Failed to apply plugin 'com.google.protobuf'

I am trying to troubleshoot an error in a build script for a plugin. I am able to run this from inside IntelliJ IDEA, but when I try to build from the command line I get an exception.

I have been able to reduce the build script to a bare minimum as seen below:

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.google.protobuf:protobuf-gradle-plugin:0.8.6'
    }
}

plugins {
    id 'java'
    id 'org.jetbrains.intellij' version '0.3.12'
    id "maven"
    id "de.undercouch.download" version "3.2.0"
    id "com.google.protobuf" version "0.8.6"
    id "idea"
}

When I try to perform a build using this script I get the following errors:

$ gradle buildPlugin

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* Where:
Build file '/Users/erikengheim/Development/Java/experiment/build.gradle' line: 17

* What went wrong:
An exception occurred applying plugin request [id: 'com.google.protobuf', version: '0.8.6']
> Failed to apply plugin 'com.google.protobuf'.
   > Could not create an instance of type com.google.protobuf.gradle.ProtobufSourceDirectorySet.
      > 'void org.gradle.api.internal.file.DefaultSourceDirectorySet.<init>(java.lang.String, java.lang.String, org.gradle.api.internal.file.FileResolver, org.gradle.api.internal.file.collections.DirectoryFileTreeFactory)'

I can get all of this to work if I only comment out the line:

id "com.google.protobuf" version "0.8.6"

I am not very familiar with Gradle or Java, so I don't know how to interpret the stack backtrace of the exception.

You should use the latest version of protobuf-gradle-plugin which is 0.8.13. It requires at least Gradle 5.6 and Java 8.
Update your build script:

buildscript {
  repositories {
    mavenCentral()
  }
  dependencies {
    classpath 'com.google.protobuf:protobuf-gradle-plugin:0.8.13'
  }
}

and this line:

id "com.google.protobuf" version "0.8.13"

For me, I was getting the error: The com.google.protobuf plugin could not be applied during project evaluation. The Java plugin or one of the Android plugins must be applied to the project first.

I fixed it by adding id 'java' before id "com.google.protobuf" version "0.9.2" in root project gradle plugins.

plugins {
    id 'com.android.application' version '7.4.1' apply false
    id 'com.android.library' version '7.4.1' apply false
    id 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android' version '1.8.10' apply false
    id "org.jetbrains.kotlin.plugin.serialization" version "1.8.10"
    id 'java'
    id "com.google.protobuf" version "0.9.2"
    id 'com.google.dagger.hilt.android' version '2.45' apply false
}

root build.gradle.kts

buildscript {
    repositories {
        mavenLocal()
        google()
        mavenCentral()
        maven(uri("https://jitpack.io"))
    }

    dependencies {
        //...
        classpath("com.google.protobuf:protobuf-gradle-plugin:0.8.18")
    }
}

app

plugins {
    id("com.android.library")
    id("kotlin-android")
    kotlin("kapt")
    id("kotlin-parcelize")
    kotlin("plugin.serialization")
    id("com.google.protobuf") //remove version
}

remove version

id "com.google.protobuf"

OR Kotlin DSL

id("com.google.protobuf")