groupId

GroupId is a namespace identifier used to organize and locate software artifacts in build and repository systems. It helps distinguish artifacts with the same artifactId produced by different organizations and forms part of the coordinates that uniquely identify an artifact.

In Maven and related tools, an artifact is identified by a coordinate triple or quadruple: groupId, artifactId, version, and packaging. The groupId typically follows reverse-domain naming (for example, com.example). It designates the organization or project namespace under which related artifacts are published. The artifactId identifies a specific artifact, and the version specifies its release. Together, these coordinates determine the artifact’s location in a repository and are used by the build system to resolve dependencies. A concrete example is groupId "org.apache.commons", artifactId "commons-lang3", version "3.12.0".

Use and best practices include keeping the groupId stable for a set of artifacts from the same organization, since changes can complicate dependency management and release processes. Projects that publish multiple modules under the same project often share a common groupId. In Maven, a child POM can inherit the groupId from its parent, though many teams choose to declare it explicitly to avoid ambiguity. The groupId, in combination with artifactId and version, provides a consistent and scalable way to organize, publish, and consume software components.