quarkusio/quarkus · error · MojoExecutionException

Failed to obtain descriptor for Maven plugin

Error message

Failed to obtain descriptor for Maven plugin <pluginId> goal <goal>

What it means

DevMojo fetches a plugin's MojoDescriptor via pluginManager.getMojoDescriptor to determine how to invoke a goal (e.g. when restarting after POM changes). Failure to resolve the plugin or its goal descriptor is wrapped in MojoExecutionException with the plugin id and goal name.

Solutions

1. Verify the goal name and plugin coordinates in the configuration are correct.
2. Run with -U / check repository access so the plugin jar and its descriptor can be downloaded.
3. Pin a published, existing version of the plugin in pom.xml or pluginManagement.
4. Ensure internal repositories hosting the plugin are reachable and configured in settings.xml.

Example fix

// before
mvn quarkus:dev -Dquarkus.run-goals=org.acme:weird-plugin:1.0.0:not-a-goal
// after
mvn quarkus:dev -Dquarkus.run-goals=org.acme:weird-plugin:1.0.0:my-goal

// confirm the plugin/goal exists before invoking
mvn org.acme:my-plugin:1.0.0:help -Dgoal=my-goal -N

When it happens

Trigger: Invoking a Maven goal through dev mode where the plugin cannot be resolved: unknown goal name, plugin artifact not downloadable, wrong groupId:artifactId in build configuration, or repository/network failure while fetching the plugin.

Common situations: Typos in goal names in run/goal configuration; custom plugin deployed only to an internal repository that is unreachable; plugin version pinned in pom.xml is not published; offline mode prevents downloading the plugin.

Related errors

• Dev mode process did not complete successfully
• Failed to locate io.quarkus:quarkus-core-deployment on the…
• Failed to run
• Hot reloadable dependency
• Local dependency does not appear to have any sources

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/d2e4db9c5a505f82. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at devtools/maven/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/DevMojo.java:1128

     * <li>both equals (ignoring case)</li>
     * </ul>
     *
     * @param currentExecutionId current execution id (if defined)
     * @param executionId execution id to test matching (if defined)
     * @return <code>true</code> if executions ids do match.
     */
    private static boolean matchesExecution(String currentExecutionId, String executionId) {
        if (currentExecutionId == null) {
            return true;
        }
        return executionId == null || currentExecutionId.equalsIgnoreCase(executionId);
    }

    private MojoDescriptor getMojoDescriptor(Plugin plugin, String goal) throws MojoExecutionException {
        try {
            return pluginManager.getMojoDescriptor(plugin, goal, pluginRepos, repoSession);
        } catch (Exception e) {
            throw new MojoExecutionException(
                    "Failed to obtain descriptor for Maven plugin " + plugin.getId() + " goal " + goal, e);
        }
    }

    private Plugin getConfiguredPluginOrNull(String groupId, String artifactId) {
        if (pluginMap == null) {
            pluginMap = new HashMap<>();
            // the original plugin keys may include property expressions, so we can't rely on the exact groupId:artifactId keys
            for (Plugin p : project.getBuildPlugins()) {
                pluginMap.put(ArtifactKey.ga(p.getGroupId(), p.getArtifactId()), p);
            }
        }
        return pluginMap.get(ArtifactKey.ga(groupId, artifactId));
    }

    private Map<Path, Long> readPomFileTimestamps(DevModeRunner runner) throws IOException {
        Map<Path, Long> ret = new HashMap<>();
        for (Path i : runner.pomFiles()) {

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