1. Using Intellij IDE created a sample Spring-AI project by selecting following dependencies:
dependencies {
    implementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-web'
    implementation 'org.springframework.ai:spring-ai-starter-model-openai'
    compileOnly 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
    annotationProcessor 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-configuration-processor'
    annotationProcessor 'org.projectlombok:lombok'
    testImplementation 'org.springframework.boot:spring-boot-starter-test'
    testRuntimeOnly 'org.junit.platform:junit-platform-launcher'
}
  1. Start the app
  2. Get the following error
***************************
APPLICATION FAILED TO START
***************************

Description:

Parameter 0 of method webClientSsl in org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.web.reactive.function.client.WebClientAutoConfiguration required a bean of type 'org.springframework.boot.http.client.reactive.ClientHttpConnectorBuilder' that could not be found.


Action:

Consider defining a bean of type 'org.springframework.boot.http.client.reactive.ClientHttpConnectorBuilder' in your configuration.


Process finished with exit code 1

Comment From: wilkinsona

Thanks for the report. Unfortunately, I cannot reproduce the described behavior.

You haven't said which version of Spring Boot you're using. I tried both 3.5.3 and 3.4.7 and observed the same behavior with each version. Set up as described, the app fails to start due to a missing API key for OpenAPI. With spring.ai.openai.api-key set, the app starts successfully:

  .   ____          _            __ _ _
 /\\ / ___'_ __ _ _(_)_ __  __ _ \ \ \ \
( ( )\___ | '_ | '_| | '_ \/ _` | \ \ \ \
 \\/  ___)| |_)| | | | | || (_| |  ) ) ) )
  '  |____| .__|_| |_|_| |_\__, | / / / /
 =========|_|==============|___/=/_/_/_/

 :: Spring Boot ::                (v3.5.3)

2025-07-01T07:31:29.521+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] c.example.gh_46235.Gh46235Application    : Starting Gh46235Application using Java 21.0.7 with PID 25934 (/Users/aw036093/Downloads/gh-46235/build/classes/java/main started by aw036093 in /Users/aw036093/Downloads/gh-46235)
2025-07-01T07:31:29.522+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] c.example.gh_46235.Gh46235Application    : No active profile set, falling back to 1 default profile: "default"
2025-07-01T07:31:29.901+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat initialized with port 8080 (http)
2025-07-01T07:31:29.909+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardService   : Starting service [Tomcat]
2025-07-01T07:31:29.909+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] o.apache.catalina.core.StandardEngine    : Starting Servlet engine: [Apache Tomcat/10.1.42]
2025-07-01T07:31:29.931+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] o.a.c.c.C.[Tomcat].[localhost].[/]       : Initializing Spring embedded WebApplicationContext
2025-07-01T07:31:29.932+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] w.s.c.ServletWebServerApplicationContext : Root WebApplicationContext: initialization completed in 392 ms
2025-07-01T07:31:30.250+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] o.s.b.w.embedded.tomcat.TomcatWebServer  : Tomcat started on port 8080 (http) with context path '/'
2025-07-01T07:31:30.255+01:00  INFO 25934 --- [gh-46235] [           main] c.example.gh_46235.Gh46235Application    : Started Gh46235Application in 0.893 seconds (process running for 1.052)

If you would like us to spend some more time investigating, please spend some time providing a complete yet minimal sample that reproduces the problem. You can share it with us by pushing it to a separate repository on GitHub or by zipping it up and attaching it to this issue.

```

Comment From: pkelkar-ces

Tried reproducing the issue by creating a new project again. Unable to recreate the issue myself today. I guess yesterday some dependency mismanagement happened in IDE. Thanks for taking time to look into it. Appreciate it.