I have been trying out the latest builds (318 and 319) and stumbled upon a showstopper. There is a subtle error in org.codehaus.groovy.grails.plugins.DefaultGrailsPluginManager.java. The snippet (buggy - notice the parameter name: application2): public DefaultGrailsPluginManager(Resource[] pluginFiles, GrailsApplication application2) { if(application == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Argument [application] cannot be null!"); resolver = new PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver(); this.pluginResources = pluginFiles; } Should be: public DefaultGrailsPluginManager(Resource[] pluginFiles, GrailsApplication application) { if(application == null) throw new IllegalArgumentException("Argument [application] cannot be null!"); resolver = new PathMatchingResourcePatternResolver(); this.pluginResources = pluginFiles; this.application = application; } Until it is resolved exceptions like below will result: Context initialization failed org.springframework.beans.factory.BeanCreationException: Error creating bean with name 'pluginManager' defined in ServletContext resource [/WEB-INF/applicationContext.xml]: Invocation of init method failed; nested exception is java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Argument [application] cannot be null! Caused by: java.lang.IllegalArgumentException: Argument [application] cannot be null! at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.plugins.DefaultGrailsPluginManager.<init>(DefaultGrailsPluginManager.java:129) at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.plugins.GrailsPluginManagerFactoryBean.afterPropertiesSet(GrailsPluginManagerFactoryBean.java:67) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.invokeInitMethods(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1062) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.initializeBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:1029) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.createBean(AbstractAutowireCapableBeanFactory.java:420) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory$1.getObject(AbstractBeanFactory.java:245) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.getSingleton(DefaultSingletonBeanRegistry.java:141) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:242) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.AbstractBeanFactory.getBean(AbstractBeanFactory.java:156) at org.springframework.beans.factory.support.DefaultListableBeanFactory.preInstantiateSingletons(DefaultListableBeanFactory.java:287) at org.springframework.context.support.AbstractApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractApplicationContext.java:348) at org.springframework.web.context.support.AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.refresh(AbstractRefreshableWebApplicationContext.java:156) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:246) at org.codehaus.groovy.grails.web.context.GrailsContextLoader.createWebApplicationContext(GrailsContextLoader.java:29) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoader.initWebApplicationContext(ContextLoader.java:184) at org.springframework.web.context.ContextLoaderListener.contextInitialized(ContextLoaderListener.java:49) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.listenerStart(StandardContext.java:3763) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContext.start(StandardContext.java:4211) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChildInternal(ContainerBase.java:759) at org.apache.catalina.core.ContainerBase.addChild(ContainerBase.java:739) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHost.addChild(StandardHost.java:524) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployWAR(HostConfig.java:809) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.deployApps(HostConfig.java:497) at org.apache.catalina.startup.HostConfig.check(HostConfig.java:1204) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method) at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.apache.commons.modeler.BaseModelMBean.invoke(BaseModelMBean.java:503) at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.DynamicMetaDataImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.MetaDataImpl.invoke(Unknown Source) at com.sun.jmx.interceptor.DefaultMBeanServerInterceptor.invoke(Unknown Source) at com.sun.jmx.mbeanserver.JmxMBeanServer.invoke(Unknown Source) at org.apache.catalina.manager.ManagerServlet.check(ManagerServlet.java:1377) at org.apache.catalina.manager.HTMLManagerServlet.doPost(HTMLManagerServlet.java:213) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:709) at javax.servlet.http.HttpServlet.service(HttpServlet.java:802) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.internalDoFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:252) at org.apache.catalina.core.ApplicationFilterChain.doFilter(ApplicationFilterChain.java:173) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardWrapperValve.invoke(StandardWrapperValve.java:213) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardContextValve.invoke(StandardContextValve.java:178) at org.apache.catalina.authenticator.AuthenticatorBase.invoke(AuthenticatorBase.java:524) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardHostValve.invoke(StandardHostValve.java:126) at org.apache.catalina.valves.ErrorReportValve.invoke(ErrorReportValve.java:105) at org.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngineValve.invoke(StandardEngineValve.java:107) at org.apache.catalina.connector.CoyoteAdapter.service(CoyoteAdapter.java:148) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11Processor.process(Http11Processor.java:869) at org.apache.coyote.http11.Http11BaseProtocol$Http11ConnectionHandler.processConnection(Http11BaseProtocol.java:664) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.PoolTcpEndpoint.processSocket(PoolTcpEndpoint.java:527) at org.apache.tomcat.util.net.LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.runIt(LeaderFollowerWorkerThread.java:80) at org.apache.tomcat.util.threads.ThreadPool$ControlRunnable.run(ThreadPool.java:684) at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)