Re-run Spring Boot Configuration Annotation Processor to update generated metadata

Following these instructions worked for me: http://www.mdoninger.de/2015/05/16/completion-for-custom-properties-in-spring-boot.html

That message about having to Re-run the Annotation Processor is a bit confusing as it appears it stays there all the time even if nothing has changed.

The key seems to be rebuilding the project after adding the required dependency, or after making any property changes. After doing that and going back to the YAML file, all my properties were now linked to the configuration classes.

You may need to click the 'Reimport All Maven Projects' button in the Maven pane as well to get the .yaml file view to recognise the links back to the corresponding Java class.


None of these options worked for me. I've found that the auto detection of annotation processors to be pretty flaky. I ended up creating a plugin section in the pom.xml file that explicitly sets the annotation processors that are used for the project. The advantage of this is that you don't need to rely on any IDE settings.

<plugin>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
        </plugin>
        <plugin>
            <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
            <artifactId>maven-compiler-plugin</artifactId>
            <version>3.7.0</version>
            <configuration>
                <compilerVersion>1.8</compilerVersion>
                <source>1.8</source>
                <target>1.8</target>
                <annotationProcessors>
                    <annotationProcessor>org.springframework.boot.configurationprocessor.ConfigurationMetadataAnnotationProcessor</annotationProcessor>
                    <annotationProcessor>lombok.launch.AnnotationProcessorHider$AnnotationProcessor</annotationProcessor>
                    <annotationProcessor>org.hibernate.jpamodelgen.JPAMetaModelEntityProcessor</annotationProcessor>
                </annotationProcessors>
            </configuration>
        </plugin>

None of the answers worked for me. If you just want to disable the message, go to Intellij Preferences -> Editor -> General -> Appearance, uncheck "Show Spring Boot metadata panel".

However, you can also live with that message, if it does not bother you too much, so to make sure you don't miss any other Spring Boot metadata messages you may be interested in.


You can enable annotation processors in IntelliJ via the following:

  1. Click on File
  2. Click on Settings
  3. In the little search box in the upper-left hand corner, search for "Annotation Processors"
  4. Check "Enable annotation processing"
  5. Click OK

I had the same issue. The problem is that the Spring Boot annotation processor generates the spring-configuration-metadata.json file inside your /target/classes/META-INF folder.

If you happen to have ignored this folder in IntelliJ like me (because what the heck, who cares about classes files?), the file won't be indexed by your IDE. Therefore, no completion, and the annoying message.

Just remove target from the ignore files/folders list, located in Settings > Editor > File Types > Ignore files and folders.