AAR builds fail with UnknownTaskException in Android Gradle plugin 8.9

[mhsmith]

Previously app modules had a task called mergeDebugAssets, while in library modules it was called packageDebugAssets. Apparently in AGP 8.9, they now use the merge name consistently.

Caused by: org.gradle.api.UnknownTaskException: Task with name 'packageDebugAssets' not found in project ':lib1'.
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskCollection.createNotFoundException(DefaultTaskCollection.java:119)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskCollection.createNotFoundException(DefaultTaskCollection.java:47)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.DefaultNamedDomainObjectCollection.named(DefaultNamedDomainObjectCollection.java:386)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskCollection.named(DefaultTaskCollection.java:129)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskCollection.named(DefaultTaskCollection.java:47)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.DefaultNamedDomainObjectCollection.named(DefaultNamedDomainObjectCollection.java:394)
        at org.gradle.api.internal.tasks.DefaultTaskCollection.named(DefaultTaskCollection.java:134)
        at com.chaquo.python.TaskBuilder.extendMergeTask(PythonTasks.kt:496)
        at com.chaquo.python.TaskBuilder.assetTask(PythonTasks.kt:482)
        at com.chaquo.python.TaskBuilder.createAssetsTasks(PythonTasks.kt:358)
        at com.chaquo.python.TaskBuilder.build(PythonTasks.kt:38)
        at com.chaquo.python.PythonPlugin.afterVariant(PythonPlugin.kt:228)

[mhsmith]

There's a fix for this in the development version of Chaquopy, but it hasn't been released yet. I'll leave this issue open for visibility until the release is closer. If it affects anyone, please let us know by clicking the thumbs up button above.

Meanwhile, you can work around it by using an older version of the Android Gradle plugin – the last version that works is 8.8.2. It's no problem to use this in Android Studio Meerkat or newer: just ignore the prompt when it offers to upgrade it.