Use when you need to review, improve, or troubleshoot a Maven pom.xml file — including dependency management with BOMs, plugin configuration, version centralization, multi-module project structure, build profiles, or any situation where you want to align your Maven setup with industry best practices. Part of the skills-for-java project
Improve Maven POM configuration using industry-standard best practices.
What is covered in this Skill?
<dependencyManagement> and BOMssrc/main/java, src/test/java)pom.xml, check for a <modules> section. If present, read every child module's pom.xml before making any recommendations.<dependencyManagement>, redundant <pluginManagement> blocks, properties that should be centralized, and version drift across sibling modules.Before applying Maven best practices recommendations, ensure the project is in a valid state by running Maven validation. This helps identify any existing configuration issues that need to be resolved first. For multi-module projects, scope analysis must cover every child module POM — not just the root.
./mvnw validate or mvn validate before applying any Maven best practices recommendationspom.xml, check whether it contains a <modules> section. If it does, read every child module's pom.xml before making any recommendations — analysis scope is the full module tree, not only the root<dependencyManagement> in the parent, plugin configurations that duplicate <pluginManagement>, properties that should be centralized in the parent, and version drift (same artifact declared at different versions across sibling modules)For detailed guidance, examples, and constraints, see references/110-java-maven-best-practices.md.