diff --git a/pom.xml b/pom.xml
index 9d1b0e0f9..cf565262d 100644
--- a/pom.xml
+++ b/pom.xml
@@ -63,6 +63,15 @@
             <version>1.18.24</version>
             <scope>provided</scope>
         </dependency>
+        
+        <dependency>
+            <!-- used so that lombok can generate suppressions for spotbugs. It needs to find it on the relevant classpath -->
+            <groupId>com.github.spotbugs</groupId>
+            <artifactId>spotbugs</artifactId>
+            <version>4.7.3</version>
+            <scope>provided</scope>
+        </dependency>
+
         <!-- end provided -->
 
         <!-- test -->
diff --git a/renovate.json b/renovate.json
new file mode 100644
index 000000000..39a2b6e9a
--- /dev/null
+++ b/renovate.json
@@ -0,0 +1,6 @@
+{
+  "$schema": "https://docs.renovatebot.com/renovate-schema.json",
+  "extends": [
+    "config:base"
+  ]
+}