, or registering publications dynamically from strings containing spaces, slashes, or CI-generated labels.

Common situations: Dynamic publication creation per subproject/component where names come from project or environment values; copy-pasted publication blocks with descriptive labels; migrations that reuse display names as identifiers.

Related errors

• Repository name '${repositoryName}' is not valid for publica
• Invalid feature name '{}'. Must match [a-zA-Z0-9]+
• Invalid model name '${name}': it must match the following re
• Invalid ivy extra info element name: '%s'
• Cannot add an extra info element with null element name

AI-assisted analysis of gradle/gradle@534f27719b (2026-08-22). Data as JSON: /api/errors/e25302817ef8064b. Report an issue: GitHub.