Kotlin Project Template

Project template for convenient Kotlin project setup using Gradle convention plugins and version catalogs.

Motivation

This template is intended to reduce the repetitive setup work required when starting new Kotlin projects by providing reusable conventions, optimized Gradle settings, and CI workflows out of the box.

Initializing

• settings.gradle.kts: Set your root project name.
• gradle/libs.versions.toml: Define your dependencies and plugin versions.

Note
Type-safe project accessors are enabled by default. To disable them, remove the corresponding feature flag from settings.gradle.kts.

Built-ins

Build Conventions

This template provides reusable and composable build conventions to simplify Gradle configuration.

Available Convention Plugins

Convention ID	Description
jvm-convention	Applies basic Kotlin/JVM configuration with Java toolchain set to 11.
kover-convention	Applies the Kover plugin with no additional configuration.
detekt-convention	Enables Detekt with all rules active and parallel analysis enabled.
tests-convention	Adds testing dependencies: mockk for jvmTest, and kotlin.test for commonMain.
multiplatform-convention	Configures Kotlin Multiplatform with JVM as default, Java toolchain set to 11.
multiplatform-library-convention	Extends multiplatform-convention and enables the explicitApi mode.

Usage Example

plugins {
    id(conventions.jvm)
}

conventions is a property exposed by the template via buildSrc, providing easy access to convention plugin identifiers.

Gradle Properties

The template comes preconfigured with sensible defaults in gradle.properties to optimize performance and compatibility across development and CI environments.

Enabled by Default

The template configures several performance and compatibility-related options in gradle.properties to provide a faster development experience:

• Gradle Daemon
  Enabled via org.gradle.daemon=true to avoid JVM startup cost on repeated builds.

• Parallel Task Execution
  Enabled via org.gradle.parallel=true to allow independent modules to build in parallel.

• On-Demand Configuration
  Enabled via org.gradle.configureondemand=true to avoid configuring unnecessary projects during a build.

• Build Cache
  Enabled via org.gradle.caching=true to reuse outputs from previous builds.

• Kotlin Incremental Compilation
  Enabled via:

  • kotlin.incremental=true
  • kotlin.incremental.compilation=true
    This speeds up builds by compiling only changed sources and supporting inter-module compilation.

• Kotlin and Gradle Daemon Usage
  Enabled via:

  • kotlin.daemon=true
  • kotlin.compiler.execution.strategy=daemon
    Ensures Kotlin compilation runs via a persistent compiler daemon.

• Configuration Cache
  Enabled via:

  • org.gradle.configuration-cache=true
  • org.gradle.configuration-cache.problems=fail
    Ensures that builds are reproducible and fail early on cache-incompatible configurations.

• JVM Memory Settings
  Configured via org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx8G -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError -Dfile.encoding=UTF-8
  Provides 8 GB max heap for Gradle daemon and enables heap dumps on out-of-memory errors.

• Kotlin/JS Warnings Suppression
  Suppresses experimental JS Canvas warnings with org.jetbrains.compose.experimental.jscanvas.enabled=true.
  Useful when JS targets are disabled in some environments (e.g., CI).

These properties can be modified or disabled as needed for your specific project setup or CI environment.

CI Workflows

This template includes pre-configured GitHub Actions workflows, enabled for all pull requests and pushes to the main branch:

• Code Quality (CodeQL): Static analysis for potential security vulnerabilities and quality issues.
• Coverage Check: Verifies test coverage based on configured thresholds.
• Detekt: Runs static analysis using Detekt with full rule set.
• Tests: Executes unit tests and reports results.

Dependabot

The repository includes Dependabot configuration for automatic updates to dependencies, plugins, and GitHub Actions.