Configuring Gradle for use with GitHub Packages

Authenticating to GitHub Packages

You need an access token to publish, install, and delete packages. You can use a personal access token to authenticate with your username directly to GitHub Packages or the GitHub API. When you create a personal access token, you can assign the token different scopes depending on your needs.

To authenticate using a GitHub Actions workflow:

• For package registries (PACKAGE-REGISTRY.pkg.github.com), you can use a GITHUB_TOKEN.
• For the container registry (ghcr.io/OWNER/IMAGE-NAME), you must use a personal access token.

Authenticating with a personal access token

You must use a personal access token with the appropriate scopes to publish and install packages in GitHub Packages. For more information, see "About GitHub Packages."

You can authenticate to GitHub Packages with Gradle using either Gradle Groovy or Kotlin DSL by editing your build.gradle file (Gradle Groovy) or build.gradle.kts file (Kotlin DSL) file to include your personal access token. You can also configure Gradle Groovy and Kotlin DSL to recognize a single package or multiple packages in a repository.

Replace USERNAME with your GitHub username, TOKEN with your personal access token, REPOSITORY with the name of the repository containing the package you want to publish, and OWNER with the name of the user or organization account on GitHub that owns the repository. Because uppercase letters aren't supported, you must use lowercase letters for the repository owner even if the GitHub user or organization name contains uppercase letters.

Example using Gradle Groovy for a single package in a repository

plugins {
    id("maven-publish")
}

publishing {
    repositories {
        maven {
            name = "GitHubPackages"
            url = uri("https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY")
            credentials {
                username = project.findProperty("gpr.user") ?: System.getenv("USERNAME")
                password = project.findProperty("gpr.key") ?: System.getenv("TOKEN")
            }
        }
    }
    publications {
        gpr(MavenPublication) {
            from(components.java)
        }
    }
}

Example using Gradle Groovy for multiple packages in the same repository

plugins {
    id("maven-publish") apply false
}

subprojects {
    apply plugin: "maven-publish"
    publishing {
        repositories {
            maven {
                name = "GitHubPackages"
                url = uri("https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY")
                credentials {
                    username = project.findProperty("gpr.user") ?: System.getenv("USERNAME")
                    password = project.findProperty("gpr.key") ?: System.getenv("TOKEN")
                }
            }
        }
        publications {
            gpr(MavenPublication) {
                from(components.java)
            }
        }
    }
}

Example using Kotlin DSL for a single package in the same repository

plugins {
    `maven-publish`
}

publishing {
    repositories {
        maven {
            name = "GitHubPackages"
            url = uri("https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY")
            credentials {
                username = project.findProperty("gpr.user") as String? ?: System.getenv("USERNAME")
                password = project.findProperty("gpr.key") as String? ?: System.getenv("TOKEN")
            }
        }
    }
    publications {
        register("gpr") {
            from(components["java"])
        }
    }
}

Example using Kotlin DSL for multiple packages in the same repository

plugins {
    `maven-publish` apply false
}

subprojects {
    apply(plugin = "maven-publish")
    configure {
        repositories {
            maven {
                name = "GitHubPackages"
                url = uri("https://maven.pkg.github.com/OWNER/REPOSITORY")
                credentials {
                    username = project.findProperty("gpr.user") as String? ?: System.getenv("USERNAME")
                    password = project.findProperty("gpr.key") as String? ?: System.getenv("TOKEN")
                }
            }
        }
        publications {
            register("gpr") {
                from(components["java"])
            }
        }
    }
}

Authenticating with the GITHUB_TOKEN

If you are using a GitHub Actions workflow, you can use a GITHUB_TOKEN to publish and consume packages in GitHub Packages without needing to store and manage a personal access token. For more information, see "Authenticating with the GITHUB_TOKEN."

For more information about using GITHUB_TOKEN with Maven, see "Publishing Java packages with Maven."

Publishing a package

By default, GitHub publishes the package to an existing repository with the same name as the package. For example, GitHub will publish a package named com.example.test in the OWNER/test GitHub Packages repository.

After you publish a package, you can view the package on GitHub. For more information, see "Viewing packages."

1. Authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Authenticating to GitHub Packages."

2. After creating your package, you can publish the package.

   $ gradle publish

Installing a package

You can install a package by adding the package as a dependency to your project. For more information, see "Declaring dependencies" in the Gradle documentation.

1. Authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Authenticating to GitHub Packages."

2. Add the package dependencies to your build.gradle file (Gradle Groovy) or build.gradle.kts file (Kotlin DSL) file.

   Example using Gradle Groovy:

   dependencies {
       implementation 'com.example:package'
   }

   Example using Kotlin DSL:

   dependencies {
       implementation("com.example:package")
   }

3. Add the maven plugin to your build.gradle file (Gradle Groovy) or build.gradle.kts file (Kotlin DSL) file.

   Example using Gradle Groovy:

   plugins {
       id 'maven'
   }

   Example using Kotlin DSL:

   plugins {
       `maven`
   }

4. Install the package.

   $ gradle install

Further reading

• "Configuring Apache Maven for use with GitHub Packages"
• "Deleting and restoring a package"