Gradle templates

Gradle templates configure how to build an Android application using GradleAn Android build system that automates several build processes. This automation means that many common build errors are less likely to occur. More info
See in Glossary. Each Gradle template represents a single Gradle project. Gradle projects can include, and depend on, other Gradle projects.

Gradle template files

A Gradle template consists of the following files:

File	Location	Contains
`baseProjectTemplate.gradle`	In the exported project, `root/build.gradle` folder	Configuration information that affects all modules in the final Gradle project. It specifies which Android Gradle Plugin version to use and locations of java plugins. The locations are a combination of online repositories and java plugins inside of this project.
`launcherTemplate.gradle`	In the exported project, `root/launcher/build.gradle` folder	Instructions on how to build the Android application. This includes bundling, signing, and whether to split the apkThe Android Package format output by Unity. An APK is automatically deployed to your device when you select File > Build & Run. More info See in Glossary. It depends on the unityLibrary project and outputs either an .apk file or an app bundle.
`mainTemplate.gradle`	In the exported project, `root/unityLibrary/build.gradle` folder	Instructions on how to build Unity as a Library. This outputs an .aar file. You can override the Unity template with a custom template in the Unity Editor. Refer to the Providing a custom Gradle build template section on this page for more details.
`libTemplate.gradle`	Varies	If an Android Library Project plug-inA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info See in Glossary doesn’t include a `build.gradle` file, Unity uses the `libTemplate.gradle` file as a template to generate one. After Unity generates the `build.gradle` file, or if one already exists in the plug-in’s directory, Unity copies the plug-in into the Gradle project.
`settingsTemplate.gradle`	In the exported project, `root/settings.gradle` file	Specifies the names of modules that the Gradle build system should include when it builds the project. You can override the Unity template with a custom template in the Unity Editor. Refer to the Providing a custom Gradle build template section on this page for more details.
`gradleTemplate.properties`	In the exported project, `root/gradle.properties` file	Configures the Gradle build system and specifies properties such as the size of the Java virtual machine (JVM) heap

Using a custom Gradle template

To have more control over the Gradle project files that Unity produces, you can override Unity’s default Gradle template files. To do this:

Go to Edit > Project Settings to open the Project Settings window.
Select the Player tab, then open Android Player Settings:
In the Publishing Settings section, enable the checkbox that corresponds to the Gradle project file type you want to create a custom template for. This creates a Gradle project template file and displays the path to the file.
Modify the template file to control the format and contents of the final Gradle project file.

build.gradle

The build.gradle file contains template variables that specify build instructions.

By default, Unity uses the mainTemplate.gradle file from the Unity install directory to create the build.gradle file for the unityLibrary module. To create your own mainTemplate.gradle file:

Open the Project Settings window (menu: Edit > Project Settings).
Select the Player tab then open Android Player Settings:
In the Publishing Settings section, enable Custom Main Gradle Template. This creates a Gradle template file called mainTemplate.gradle and displays the path to the file. Unity now uses this mainTemplate.gradle file to create the build.gradle file. For a list of template variables and a description of what each does, see Template variables.

Template variables

The mainTemplate.gradle file can contain the following variables:

Variable	Description
ABIFILTERS	Specifies the Application Binary Interfaces (ABIs) that your application should support. For example, `armeabi-v7a`, `arm64-v8a`. Gradle creates application builds for the specified `ABIFILTERS` values only.
APIVERSION	The API version to build for. Unity sets the and TARGETSDKVERSION to the same value (Target API Level in the Android Player Settings).
APPLICATIONID	Android Application ID. For example, `com.mycompany.myapp`.
APPLY_PLUGINS	Specifies a list of Gradle plug-ins to use during the build process.
BUILDTOOLS	The SDK build tools to use.
BUILD_SCRIPT_DEPS	Specifies a list of dependencies and repositories required during the build process.
BUILTIN_NOCOMPRESS	Specifies a default list of file extensions to exclude from compressionA method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression, Animation Compression, Audio Compression, Build Compression. See in Glossary. The file extensions are: `.unity3d`, `.ress`, `.resource`, `.obb`, `.bundle`, `.unityexp`.
DEPS	The list of project dependencies. This is the list of libraries that the project uses.
DIR_UNITYPROJECT	The directory of your Unity project.
EXTERNAL_SOURCES	The build script required to produce build artifacts such as, GameActivity and Swappy native libraries.
IL_CPP_BUILD_SETUP	The build script required to produce build artifacts related to IL2CPPA Unity-developed scripting back-end which you can use as an alternative to Mono when building projects for some platforms. More info See in Glossary, such as `libil2cpp.so`.
LAUNCHER_SOURCE_BUILD_SETUP	Unity’s internal build script.
LIBSDKTARGET	The target API level the Unity library supports.
MINIFY_DEBUG	Indicates whether to minify debug builds.
MINIFY_RELEASE	Indicates whether to minify release builds.
MINSDKVERSION	The minimum API version that supports the application.
NAMESPACE	The application namespace. For example, `com.MyCompany.MyApp`.
NDKPATH	Specifies the Android Native Development Kit (NDK) installation folder path set in the Android section of Preferences > External Tools.
PACKAGING_OPTIONS	Specifies the required APK packaging options.
PLAY_ASSET_PACKS	Specifies the asset packs to include in your application.
SIGN	Complete the signingConfigs section if this build is signed.
SIGNCONFIG	Indicates whether the build is signed. If this property is set to `signingConfig.release`, the build is signed.
SOURCE_BUILD_SETUP	Unity’s internal build script.
SPLITS	Indicates whether your application supports multiple APK builds.
SPLITS_VERSION_CODE	Build script that sets version code for split APKs.
TARGETSDKVERSION	The API version to target. Unity sets the and APIVERSION to the same value (Target API Level in the Android Player Settings).
USER_PROGUARD	Specifies a custom ProGuard file to use for minification.
VERSIONCODE	The internal version number for the application. It’s used to indicate how recent the application version is, where higher number denotes a more recent version.
VERSIONNAME	The application version number expressed as a string. This version number is visible to the users.

Custom settingsTemplate.gradle files can also contain the following variables:

Variable	Description
INCLUDES	The list of Android Library plug-ins to include in the Gradle project.
ARTIFACTORYREPOSITORY	Adds a reference to Unity’s maven repository only for internal use. Unity deletes this during the build process.

Custom gradleTemplate.properties files can also contain the following variables:

Variable	Description
ADDITIONAL_PROPERTIES	Contains additional properties for the application. This includes: • The Gradle template version. • The path to the Unity project. • If the application uses the Android App Bundle publishing format, a flag that indicates to keep native libraries compressed.
JVM_HEAP_SIZE	The maximum size of the Java virtual machine (JVM) heap.
STREAMING_ASSETS	The list of files in the Steaming Assets folder that Gradle shouldn’t compress.

Modifying the exported Gradle project using C#

To modify the Gradle project after Unity assembles it, create a class that inherits from IPostGenerateGradleAndroidProject and override the OnPostGenerateGradleAndroidProject function. This function receives the path to the unityLibrary module as a parameter and you can use it to reach the application’s manifest and resources through C# scripting.

Warning: Unity now uses an incremental build pipeline which means Unity reuses the same Gradle project for consecutive builds. This means that any modifications you do using this API accumulate since Unity no longer creates a new Gradle project for every build. For example, if you use this API to add an additional file to the Gradle project, the first build works as expected, but during the second build the file already exists. A second example is if you use this API to add a permission to a particular file. Each successive build adds another entry for the permission. It is crucial to make sure that modifications you want to make aren’t already present in the build.

Building and delivering for Android

Override the Android App Manifest