Maven Pom Validator

Validate and lint Maven pom.xml files for structure, dependencies, plugins, and best practices. Use when asked to lint, validate, check, or audit pom.xml files, verify Maven configuration, or ensure POM quality. Triggers on "lint pom", "validate pom.xml", "check maven", "maven best practices".

Validate and lint Maven pom.xml files for structural correctness, dependency hygiene, plugin configuration, and best practices.

Commands

lint — Full lint pass (all 20+ rules)

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --strict
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --format json
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py lint pom.xml --format markdown

dependencies — Audit dependency declarations

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py dependencies pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py dependencies pom.xml --format json

plugins — Audit plugin declarations

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py plugins pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py plugins pom.xml --format markdown

validate — Quick structural validation only

bash

python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py validate pom.xml
python3 scripts/maven_pom_validator.py validate pom.xml --strict

Flags

Flag	Description
--strict	Exit code 1 on warnings (CI mode)
--format text	Human-readable output (default)
--format json	Machine-readable JSON
--format markdown	Markdown report

Lint Rules

Structure (5 rules)

1. Valid XML — file must be well-formed XML
2. Required elements — groupId, artifactId, version, modelVersion must be present
3. modelVersion must be "4.0.0"
4. groupId format — must follow reverse-domain convention (e.g. com.example)
5. packaging value must be valid (jar, war, pom, ear, rar, maven-plugin)

Dependencies (6 rules)

6. No duplicate dependencies (same groupId:artifactId)
7. No SNAPSHOT versions in release POMs
8. Version must be defined (not missing)
9. No wildcard/range versions (LATEST, RELEASE, [1.0,))
10. Scope must be valid (compile, test, provided, runtime, system, import)
11. system-scoped deps must have <systemPath>

Plugins (5 rules)

12. Plugin versions must be pinned
13. No duplicate plugins (same groupId:artifactId)
14. Plugin groupId should be specified
15. Known deprecated plugins flagged
16. Configuration elements checked for common issues

Best Practices (6 rules)

17. Properties used for version management (DRY check)
18. dependencyManagement used in parent POMs
19. UTF-8 encoding specified (project.build.sourceEncoding)
20. Java source/target version set (maven.compiler.source/target or release)
21. No hardcoded absolute paths in configuration
22. SCM section present

Exit Codes

Code	Meaning
0	No errors (warnings OK unless --strict)
1	Errors found (or warnings with --strict)
2	Script usage error