Kotlin Language Support

DevRail now supports Kotlin as its tenth language ecosystem. Whether you are building server-side Kotlin services or Android applications, DevRail provides consistent linting, static analysis, testing, and security scanning through the same Makefile targets and CI pipelines used by every other supported language.

What’s Included

The dev-toolchain container ships JDK 21, the Kotlin compiler, Gradle, and dedicated analysis tools:

• ktlint – Kotlin linter and formatter that enforces the official Kotlin coding conventions, serving as a dual-purpose tool for both style checking and auto-formatting
• detekt – configurable static code analysis for Kotlin, covering complexity, potential bugs, and code smells
• Gradle – the standard Kotlin build tool, used for running tests and dependency analysis
• OWASP dependency-check – Gradle plugin for scanning dependencies against the National Vulnerability Database
• trivy – universal dependency scanning for Gradle projects

JDK 21 (Eclipse Temurin) is included in the container alongside the Kotlin compiler and Gradle distribution.

Configuration

Add kotlin to your .devrail.yml:

languages:
  - kotlin

ktlint reads .editorconfig at the repository root – no separate config file needed. detekt reads detekt.yml for static analysis rules. Both are scaffolded by devrail init when Kotlin is declared.

Makefile Targets

The standard targets work out of the box:

make lint       # ktlint + detekt (if detekt.yml exists)
make format     # ktlint --format --dry-run
make fix        # ktlint --format
make test       # gradle test (if build.gradle.kts or build.gradle exists)
make security   # gradle dependencyCheckAnalyze (OWASP)
make check      # all of the above

Android Projects

The container handles ktlint, detekt, and Gradle test for all Kotlin projects. Android-specific checks (Android Lint) require the Android SDK, which is not included in the container. For Android projects, configure a separate CI job:

# GitHub Actions example -- Android Lint job
- name: Run Android Lint
  runs-on: ubuntu-latest
  steps:
    - uses: actions/checkout@v4
    - uses: actions/setup-java@v4
      with:
        distribution: temurin
        java-version: 21
    - name: Setup Android SDK
      uses: android-actions/setup-android@v3
    - run: ./gradlew lint

Server-side Kotlin projects (Spring Boot, Ktor, etc.) work entirely inside the container with no additional setup.

Pre-Commit Hooks

ktlint runs as a local pre-commit hook (under 30 seconds):

repos:
  - repo: https://github.com/JetBrains/ktlint-pre-commit-hook
    rev: v1.5.0
    hooks:
      - id: ktlint

Getting Started

Pull the latest container and add Kotlin to your project:

docker pull ghcr.io/devrail-dev/dev-toolchain:v1

Or use devrail init to set up a new Kotlin project:

curl -fsSL https://devrail.dev/init.sh | bash -s -- --languages kotlin --ci github --all

See the Kotlin Standards page for the full configuration reference.

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