What is the advantage of using Gradle version catalogs (the libs.versions.toml file) to manage dependencies?

Short answer

They provide a central, unified place to manage the versions of libraries and plugins across all project modules, with support for autocomplete and strict type checking in kts files.

Explanation

In large multi-module projects, repeating library names caused version conflicts and difficulty upgrading. The libs.versions.toml file divides dependencies into four sections: [versions] for versions, [libraries] for libraries, [bundles] for grouping related libraries into a single variable, and [plugins] for Gradle plugins, which entirely prevents typos.

Code example

// 1. File gradle/libs.versions.toml:
[versions]
retrofit = "2.11.0"

[libraries]
retrofit-core = { group = "com.squareup.retrofit2", name = "retrofit", version.ref = "retrofit" }

// 2. Use in build.gradle.kts:
dependencies {
    implementation(libs.retrofit.core)
}

Common mistakes

• Pinning different versions of the same library by hand inside some submodules, bypassing the version catalog.

Follow-up questions

• How are build variants created by combining product flavors and build types in Gradle?

Sources

• Android Developers — Migrate your build to version catalogs