cannot access org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.EnableFeignClients when running spring boot project

Question

i'm trying to use feign client, i think it's okay but for some reason when i run the app it gets an error that shows "cannot access org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.EnableFeignClients", i can't see any error when coding, i may be something related with pom.xml file but i dont catch it.

Main Class:

package com.example.userservice;

import org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.ImportAutoConfiguration;
import org.springframework.boot.autoconfigure.SpringBootApplication;
import org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.EnableFeignClients;

@SpringBootApplication
@EnableFeignClients
public class UserServiceApplication {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(UserServiceApplication.class, args);
    }

}

FeignClient:

package com.example.userservice.feignclients;

import com.example.userservice.model.Car;
import org.springframework.cloud.openfeign.FeignClient;
import org.springframework.http.ResponseEntity;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.PostMapping;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestBody;
import org.springframework.web.bind.annotation.RequestMapping;

@FeignClient(name = "car-service", url = "http://localhost:8002")
@RequestMapping("/car")
public interface CarFeignClient {

    @PostMapping()
    Car save(@RequestBody Car car);
}

pom.xml:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<project xmlns="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0" xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance"
    xsi:schemaLocation="http://maven.apache.org/POM/4.0.0 https://maven.apache.org/xsd/maven-4.0.0.xsd">
    <modelVersion>4.0.0</modelVersion>
    <parent>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
        <version>2.6.7</version>
        <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
    </parent>
    <groupId>com.example</groupId>
    <artifactId>user-service</artifactId>
    <version>0.0.1-SNAPSHOT</version>
    <name>user-service</name>
    <description>Demo project for Spring Boot</description>
    <properties>
        <java.version>11</java.version>
        <spring-cloud.version>2023.0.0</spring-cloud.version>
    </properties>
    <dependencies>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-data-jpa</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</artifactId>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>com.h2database</groupId>
            <artifactId>h2</artifactId>
            <scope>runtime</scope>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
            <optional>true</optional>
        </dependency>
        <dependency>
            <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
            <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-test</artifactId>
            <scope>test</scope>
        </dependency>
    </dependencies>

    <dependencyManagement>
        <dependencies>
            <dependency>
                <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-cloud-dependencies</artifactId>
                <version>${spring-cloud.version}</version>
                <type>pom</type>
                <scope>import</scope>
            </dependency>
        </dependencies>
    </dependencyManagement>

    <build>
        <plugins>
            <plugin>
                <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
                <artifactId>spring-boot-maven-plugin</artifactId>
                <configuration>
                    <image>
                        <builder>paketobuildpacks/builder-jammy-base:latest</builder>
                    </image>
                    <excludes>
                        <exclude>
                            <groupId>org.projectlombok</groupId>
                            <artifactId>lombok</artifactId>
                        </exclude>
                    </excludes>
                </configuration>
            </plugin>
        </plugins>
    </build>

</project>

Answer 1

I can't see the exact value of your spring-cloud.version property, so I assume you're using 2023.0.0 (Release Train Leyton).

Define the Correct Spring Boot Version for Cloud Release Train

It is important to use the supported version of Spring Boot with the Spring Cloud version you're using. For 2023.0.0 you should go with Spring Boot 3.2.x:

<parent>
    <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
    <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-parent</artifactId>
    <version>3.2.2</version>
    <relativePath/> <!-- lookup parent from repository -->
</parent>

Add OpenFeign Starter

According to the Reference Documentation:

To include Feign in your project use the starter with group org.springframework.cloud and artifact id spring-cloud-starter-openfeign. See the Spring Cloud Project page for details on setting up your build system with the current Spring Cloud Release Train.

You need to add the spring-cloud-starter-openfeign to your <dependencies> in your pom.xml, like:

<dependencies>
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.cloud</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-cloud-starter-openfeign</artifactId>
    </dependency>
    <!-- Your other starters, for example: -->
    <dependency>
        <groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
        <artifactId>spring-boot-starter-web</artifactId>
    </dependency>
</dependencies>

Please let me know, if it was not your problem, so we can dig deeper.