quarkusio/quarkus · error · IllegalStateException

Can only create a production application when using NORMAL l

Error message

Can only create a production application when using NORMAL launch mode

What it means

createProductionApplication performs the production augmentation and requires the AugmentAction to have been created in LaunchMode.NORMAL. When the action was created for dev/test modes, it throws this IllegalStateException because the produced artifact semantics only make sense for a normal production build.

Source

Thrown at core/deployment/src/main/java/io/quarkus/runner/bootstrap/AugmentActionImpl.java:183

            BuildResult result = runAugment(true, Collections.emptySet(), null, classLoader, targets);

            writeDebugSourceFile(result);
            try {
                BiConsumer<Object, BuildResult> consumer = (BiConsumer<Object, BuildResult>) Class
                        .forName(resultHandler, false, classLoader)
                        .getConstructor().newInstance();
                consumer.accept(context, result);
            } catch (InstantiationException | IllegalAccessException | NoSuchMethodException | ClassNotFoundException
                    | InvocationTargetException e) {
                throw new RuntimeException(e);
            }
        }
    }

    @Override
    public AugmentResult createProductionApplication() {
        if (launchMode != LaunchMode.NORMAL) {
            throw new IllegalStateException("Can only create a production application when using NORMAL launch mode");
        }
        try (QuarkusClassLoader classLoader = curatedApplication.createDeploymentClassLoader()) {
            BuildResult result = runAugment(true, Collections.emptySet(), null, classLoader, ArtifactResultBuildItem.class,
                    DeploymentResultBuildItem.class, SbomBuildItem.class);

            writeDebugSourceFile(result);

            JarBuildItem jarBuildItem = result.consumeOptional(JarBuildItem.class);
            NativeImageBuildItem nativeImageBuildItem = result.consumeOptional(NativeImageBuildItem.class);
            List<ArtifactResultBuildItem> artifactResultBuildItems = result.consumeMulti(ArtifactResultBuildItem.class);
            BuildSystemTargetBuildItem buildSystemTargetBuildItem = result.consume(BuildSystemTargetBuildItem.class);
            Map<Path, List<SbomResult>> sboms = getSboms(result.consumeMulti(SbomBuildItem.class));

            // this depends on the fact that the order in which we can obtain MultiBuildItems is the same as they are produced
            // we want to write result of the final artifact created
            if (artifactResultBuildItems.isEmpty()) {
                throw new IllegalStateException("No artifact results were produced");
            }

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

Create a dedicated AugmentAction from a QuarkusBootstrap with Mode.NORMAL (PRODUCTION) before calling createProductionApplication().
Use the Maven/Gradle build (./mvnw package) for production artifacts instead of an in-process dev bootstrap.
Split the flow: dev-mode actions for development, a separate NORMAL-mode augmentation for packaging.
Assert the launch mode in your embedding code before invoking createProductionApplication.

Example fix

// before
QuarkusBootstrap.builder(app).setMode(QuarkusBootstrap.Mode.DEVELOPMENT)...createAugmentor().createProductionApplication();
// after
QuarkusBootstrap.builder(app).setMode(QuarkusBootstrap.Mode.PRODUCTION)...createAugmentor().createProductionApplication();

Defensive patterns

Strategy: try-catch

Validate before calling

if (augmentAction.getLaunchMode() != LaunchMode.NORMAL) {
    throw new IllegalStateException("createProductionApplication requires a NORMAL-mode AugmentAction");
}

Try / catch

try { action.createProductionApplication(); } catch (IllegalStateException e) { if (e.getMessage().contains("NORMAL launch mode")) { /* create a new NORMAL-mode AugmentAction and retry */ } else throw e; }

Prevention

Use the Maven/Gradle build for production artifacts
Keep dev-mode and packaging augmentations in separate flows
Assert launch mode before invoking production augmentation

When it happens

Trigger: Calling AugmentAction.createProductionApplication() on an AugmentAction obtained from a bootstrap in DEVELOPMENT, REMOTE_DEV, TEST or another non-NORMAL mode.

Common situations: Custom build tooling/test harnesses reusing a dev-mode AugmentAction to produce a jar; embedding code that builds the bootstrap with the app's current (dev) mode instead of forcing NORMAL; scripts that programmatically build the app while dev mode is active.

Related errors

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/5af9a38caca35c97. Report an issue: GitHub.