It sounds like you want to essentially always ensure that the code is properly formatted before the verifyGoogleJavaFormat task is run (and could complain). In that case, I’d simply make the googleJavaFormat task a dependency of the verifyGoogleJavaFormat task. In your build.gradle file, after you have applied the google-java-format plugin, simply add the following:

verifyGoogleJavaFormat.dependsOn(tasks.googleJavaFormat)

Alternatively, if you really only want to run the code formatter when the build task is run (as opposed to when the verifyGoogleJavaFormat task is run only), you could add this instead:

build.dependsOn(tasks.googleJavaFormat)
verifyGoogleJavaFormat.mustRunAfter(tasks.googleJavaFormat)

Sherter gradle plugin is automatically integrated to "gradle build". When you run it, it will run "gradle verifyGoogleJavaFormat". In case of violations, the build will fail.

We are using it on jenkins and it works. You will only need dependency to build.gradle file:

compile group: 'com.github.sherter.google-java-format', name: 'com.github.sherter.google-java-format.gradle.plugin', version: '0.8', ext: 'pom'

And also add plugin:

id 'com.github.sherter.google-java-format' version '0.8'

Then just run "gradle build" and you can see in the console, that verifyGoogleJavaFormat was executed.