Introduction – Maven Core
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Introduction
| Last Published: 2026-05-13
Version: 3.9.16
Overview
Introduction
Javadocs
Source Xref
Reference
Core Extensions
Descriptors Reference
POM
Settings
Toolchains
Reference
Lifecycles
Plugin Bindings to Default Lifecycle
Artifact Handlers
CLI options
Super POM
Development
Maven Developer Centre
Maven Core ITs
Project Documentation
Project Information
About
Summary
Maven Coordinates
Team
Source Code Management
Issue Management
Mailing Lists
Dependency Management
Dependencies
Dependency Convergence
CI Management
Plugin Management
Plugins
Distribution Management
Project Reports
Maven Projects
Maven
Archetypes
Extensions
Parent POMs
Plugins
Skins
Components
Archetype
Artifact Resolver
Doxia
Indexer
JXR
Plugin Testing
Plugin Tools
Resource Bundles
SCM
Shared Components
Surefire
Wagon
ASF
How Apache Works
Foundation
Data Privacy
Sponsoring Apache
Thanks
Maven Core
Maven Core classes managing the whole build process.
Reference Documentation
lifecycles and plugin bindings to default lifecycle,
default artifact handlers, to manage dependency types,
extension descriptor and core extensions,
classloader hierarchy done by ClassRealmManager component (javadoc), with its DefaultClassRealmManager implementation (source), using Plexus Classworlds,
Useful entry points
Maven component (javadoc), with its DefaultMaven implementation (source), to drive a full MavenSession execution (javadoc
ProjectBuilder component (javadoc), with its DefaultProjectBuilder implementation (source), to prepare MavenProject descriptor from POM files,
LifecycleExecutor component (javadoc), with its DefaultLifecycleExecutor implementation(source), to plan or execute tasks.
on plugin goals execution order:
in a given phase, goals order is not expected to be guaranteed nor finely tuned: it is just a consequence of the order obtained during effective model building, which combines profile activation+injection and inheritance assembly from parents,
known limitations are notably that:
1. plugin goal execution in a child is usually simply appended (at end): you can't try to insert in the middle of pre-existing inherited executions,
2. append happens at plugin level first, then goal level, independently from phases. This means for example that adding pluginA:goal2 to pre-existing (pluginA:goal1, pluginB:goal) will lead to (pluginA:goal1, pluginA:goal2, pluginB:goal)
see effective POM as shown by help:effective-pom to see the effective plugins then goals order.
MavenPluginManager component (javadoc), with its DefaultMavenPluginManager implementation (source),
PluginParameterExpressionEvaluator, used to evaluate plugin parameters values during Mojo configuration,
ExceptionHandler component (javadoc), with its DefaultExceptionHandler implementation (source), use to transform exception into useful end-user messages.
Toolchains
Toolchains descriptor reference,
public API for toolchains-aware plugins: ToolchainManager component (javadoc) with its DefaultToolchainManager implementation (source), to get selected Toolchain (javadoc) instance,
internal ToolchainManagerPrivate component (javadoc) with its DefaultToolchainManagerPrivate implementation (source), to manage toolchain selection,
internal JDK toolchain implementation: JavaToolchain interface (javadoc), with its JavaToolchainImpl implementation (source) and JavaToolchainFactory factory (source).
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