Declaring an ApplicationRunner causes Spring Shell application to close immediately

[3ric-T]

Description

A Spring Boot application using Spring Shell version 4.0.1 with interactive mode configured exits immediately after start if classes implementing ApplicationRunner are present and declared as @Component

---

Versions affected

• Spring Shell 4.0.1
• Spring Boot 4.0.5

Operating System

• Linux (Ubuntu 24.04.4)
• Java 25.0.2 (OpenJDK)

Steps to Reproduce

1. Generate a minimal project from start.spring.io with Spring Shell as the only dependency
2. Add a Component that implement ApplicationRunner :

package com.example.demo.runner;

import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;
import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationArguments;
import org.springframework.boot.ApplicationRunner;
import org.springframework.stereotype.Component;

@Component
public class DemoRunner implements ApplicationRunner {
    private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(DemoRunner.class);

    @Override
    public void run(ApplicationArguments args) throws Exception {
        LOGGER.info("This is my runner!");
    }
}

3. Build the application:

./gradlew build

4. Launch the application:

java -jar demo-0.0.1-SNAPSHOT.jar

Expected Behavior

The application should:

1. Complete startup
2. Display the Spring Shell prompt
3. Wait for user input in interactive mode
4. Remain running until the user exits

Actual Behavior

The application:

1. Completes startup successfully
2. Immediately triggers the shutdown hook
3. Exits with code 0 without entering interactive mode

Additional Context

• The problem did not occur with Spring Shell 3.4.x
• Enabling spring.shell.context.close=true did not solve anything

Minimal Reproducer

A minimal project demonstrating the problem is available here:
👉 https://github.com/3ric-T/spring-shell-reproducer

Possible Workaround

When possible, the ApplicationRunner implementations can be replaced by classes with methods annotated with @EventListener

Logs

Negative matches:
-----------------
(...)
   ShellRunnerAutoConfiguration#nonInteractiveShellRunner:
      Did not match:
         - @ConditionalOnProperty (spring.shell.interactive.enabled=false) found different value in property 'enabled' (OnPropertyCondition)

   ShellRunnerAutoConfiguration#springShellApplicationRunner:
      Did not match:
         - @ConditionalOnMissingBean (types: org.springframework.boot.ApplicationRunner; SearchStrategy: all) found beans of type 'org.springframework.boot.ApplicationRunner' demoRunner (OnBeanCondition)
(...)

Unconditional classes:
----------------------
(...)
    org.springframework.shell.core.autoconfigure.ShellRunnerAutoConfiguration
(...)

2026-04-02 11:38:25.084  INFO 2882 --- [           main] com.example.demo.DemoApplication         : Started DemoApplication in 1.063 seconds (process running for 1.413)
2026-04-02 11:38:25.086 DEBUG 2882 --- [           main] o.s.b.a.ApplicationAvailabilityBean      : Application availability state LivenessState changed to CORRECT
2026-04-02 11:38:25.089  INFO 2882 --- [           main] com.example.demo.runner.DemoRunner       : This is my runner!
2026-04-02 11:38:25.090 DEBUG 2882 --- [           main] o.s.b.a.ApplicationAvailabilityBean      : Application availability state ReadinessState changed to ACCEPTING_TRAFFIC
2026-04-02 11:38:25.095 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] s.c.a.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext : Closing org.springframework.context.annotation.AnnotationConfigApplicationContext@5b1f29fa, started on Thu Apr 02 11:38:24 CEST 2026
2026-04-02 11:38:25.097 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] o.s.c.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor  : Stopping beans in phase 1073741823
2026-04-02 11:38:25.098 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] o.s.c.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor  : Bean 'applicationTaskExecutor' completed its stop procedure
2026-04-02 11:38:25.098 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] o.s.c.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor  : Stopping beans in phase -2147483647
2026-04-02 11:38:25.098 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] o.s.c.support.DefaultLifecycleProcessor  : Bean 'springBootLoggingLifecycle' completed its stop procedure
2026-04-02 11:38:25.098 DEBUG 2882 --- [ionShutdownHook] o.s.s.concurrent.ThreadPoolTaskExecutor  : Shutting down ExecutorService 'applicationTaskExecutor' 

Would you like to contribute a fix?

• Yes
• No

I'm unfortunately not very familiar with how Spring Boot internally works but I'm keen to learn

---

[czpilar]

Fixed in PR #1334

The problem is in ShellRunnerAutoConfiguration:

@Bean
@ConditionalOnMissingBean
public ApplicationRunner springShellApplicationRunner(ShellRunner shellRunner) {
    return args -> shellRunner.run(args.getSourceArgs());
}

@ConditionalOnMissingBean checks for any ApplicationRunner bean. When your DemoRunner (which implements ApplicationRunner) is present, this condition is satisfied - so the springShellApplicationRunner bean is never created. Without it, nobody calls shellRunner.run(), so the shell never starts and the application exits immediately after Spring Boot runs DemoRunner.

The fix in my PR is the @ConditionalOnMissingBean specifically check for this bean, not for any ApplicationRunner:

@ConditionalOnMissingBean(name = "springShellApplicationRunner")

Now it only skips if someone explicitly overrides the shell runner bean, not when any other ApplicationRunner exists in the context.

[3ric-T]

Great!
Thanks for the work @czpilar and the explanation, very clear 👍