I am failing to use shadow to create a shadow jar, I think because the plugin isn't found in various repositories. If I try to build shadow, it fails because gradle can't find com.gradle.enterprise Do you know an alternative for minimizing a jar file? Or, if I can find the jar files for shadow, can I use them without trying to resolve them in a repository?

It's in the

gradlePluginPortal()

https://plugins.gradle.org/plugin/com.github.johnrengelman.shadow

Yup. The result is gradle can't find the plugin.

What's the exact/full error message? And what configuration do you have?

Gradle Core Plugins (plugin is not in 'org.gradle' namespace) Plugin Repositories (could not resolve plugin artifact 'com.github.johnrengelman.shadowcom.github.johnrengleman.shadow.gradle.plugin8.1.1') Searched in the following repositories: Gradle Central Plugin Repository

Just did a

gradle init

for a "basic" build (build structure only), added the following to the

build.gradle.kts

plugins {
  id("com.github.johnrengelman.shadow") version "8.1.1"
}

then ran `./gradlew buildEnvironment`:

$ ./gradlew buildEnvironment


> Task :buildEnvironment

------------------------------------------------------------
Root project 'test'
------------------------------------------------------------

classpath
+--- com.github.johnrengelman.shadow:com.github.johnrengelman.shadow.gradle.plugin:8.1.1
|    \--- com.github.johnrengelman:shadow:8.1.1
|         +--- org.jdom:jdom2:2.0.6.1
|         +--- org.ow2.asm:asm:9.4
|         +--- org.ow2.asm:asm-commons:9.4
|         |    +--- org.ow2.asm:asm:9.4
|         |    \--- org.ow2.asm:asm-tree:9.4
|         |         \--- org.ow2.asm:asm:9.4
|         +--- commons-io:commons-io:2.11.0
|         +--- org.apache.ant:ant:1.10.13
|         |    \--- org.apache.ant:ant-launcher:1.10.13
|         +--- org.codehaus.plexus:plexus-utils:3.5.1
|         +--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:2.20.0
|         |    \--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-api:2.20.0
|         \--- org.vafer:jdependency:2.8.0
\--- org.apache.logging.log4j:log4j-core:{require 2.17.1; reject [2.0, 2.17.1)} -> 2.20.0 (c)

(c) - A dependency constraint, not a dependency. The dependency affected by the constraint occurs elsewhere in the tree.
(*) - Indicates repeated occurrences of a transitive dependency subtree. Gradle expands transitive dependency subtrees only once per project; repeat occurrences only display the root of the subtree, followed by this annotation.

A web-based, searchable dependency report is available by adding the --scan option.

So probably related to your environment yes.

I see jars on my home computer at: https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/com/github/johnrengelman/shadow/8.1.1/ But only poms at work.

Maybe using

pluginManagement

in the settings script with repository content filtering? https://docs.gradle.org/current/userguide/declaring_repositories.html#sec:repository-content-filtering (but I think you won't have the latest version; and Maven Central apparently only has a fork by Palantir)

It is not Maven Central that says it has the shadow plugin 8.1.1. It is mvnrepository.com which displays it which is not Maven Central but indexes several other repositories. It says some other repository has that version which does not work though, while it does not say that plugin central has it where it works. So it seems you (currently) cannot trust mvnrepository.com.