Unlike many other errors

Unlike many other errors, this exception is not generated by the Maven core itself but by a plugin. As a rule of thumb, plugins use this error to signal a failure of the build because there is something wrong with the dependencies or sources of a project, e.g. a compilation or a test failure.

The concrete meaning of the exception depends on the plugin so please have a look at its documentation. The documentation for many common Maven plugins can be reached via our