Declarative Gradle: A developer-first approach to Gradle builds

As Uncle Ben once said to Toby Maguire Spider-Man, "With great power comes great responsibility". Here at Gradle we like to say, "With great flexibility comes great power". And with that flexibility comes a learning curve that bends users toward comprehensibility and maintainability.

This is why we introduced Declarative Gradle in 2024. Now in its third EAP version, this experimental project aims to provide an elegant and extensible declarative build language that enables expressing any build in a clear and understandable way. So what does Declarative Gradle mean for developers?

In this session by Paul Merlin and Sterling Greene, long-time software engineers at Gradle, we look at developer challenges with understanding and maintaining complex builds. We'll demonstrate an innovative approach that harnesses the expressiveness of Kotlin while imposing restrictions to enhance clarity and maintainability. By the end, you'll better understand the benefits a declarative paradigm for build definition brings to project workflows.