WAR Manifest Customization
The manifest can be customized by configuring the WAR Plugin's archiver. For full information on the different configuration options available check the documentation for Maven Archiver.
Generating a manifest classpath
Generating a manifest classpath for a WAR is similar to for a JAR, but there are a couple of slight differences since you normally don't want a JAR in both the manifest classpath and the WEB-INF/lib directory. Customize the WAR Plugin's archiver:
<project>
...
<build>
<plugins>
<plugin>
<groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
<artifactId>maven-war-plugin</artifactId>
<version>3.4.0</version>
<configuration>
<archive>
<manifest>
<addClasspath>true</addClasspath>
</manifest>
</archive>
</configuration>
</plugin>
...
</plugins>
</build>
...
</project>
Now, you can control which dependencies are included in WEB-INF/lib and in the manifest classpath by following these examples. Maven will follow the transitive dependency tree until it gets to artifacts scoped as "provided".
Note: No way is shown how to include a dependency in WEB-INF/lib but not in the manifest classpath.
<project>
...
<dependencies>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.foo</groupId>
<artifactId>bar-jar1</artifactId>
<version>${pom.version}</version>
<optional>true</optional>
<!-- goes in manifest classpath, but not included in WEB-INF/lib -->
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.foo</groupId>
<artifactId>bar-jar2</artifactId>
<version>${pom.version}</version>
<!-- goes in manifest classpath, AND included in WEB-INF/lib -->
</dependency>
<dependency>
<groupId>org.foo</groupId>
<artifactId>bar-jar3</artifactId>
<version>${pom.version}</version>
<scope>provided</scope>
<!-- excluded from manifest classpath, and excluded from WEB-INF/lib -->
</dependency>
...
</dependencies>
...
</project>
Check the Guide to Working with Manifests for more examples.