IntelliJ IDEA incompatible with JUnit 5.12: TestEngine with ID 'junit-jupiter' failed to discover tests – Support | JetBrains

Symptoms

The issue is faced while trying to run a simple test with JUnit 5.12.1 on IntelliJ IDEA 2025.1 RC. The symptoms of the problem are:

The test cannot be executed and the following error is displayed:

org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.TestSuiteExecutionException: Could not complete execution for Gradle Test Executor 3.
...
Caused by: org.junit.platform.commons.JUnitException: TestEngine with ID 'junit-jupiter' failed to discover tests
...
Caused by: org.junit.platform.commons.JUnitException: OutputDirectoryProvider not available; probably due to unaligned versions of the junit-platform-engine and junit-platform-launcher jars on the classpath/module path.

The issue does not occur when junitVersion is switched back to the latest 5.11.

STR:

Create a project with the following dependencies

val junitVersion = "5.12.1"
dependencies {
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-api:$junitVersion")
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-engine:$junitVersion")
}

Run the following test

import org.junit.jupiter.api.Test;

public class MyTest {

    @Test
    void name() {

    }
}

Actual result:

org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.TestSuiteExecutionException: Could not complete execution for Gradle Test Executor 3.
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.SuiteTestClassProcessor.stop(SuiteTestClassProcessor.java:65)
	at java.base@17.0.14/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
	at java.base@17.0.14/jdk.internal.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:77)
	at java.base@17.0.14/jdk.internal.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:43)
	at java.base@17.0.14/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:569)
	at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:36)
	at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ReflectionDispatch.dispatch(ReflectionDispatch.java:24)
	at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ContextClassLoaderDispatch.dispatch(ContextClassLoaderDispatch.java:33)
	at org.gradle.internal.dispatch.ProxyDispatchAdapter$DispatchingInvocationHandler.invoke(ProxyDispatchAdapter.java:92)
	at jdk.proxy1/jdk.proxy1.$Proxy4.stop(Unknown Source)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.worker.TestWorker$3.run(TestWorker.java:200)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.worker.TestWorker.executeAndMaintainThreadName(TestWorker.java:132)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.worker.TestWorker.execute(TestWorker.java:103)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.worker.TestWorker.execute(TestWorker.java:63)
	at org.gradle.process.internal.worker.child.ActionExecutionWorker.execute(ActionExecutionWorker.java:56)
	at org.gradle.process.internal.worker.child.SystemApplicationClassLoaderWorker.call(SystemApplicationClassLoaderWorker.java:121)
	at org.gradle.process.internal.worker.child.SystemApplicationClassLoaderWorker.call(SystemApplicationClassLoaderWorker.java:71)
	at app//worker.org.gradle.process.internal.worker.GradleWorkerMain.run(GradleWorkerMain.java:69)
	at app//worker.org.gradle.process.internal.worker.GradleWorkerMain.main(GradleWorkerMain.java:74)
Caused by: org.junit.platform.commons.JUnitException: TestEngine with ID 'junit-jupiter' failed to discover tests
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.discoverEngineRoot(EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.java:160)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.discoverSafely(EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.java:134)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.discover(EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.java:108)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.discover(EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.java:80)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.discover(DefaultLauncher.java:110)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncher.java:86)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.DefaultLauncherSession$DelegatingLauncher.execute(DefaultLauncherSession.java:86)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junitplatform.JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor$CollectAllTestClassesExecutor.processAllTestClasses(JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor.java:124)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junitplatform.JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor$CollectAllTestClassesExecutor.access$000(JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor.java:99)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.junitplatform.JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor.stop(JUnitPlatformTestClassProcessor.java:94)
	at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.testing.SuiteTestClassProcessor.stop(SuiteTestClassProcessor.java:63)
	... 18 more
Caused by: org.junit.platform.commons.JUnitException: OutputDirectoryProvider not available; probably due to unaligned versions of the junit-platform-engine and junit-platform-launcher jars on the classpath/module path.
	at app//org.junit.platform.engine.EngineDiscoveryRequest.getOutputDirectoryProvider(EngineDiscoveryRequest.java:94)
	at app//org.junit.jupiter.engine.JupiterTestEngine.discover(JupiterTestEngine.java:67)
	at app//org.junit.platform.launcher.core.EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.discoverEngineRoot(EngineDiscoveryOrchestrator.java:152)

Cause

The problem could be due to unaligned versions of the junit-platform-engine and junit-platform-launcher on the classpath/module path. This is manifested as OutputDirectoryProvider not available error. Furthermore, a possible issue with the Gradle 8 configuration could be the cause.

Resolution

The resolution involves correcting the dependencies in the Gradle configuration. You may consider the following options:

Specify explicit runtime dependency for junit-platform-launcher with testRuntimeOnly in the Gradle configuration:

val junitVersion = "5.12.1"
dependencies {
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-api:$junitVersion")
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter-engine:$junitVersion")
    testRuntimeOnly("org.junit.platform:junit-platform-launcher")
}

Use junit-jupiter instead of junit-jupiter-engine and junit-jupiter-api, together with testRuntimeOnly for junit-platform-launcher:

dependencies {
    testImplementation("org.junit.jupiter:junit-jupiter:5.12.2")
    testRuntimeOnly("org.junit.platform:junit-platform-launcher")
}

These modifications correctly align the versions of the junit-platform-engine and junit-platform-launcher and resolve the issue with the Gradle 8 configuration.

After applying the suggested modifications, your tests should be executed successfully without the TestEngine with ID 'junit-jupiter' failed to discover tests error.

Ref:

Idea is incompatible with JUnit 5.12

https://docs.gradle.org/8.12/userguide/upgrading_version_8.html#test_framework_implementation_dependencies