diff --git a/mojo/pom.xml b/mojo/pom.xml
index b93d8ea..f7f8715 100644
--- a/mojo/pom.xml
+++ b/mojo/pom.xml
@@ -65,12 +65,23 @@
             <groupId>com.antwerkz.super-expressive</groupId>
             <artifactId>super-expressive</artifactId>
             <version>0.2.0</version>
+            <exclusions>
+                <exclusion>
+                    <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
+                    <artifactId>kotlin-stdlib-jdk8</artifactId>
+                </exclusion>
+            </exclusions>
         </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>org.zeroturnaround</groupId>
             <artifactId>zt-exec</artifactId>
         </dependency>
 
+        <dependency>
+            <groupId>org.jetbrains.kotlin</groupId>
+            <artifactId>kotlin-stdlib</artifactId>
+            <version>${kotlin.version}</version>
+        </dependency>
         <dependency>
             <groupId>com.github.zafarkhaja</groupId>
             <artifactId>java-semver</artifactId>
@@ -112,25 +123,6 @@
             <artifactId>logback-classic</artifactId>
         </dependency>
 
-        <!--
-                <dependency>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.its</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>maven-core-it-support</artifactId>
-                    <version>1.4</version>
-                </dependency>
-                <dependency>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.maven</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>maven-embedder</artifactId>
-                    <version>3.8.5</version>
-                    <scope>test</scope>
-                </dependency>
-                <dependency>
-                    <groupId>org.apache.maven.shared</groupId>
-                    <artifactId>maven-verifier</artifactId>
-                    <version>2.0.0-M1</version>
-                    <scope>test</scope>
-                </dependency>
-        -->
     </dependencies>
 
 </project>
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/GradleInvocationMojo.kt b/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/GradleInvocationMojo.kt
index bc82bb8..97959a8 100644
--- a/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/GradleInvocationMojo.kt
+++ b/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/GradleInvocationMojo.kt
@@ -1,13 +1,16 @@
 package com.antwerkz.build
 
+import java.io.File
+import java.io.FileOutputStream
+import java.lang.Compiler.command
 import org.apache.maven.plugin.AbstractMojo
+import org.apache.maven.plugin.MojoExecutionException
 import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Component
 import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Mojo
 import org.apache.maven.plugins.annotations.Parameter
 import org.apache.maven.project.MavenProject
 import org.codehaus.plexus.logging.Logger
 import org.zeroturnaround.exec.ProcessExecutor
-import org.zeroturnaround.exec.stream.LogOutputStream
 
 @Mojo(name = "gradle")
 class GradleInvocationMojo : AbstractMojo() {
@@ -15,10 +18,12 @@ class GradleInvocationMojo : AbstractMojo() {
         private val baseCommand =
             listOf(
                 "java",
+                "-Xmx64m",
+                "-Xms64m",
+                "-Dorg.gradle.appname=gradlew",
                 "-cp",
                 "gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar",
                 "org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain",
-                "--no-daemon",
                 "--console",
                 "plain"
             )
@@ -28,51 +33,36 @@ class GradleInvocationMojo : AbstractMojo() {
 
     @Parameter(defaultValue = "\${project}", required = true, readonly = true)
     lateinit var project: MavenProject
-
     @Parameter lateinit var task: GradleTask
+    @Parameter(defaultValue = "true") var log = true
 
-    @Parameter(defaultValue = "true") var quiet = true
-
-    /*
-    <configuration>
-        <executable>java</executable>
-        <workingDirectory>${project.basedir}</workingDirectory>
-        <arguments>
-            <argument>-cp</argument>
-            <argument>gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar</argument>
-            <argument>org.gradle.wrapper.GradleWrapperMain</argument>
-            <argument>classes</argument>
-        </arguments>
-        <useMavenLogger>true</useMavenLogger>
-    </configuration>
-
-         */
     override fun execute() {
         var command = baseCommand
-        if (quiet) {
-            command += "--quiet"
-        }
-        command += listOf("-i", task.name, *task.args.toTypedArray())
-        logger.debug("executing command: ${command.joinToString(" ")}")
-        ProcessExecutor()
-            .command(command)
-            .directory(project.basedir)
-            .redirectOutput(
-                object : LogOutputStream() {
-                    override fun processLine(line: String) {
-                        if (!quiet) {
-                            logger.info("> ${line}")
-                        }
-                    }
-                }
+        command += listOf(task.name, *task.args.toTypedArray())
+        val executor = ProcessExecutor().command(command).directory(project.basedir)
+        if (log) {
+            logger.info(
+                "invoking gradle:\n\tdirectory: ${project.basedir}\n\tcommand: ${command.joinToString(" ")}"
             )
-            .redirectError(
-                object : LogOutputStream() {
-                    override fun processLine(line: String) {
-                        logger.error("[error] > ${line}")
-                    }
-                }
-            )
-            .execute()
+            val infoLogFile = File(project.basedir, "build/graven/${task.name}-info.log")
+            infoLogFile.parentFile.mkdirs()
+            logger.info("Logging enabled. See build/graven for details.")
+            executor
+                .redirectOutput(FileOutputStream(infoLogFile))
+                .redirectError(
+                    FileOutputStream(File(project.basedir, "build/graven/${task.name}-error.log"))
+                )
+        }
+        val execute = executor.execute()
+
+        if (execute.exitValue != 0) {
+            if (log) {
+                throw MojoExecutionException("gradle run failed. check logs in build/graven/")
+            } else {
+                throw MojoExecutionException(
+                    "gradle run failed. enabling logging to see the gradle output."
+                )
+            }
+        }
     }
 }
diff --git a/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/ReplacementMojo.kt b/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/ReplacementMojo.kt
index e4d1325..65ec710 100644
--- a/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/ReplacementMojo.kt
+++ b/mojo/src/main/kotlin/com/antwerkz/build/ReplacementMojo.kt
@@ -3,6 +3,7 @@ package com.antwerkz.build
 import com.antwerkz.expression.RegularExpression
 import com.antwerkz.expression.toRegex
 import java.io.File
+import java.io.IOException
 import java.nio.charset.Charset
 import java.util.Properties
 import org.apache.maven.model.Dependency
@@ -75,8 +76,9 @@ class ReplacementMojo : AbstractMojo() {
             .split(",")
             .map { it.trim() }
             .forEach {
-                val file = File(it)
+                val file = File(project.basedir, it)
 
+                logger.info("Updating ${file}")
                 if (file.exists()) {
                     file.writeText(
                         file
@@ -97,20 +99,24 @@ class ReplacementMojo : AbstractMojo() {
     }
 
     private fun updateGradleWrapper() {
-        val file = File("gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties")
-
-        file.writeText(
-            file
-                .readLines(Charset.defaultCharset())
-                .map { line: String ->
-                    if (line.startsWith("distributionUrl=", ignoreCase = true)) {
-                        """distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-${gradleVersion}-bin.zip"""
-                    } else {
-                        line
+        val file = File(project.basedir, "gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties")
+
+        try {
+            file.writeText(
+                file
+                    .readLines(Charset.defaultCharset())
+                    .map { line: String ->
+                        if (line.startsWith("distributionUrl=", ignoreCase = true)) {
+                            """distributionUrl=https://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-${gradleVersion}-bin.zip"""
+                        } else {
+                            line
+                        }
                     }
-                }
-                .joinToString("\n")
-        )
+                    .joinToString("\n")
+            )
+        } catch (e: IOException) {
+            throw e
+        }
     }
 }