[Android] Local jars not packaged into .aar

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1

I’m trying to create a task that downloads the dependencies as jars, puts them into ‘libs’ and then builds the .aar so it includes its dependencies in itself. What I have is

task copyLibs(type: Copy) {
    from configurations.compile
    into 'libs'
}

task cleanLibsDir(type: Delete) {
      delete fileTree(dir: "libs")
}

tasks.whenTaskAdded { addedTask ->
    if (addedTask.name == 'assembleRelease') {
        task archiveSdk(dependsOn: [clean, copyLibs, assembleRelease, cleanLibsDir])
        clean.mustRunAfter copyLibs
        assembleRelease.mustRunAfter clean
        cleanLibsDir.mustRunAfter assembleRelease
    }
}

The first two work correctly, but while archiveSdk appears to do what it’s meant to (download jars, build, clean up), the downloaded jars get completely ignored. If I run copyLibs first then archiveSdk (so the jars are already in place), they DO get packaged correctly into the aar, so I guess the android plugin has already decided what files go into the artifact by the time my copy task is executed.

I tried forcing the preBuild task of android to ‘mustRunAfter’ copyLibs, but even that hasn’t helped. How can I ensure that my jars are existant early enough for the ‘assembleRelease’ task?

Any suggestions?