build: Gradle 9.6.0 wrappers and AGP 9.4.1

Android Studio now builds with AGP 9.4, whose minimum (and default) Gradle is 9.6.0, and apps pick up these wrapper and plugin versions from the packaged project template. - test-app and root wrappers move to Gradle 9.6.0 (scripts and wrapper jar regenerated by the wrapper task). - NS_DEFAULT_ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION -> 9.4.1 and the default build tools -> 36.0.0, the minimum AGP 9.4 accepts. compileSdk stays at 35 since it decides which APIs the metadata generator exposes to apps. - The com.android.tools:r8 buildscript pin (and NS_DEFAULT_R8_VERSION / -Pr8Version) is dropped: it only existed because the R8 bundled with AGP 8.13 could not read Kotlin 2.4 metadata, and AGP 9.4 bundles a newer R8. - The explicit org.apache.groovy:groovy-all classpath entry dates from the Gradle 7 migration; Gradle 9 ships Groovy 4 itself. - BuildToolTask becomes abstract: Gradle 9 turned JavaExec's injected services into abstract getters, so a concrete subclass no longer compiles. The app module still applies kotlin-android, which AGP 9 rejects; that is addressed in the following commit.
edusperoni · Sep 22, 2026 · Sep 22, 2026 · Sep 22, 2026 · Sep 22, 2026 · Sep 22, 2026
commit 9a5d4dd8534544e919e21dd01a133a04eac4f902
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,7 +1,9 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.9-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-9.6.0-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+retries=0
+retryBackOffMs=500
 validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
diff --git a/gradlew.bat b/gradlew.bat
diff --git a/test-app/app/gradle-helpers/BuildToolTask.gradle b/test-app/app/gradle-helpers/BuildToolTask.gradle
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 import static org.gradle.internal.logging.text.StyledTextOutput.Style
 
-class BuildToolTask extends JavaExec {
+abstract class BuildToolTask extends JavaExec {
     void setOutputs(def logger) {
         def logFile = new File("$workingDir/${name}.log")
         if(logFile.exists()) {

diff --git a/test-app/build.gradle b/test-app/build.gradle
@@ -134,20 +134,16 @@ version of the {N} CLI install a previous version of the runtime package - 'tns
 
     def computeKotlinVersion = { -> project.hasProperty("kotlinVersion") ? kotlinVersion : "${ns_default_kotlin_version}" }
     def computeBuildToolsVersion = { -> project.hasProperty("androidBuildToolsVersion") ? androidBuildToolsVersion : "${NS_DEFAULT_ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION}" }
-    def computeR8Version = { -> project.hasProperty("r8Version") ? r8Version : "${NS_DEFAULT_R8_VERSION}" }
     def kotlinVersion = computeKotlinVersion()
     def androidBuildToolsVersion = computeBuildToolsVersion()
-    def r8Version = computeR8Version()
 
     repositories {
         google()
         mavenCentral()
     }
     dependencies {
         classpath "com.android.tools.build:gradle:$androidBuildToolsVersion"
-        classpath "com.android.tools:r8:$r8Version"
         classpath "org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:$kotlinVersion"
-        classpath "org.apache.groovy:groovy-all:4.0.21"
     }
 }
 

diff --git a/test-app/gradle.properties b/test-app/gradle.properties
@@ -19,12 +19,10 @@ android.enableJetifier=true
 android.useAndroidX=true
 
 # Default versions used throughout the gradle configurations
-NS_DEFAULT_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=35.0.0
+NS_DEFAULT_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=36.0.0
 NS_DEFAULT_COMPILE_SDK_VERSION=35
 NS_DEFAULT_MIN_SDK_VERSION=21
-NS_DEFAULT_ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=8.13.2
-# R8 8.x cannot read Kotlin 2.4 metadata (needs 9.1.29+), so the AGP-bundled R8 is overridden.
-NS_DEFAULT_R8_VERSION=9.1.43
+NS_DEFAULT_ANDROID_BUILD_TOOLS_VERSION=9.4.1
 
 ns_default_androidx_appcompat_version = 1.7.0
 ns_default_androidx_exifinterface_version = 1.3.7

diff --git a/test-app/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/test-app/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
diff --git a/test-app/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/test-app/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
-#Tue Feb 11 10:56:28 AST 2025
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.14.3-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-9.6.0-bin.zip
+networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/test-app/gradlew b/test-app/gradlew
diff --git a/test-app/gradlew.bat b/test-app/gradlew.bat