Spotless¶

With Gradle, Spotless formats Java with open-java-format as soon as the build applies our plugin. With Maven it cannot yet, because that needs a change in Spotless itself.

Gradle¶

Apply both plugins. Ours adds an open-java-format step to the java format of Spotless by itself, so the spotless block needs no formatter step. If it still calls palantirJavaFormat(), remove that line.

plugins {
    id 'java'
    id 'com.diffplug.spotless' version '8.10.2'
    id 'dev.openjavaformat.java-format' version '2.98.0.3'
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

plugins {
    java
    id("com.diffplug.spotless") version "8.10.2"
    id("dev.openjavaformat.java-format") version "2.98.0.3"
}

repositories {
    mavenCentral()
}

The step runs the formatter inside the Gradle JVM, so it needs the --add-exports flags. The native formatter property from the Gradle plugin page does not help here: on Java 21 and later the Spotless step does not use it.

org.gradle.jvmargs=--add-exports jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.api=ALL-UNNAMED \
  --add-exports jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.file=ALL-UNNAMED \
  --add-exports jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.parser=ALL-UNNAMED \
  --add-exports jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.tree=ALL-UNNAMED \
  --add-exports jdk.compiler/com.sun.tools.javac.util=ALL-UNNAMED

./gradlew spotlessApply    # format every Java file
./gradlew spotlessCheck    # fail when a file is not formatted

Maven¶

The Maven plugin of Spotless has no step for open-java-format. Its palantirJavaFormat step always downloads com.palantir.javaformat:palantir-java-format, and it cannot be pointed at another artifact.

The pull request diffplug/spotless#3084 adds an openJavaFormat step to both Spotless plugins, for Gradle and for Maven:

<openJavaFormat>
  <version>2.98.0.3</version>
</openJavaFormat>

Ned Twigg, who maintains Spotless, closed it on 16 September 2026. In his comment he called the project "not differentiated enough from other similar projects" and added that he considers formatters less important in the age of LLMs. He also left the door open: the pull request can be reopened if the project becomes clearly different from the formatters Spotless already supports.