Hey — publishing a version catalog with the

version-catalog

plugin, using

.withoutVersion()

on most libraries and only

versionRef

on a BOM alias. Minimal repro:

// build.gradle.kts
plugins {
    `version-catalog`
}
catalog {
    versionCatalog {
        val versionAlias = version("mylib", "1.0.0")
        library("bom", "com.example", "mylib-bom").versionRef(versionAlias)
        library("core", "com.example", "mylib-core").withoutVersion()
    }
}

Generated TOML:

[versions]
mylib = "1.0.0"

[libraries]
bom = { group = "com.example", name = "mylib-bom", version.ref = "mylib" }
core = { group = "com.example", name = "mylib-core", version = "" }

If a consumer forgets to apply the BOM as a platform:

dependencies {     
   implementation(platform(libs.mylib.bom))
   implementation(libs.mylib.core) // no platform applied
}

...resolution fails with

Could not find com.example:mylib-core:.

— which makes sense once you know the empty version is intentional, but the error message doesn't hint at the cause at all. A couple questions: 1. Is there a way to make Gradle emit a clearer error here — something that mentions the missing platform/BOM rather than just a blank version? 2. Is

.withoutVersion()

+ BOM the recommended pattern for a multi-module library's catalog, or is there a more idiomatic way to enforce "must be used with platform X" at the catalog level? Trying to figure out if I should adopt this for my own multi-module project's catalog or just keep

versionRef

on every library instead.