quarkusio/quarkus · error · MojoExecutionException

Failed to read descriptor of ${projectArtifact}

Error message

Failed to read descriptor of ${projectArtifact}

What it means

The mojo reads the Maven artifact descriptor (POM metadata) of the project artifact via repoSystem.readArtifactDescriptor. An ArtifactDescriptorException is wrapped as 'Failed to read descriptor of <artifact>'.

Source

Thrown at independent-projects/extension-maven-plugin/src/main/java/io/quarkus/maven/ExtensionDescriptorMojo.java:1211

    }

    private CollectRequest newCollectRuntimeDepsRequest() throws MojoExecutionException {
        return newCollectRequest(new DefaultArtifact(project.getArtifact().getGroupId(),
                project.getArtifact().getArtifactId(),
                project.getArtifact().getClassifier(),
                project.getArtifact().getArtifactHandler().getExtension(),
                project.getArtifact().getVersion()));
    }

    private CollectRequest newCollectRequest(DefaultArtifact projectArtifact) throws MojoExecutionException {
        final ArtifactDescriptorResult projectDescr;
        try {
            projectDescr = repoSystem.readArtifactDescriptor(repoSession,
                    new ArtifactDescriptorRequest()
                            .setArtifact(projectArtifact)
                            .setRepositories(repos));
        } catch (ArtifactDescriptorException e) {
            throw new MojoExecutionException("Failed to read descriptor of " + projectArtifact, e);
        }

        final CollectRequest request = new CollectRequest().setRootArtifact(projectArtifact)
                .setRepositories(repos)
                .setManagedDependencies(projectDescr.getManagedDependencies());
        for (Dependency dep : projectDescr.getDependencies()) {
            if ("test".equals(dep.getScope())
                    || "provided".equals(dep.getScope())
                    || dep.isOptional()) {
                continue;
            }
            request.addDependency(dep);
        }
        return request;
    }

    private boolean isJarFile(final File f) {
        return f != null && f.getName().endsWith(".jar") && f.exists() && !f.isDirectory();

View on GitHub (pinned to e1c734241f)

Solutions

1. Validate the project pom: mvn validate and mvn help:effective-pom
2. Ensure parent POMs are resolvable (install local parents or fix repository config)
3. Clear corrupted metadata: delete the artifact dir in ~/.m2/repository and rebuild
4. Check the wrapped cause for the specific unresolvable parent or model problem

Example fix

<!-- before: broken parent reference -->
<parent>
  <groupId>x</groupId>
  <artifactId>nonexistent-parent</artifactId>
  <version>1.0</version>
</parent>
<!-- after: point to an installed/resolvable parent -->
<parent>
  <groupId>x</groupId>
  <artifactId>existing-parent</artifactId>
  <version>1.0</version>
</parent>

mvn validate && mvn help:effective-pom -q

try {
  mojo.execute();
} catch (MojoExecutionException e) {
  if (e.getMessage().startsWith("Failed to read descriptor of")) {
    // fix pom/parent resolution before retrying
  }
}

When it happens

Trigger: readArtifactDescriptor fails because the project artifact's POM cannot be resolved or parsed — invalid pom, unavailable parent pom, or repository access errors.

Common situations: Broken parent POM resolution; invalid XML in a generated pom; missing repositories for parent imports; corrupted metadata in local repo.

Related errors

• Failed to read descriptor of ${artifact}
• Failed to read descriptor of ${artifact}
• Unable to parse pom file: ${pom}
• Could not resolve POM for
• Unable to update the pom.xml file

AI-assisted analysis of quarkusio/quarkus@e1c734241f (2026-09-05). Data as JSON: /api/errors/0e41f8672a8e2b1d. Report an issue: GitHub.