Groovy extension methods in gradle plugin

I have a Gradle plugin with some Groovy extension methods.

The plugin has a org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ExtensionModule file in the META-INF/groovy directory.

However, extension methods don’t get loaded in Groovy and so I can’t use them in the build.gradle file.

If I use the use(...) { ... } construction, I can use them in the build.gradle file.

Is there any way to get the extension methods in a Gradle plugin to be usable in a build.gradle file without having to use the use(...) { ... } construction, but instead use the module descriptor [1] ?

Thanks!

[1] https://groovy-lang.org/metaprogramming.html#module-descriptor

I cannot answer that question for you, but in terms of DSL usability I would like to drop an observation.

I think that Groovy extensions in a Gradle context are not a good idea, primarily because they cannot be used in a Kotlin DSL. If this is internal to your company, then maybe that is not a problem, but for an open-source plugin that is definitely a consideration

I already have Kotlin extensions but those aren’t usable from Groovy :). I wanted to make the plugin as usable from Groovy as it is from Kotlin since Gradle supports both languages.

Unfortunately Groovy extensions currently don’t work in Gradle Groovy scripts.
See https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/2973