Upgrade Gradle to 9.4 (Kotlin 2.3, AGP 9.1, JDK 26)

[leotm]

Summary:

Follow-up to

• Bump Gradle to 9.3.1 #55453
• Bump Gradle to 9.3.1 react-native-community/template#205

• bump Gradle wrappers from 9.3.1 to 9.4.0 (root, RNGP, helloworld)
• bump RNGP: AGP from 8.12.0 to 9.1.0, Kotlin from 2.1.20 to 2.3.0 (RNGP)
• bump RNGP Kotlin compiler API ver from KOTLIN_1_8 to KOTLIN_2_3 (RNGP)
• AGP 9 DSL syntax updates
  • NB: AGP 9.1 removed direct prop accessors, replaced by lambdas (DSL closures)
  • ReactPlugin.kt
    • fix: arg type mismatch: actual type is File, String expected
    • old .asFile returns File, directories.add() needs String, use .asFile.absolutePath to convert File to String path
    • NB: AGP 9 replaced .srcDir with directories.add, expects String paths (not File objects)
  • AgpConfiguratorUtils.kt
    • fix: unresolved ref 'namespace', update to lambdas
    • fix: NoSuchMethodError for buildFeatures, 'LibraryBuildFeatures LibraryExtension.getBuildFeatures()', update to lambdas
  • NdkConfiguratorUtils.kt
    • fix: com.android.build.api.dsl. ApplicationBuildFeatures ApplicationExtension.getBuildFeatures breaking rn-tester createBundleReleaseJsAndAssets, update to lambdas
    • fix: com.android.build.api.dsl. ApplicationDefaultConfig ApplicationExtension.getDefaultConfig() breaking rn-tester createBundleReleaseJsAndAssets, update to lambdas
  • ReactAndroid/build.gradle.kts
    • fix: java.exclude Unresolved ref 2 script compilation errors
    • refactor legacy Java source exclusion to explicit filter patterns (Ant-style globs)
    • NB: AGP 9 AndroidSourceDirectorySet stopped extending PatternFilterable
• JsonUtilsTest.kt
  • fix: :gradle-plugin:shared:compileTestKotlin 40 warnings as errors Unnecessary non-null assertion (!!) on a non-null receiver
  • assert null once at entry point of vars as done in past
• helloworld
  • fix: Failed to apply plugin 'org.jetbrains.kotlin.android' in :app no longer required for Kotlin support since AGP 9, remove
  • remove from app/build.gradle

Then follow-up react-native-community/template gradlew and kotlinVersion updates
e.g. leotm/react-native-template-new-architecture#1933

Changelog:

[ANDROID] [CHANGED] - Gradle to 9.4.0, Kotlin 2.3.0 and AGP 9.1.0 support

Test Plan:

• template: Update Gradle to v9.4.0 leotm/react-native-template-new-architecture#1933

• locally (windows 11, CMake: 3.30.5, 4.3.1, JDK 17, JDK 26 security incompatible)
• .github/actions/build-android/action.yml with prebuilt stable com.facebook.hermes:hermes-android:0.16.0 artifact from mvnrepository.com/artifact/com.facebook.hermes/hermes-android/0.16.0
• useHermesStable=true, useHermesNightly=false, hermesV1Enabled=false, .hermesversion, version.properties
• set: ANDROID_SDK_ROOT, JAVA_HOME, NODE_HOME (prepend all to PATH)
• .\gradlew .\gradlew :private:react-native-fantom:buildFantomTester locally on 0.16.0 tarball 404
• .\gradlew :packages:react-native:ReactAndroid:tasks
• .\gradlew :packages:react-native:ReactAndroid:build --dry-run
• .\gradlew :packages:react-native:ReactAndroid:buildCodegenCLI -PreactNativeArchitectures=arm64-v8a PenableWarningsAsErrors=true --no-daemon
  • fix buildCodegenCLI locally for Windows Git Bash compat
• .\gradlew :gradle-plugin:react-native-gradle-plugin:compileKotlin -PenableWarningsAsErrors=true --no-daemon
• .\gradlew :packages:rn-tester:android:app:createBundleReleaseJsAndAssets -PenableWarningsAsErrors=true --no-daemon
• .\gradlew :packages:react-native:ReactAndroid:buildCMakeDebug[arm64-v8a][hermestooling,jsi,etc] -PenableWarningsAsErrors=true --no-daemon
• .\gradlew :packages:react-native:ReactAndroid:build -PreactNativeArchitectures=arm64-v8a -PenableWarningsAsErrors=true --no-daemon
• .github\actions\build-fantom-runner\action.yml locally requires private:react-native-fantom and compiling hermes from source w debug flags (SLOW af)

[usta]

Gradle 9.4.0 -> 9.4.1
Kotlin 2.3.0 -> 2.3.20

Also agp 9.2 require at least 9.5.x so if this is not so urget it can wait until 9.5.x series became stable ( Right now it is https://github.com/gradle/gradle/releases/tag/v9.5.0-RC1 )

[github-actions]

Warning

JavaScript API change detected

This PR commits an update to ReactNativeApi.d.ts, indicating a change to React Native's public JavaScript API.

• Please include a clear changelog message.
• This change will be subject to additional review.

This change was flagged as: POTENTIALLY_BREAKING