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Couldn't `ConfigurableFileCollection` solve the same? I'm not sure if it's resettable but it's `#from(Any)` method is god-send

&gt; I'm not sure if it's resettable
You can call `#clear`. The problem is that the user _has_ to call `files.clear()` in that case. The `Property#convention` solution is way more elegant in that respect

I would still use a `ConfigurableFileCollection` . Mark your configurable property `@Internal` and add another `@InputFiles` property that checks whether your configurable property is empty and then returns a default value otherwise.

```@Internal
public abstract ConfigurableFileCollection getMyProperty();

@InputFiles
/* does not need to be public */ FileCollection getActualFiles() {
    var myProperty = getMyProperty();
    if (myProperty.isEmpty()) {
      return getProject().files(…);
    }
    return myProperty;
}

// use getActualFiles() in the task action```


Adding a convention to `ConfigurableFileCollection` would be a good feature request.
In the meantime, +1 to Thomas solution

Nitpick: I'm not sure that that solution can distinguish between `myProperty` being empty and `myProperty` being unset (another thing properties/conventions are good at)

<https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/21752>