quarkusio/quarkus · error · MojoExecutionException

appArtifact expression ${appArtifactCoords} does not follow

Error message

appArtifact expression ${appArtifactCoords} does not follow format groupId:artifactId:classifier:type:version

What it means

Quarkus Maven plugin builds the application artifact from a coordinate string passed via the appArtifact configuration. The string is split on ':' and must have between 2 and 5 parts (groupId:artifactId:classifier:type:version). This MojoExecutionException is thrown when the coordinate expression does not have the expected number of colon-separated parts.

Source

Thrown at devtools/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/QuarkusBootstrapProvider.java:534

                         * }
                         */
                        if (!projectFile.mkdirs()) {
                            throw new MojoExecutionException("Failed to create the output dir " + projectFile);
                        }
                    }
                }
                return ResolvedDependencyBuilder.newInstance()
                        .setGroupId(projectArtifact.getGroupId())
                        .setArtifactId(projectArtifact.getArtifactId())
                        .setClassifier(projectArtifact.getClassifier())
                        .setType(projectArtifact.getArtifactHandler().getExtension())
                        .setVersion(projectArtifact.getVersion())
                        .setResolvedPath(projectFile.toPath());
            }

            final String[] coordsArr = appArtifactCoords.split(":");
            if (coordsArr.length < 2 || coordsArr.length > 5) {
                throw new MojoExecutionException(
                        "appArtifact expression " + appArtifactCoords
                                + " does not follow format groupId:artifactId:classifier:type:version");
            }
            final String groupId = coordsArr[0];
            final String artifactId = coordsArr[1];
            String classifier = ArtifactCoords.DEFAULT_CLASSIFIER;
            String type = ArtifactCoords.TYPE_JAR;
            String version = null;
            if (coordsArr.length == 3) {
                version = coordsArr[2];
            } else if (coordsArr.length > 3) {
                classifier = coordsArr[2] == null ? ArtifactCoords.DEFAULT_CLASSIFIER : coordsArr[2];
                type = coordsArr[3] == null ? ArtifactCoords.TYPE_JAR : coordsArr[3];
                if (coordsArr.length > 4) {
                    version = coordsArr[4];
                }
            }
            if (version == null) {

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Fix the appArtifact value to the format groupId:artifactId[:classifier][:type][:version], e.g. com.acme:my-app:1.0.0
2. Remove any extra ':'-separated segments so the string has 2 to 5 parts
3. If pointing at a local artifact, use a resolvable coordinate instead of a file path

Example fix

// before
<appArtifact>com.acme:my-app::jar:1.0.0:extra</appArtifact>
// after
<appArtifact>com.acme:my-app::jar:1.0.0</appArtifact>

// validate the appArtifact coordinate before invoking the goal
String[] parts = appArtifactCoords.split(":");
if (parts.length < 2 || parts.length > 5) {
    throw new IllegalArgumentException(
        "appArtifact must be groupId:artifactId[:classifier][:type][:version], got: " + appArtifactCoords);
}

boolean isValidArtifactCoords(String coords) {
    if (coords == null) return false;
    int n = coords.split(":").length;
    return n >= 2 && n <= 5;
}

try {
    mojo.appArtifact(coords);
} catch (MojoExecutionException e) {
    if (e.getMessage().contains("does not follow format")) {
        // fix coordinate format and retry
    } else {
        throw e;
    }
}

When it happens

Trigger: Calling the appArtifact method (via QuarkusBootstrapProvider.getApplicationArtifactBuilder) with an appArtifact string that splits into fewer than 2 or more than 5 tokens, e.g. 'com.acme:app:1.0:jar:extra:oops' or a single token 'myapp'.

Common situations: Typo in the appArtifact property in pom.xml or on the command line (-Dquarkus.appArtifact=...); pasting a coordinate with an unescaped extra colon; omitting both groupId and artifactId; using an artifact file path instead of Maven coordinates.

Related errors

• Unsupported format: ${format}
• Either the `extension` or `extensions` parameter must be set
• Cannot specify both class and method name
• The project artifact's extension is '${extension}' while thi
• Specifying a stream requires the Quarkus extension registry

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/8a30e3f7f059359d. Report an issue: GitHub.