Updating a Gradle dependency

Rules: see .claude/rules/dependencies.md.

Procedure

1. Decide the shape of the change.

   • New library — add to [versions], [libraries], then reference via libs.<alias> in app/build.gradle.kts.
   • Version bump — edit the [versions] entry only.
   • New plugin — add to [versions], [plugins], then apply via alias(libs.plugins.<alias>) in the relevant build.gradle.kts.

2. Edit gradle/libs.versions.toml in this order:

   • [versions]: alphabetical by key, lowercase camelCase.
   • [libraries]: hyphenated keys (androidx-core-ktx).
   • [plugins]: hyphenated keys, version refs.

3. Reference from app/build.gradle.kts using the alias:

   implementation(libs.androidx.compose.material3)
   

   Hyphens in the catalog key become dots on the alias side.

4. Sanity-check what resolved:

   ./gradlew app:dependencies --configuration debugRuntimeClasspath \
     | grep -iE 'kotlin-stdlib|<your-artifact>' | head
   

5. Verify with the verify-android-build skill.

6. Document in the commit body when:

   • Bumping a major version of any library.
   • Overriding a Compose BOM-managed artifact.
   • Adding an annotation processor / KSP plugin.
   • Bumping Kotlin (must include the matching Compose Compiler plugin bump).

Webmap (pnpm) dependencies

Renovate automerges routine (non-major) webmap bumps — this path is for manual or major bumps (maplibre-gl, Vite, TypeScript).

1. Edit webmap/package.json — or, for the Vite+ toolchain pins (vite, vite-plus), the catalog in webmap/pnpm-workspace.yaml — then run pnpm install under webmap/ to refresh pnpm-lock.yaml.
2. For Vite or maplibre-gl majors, confirm Vite's build.target stays at the WebView floor defined in AGENTS.md#tech-stack.
3. For TypeScript majors, run pnpm run check under webmap/ and treat compiler deprecation warnings as failures in the same bump. Never adopt a pre-stable compiler preview package (e.g. a native-compiler preview) as a build dependency. A TypeScript bump cannot move Vite's build.target (Vite ignores the tsconfig target), so the WebView-floor check in step 2 stays scoped to Vite / maplibre-gl bumps. Readiness criteria: .claude/rules/webmap.md.
4. Verify with ./gradlew assembleStableDebug — the :app:buildWebMap task runs the pnpm build as part of it.

Bulk-updating to latest versions

For routine version maintenance across the whole catalog, the project ships nl.littlerobots.version-catalog-update:

• ./gradlew versionCatalogUpdate rewrites gradle/libs.versions.toml in place, resolving each entry to its latest stable version (the plugin's default versionSelector, so no separate reporter plugin is needed).

Workflow:

./gradlew versionCatalogUpdate    # apply the update to libs.versions.toml
./gradlew spotlessApply           # tidy formatting
./gradlew assembleStableDebug     # verify

Review every diff before committing. Major-version bumps still need the per-bump justification rule from .claude/rules/dependencies.md. Two project-specific gotchas:

• Toolchain coupling. Bumping AGP can raise the required Gradle version — check the AGP release notes for the minimum required Gradle version before bumping, and update gradle-wrapper.properties in the same change: ./gradlew wrapper --gradle-version <v> --gradle-distribution-sha256-sum <sha> --distribution-type bin. Kotlin and the kotlin-compose / kotlin-serialization plugin aliases move in lock-step automatically (shared version.ref = "kotlin" in the catalog).
• A maplibre-gl bump can silently break tile rendering with no automated signal. There is no automated tile-rendering test — pnpm run check (type-check + the webmap/ unit tests) only covers pure logic (camera math, style JSON), not what actually paints. After any maplibre-gl major bump, manually verify the map still renders real tiles, ideally on a physical device — the verify-on-emulator skill's own "Known limitation" section explains why the emulator's GLES translator makes the emulator an unreliable check for this specific case.

Skill-specific anti-patterns

• implementation("io.coil-kt:coil-compose:2.6.0") directly in app/build.gradle.kts — go through the catalog.
• Hardcoding a version inside [libraries] instead of using version.ref.
• Mixing the Compose BOM with explicit version pins on Compose artifacts without a justification line in the commit body.
• Adding a transitive dependency to silence a warning — investigate the root cause first.