diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index c1962a79e..943f0cbfa 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 508322917..744c64d12 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,6 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-7.6.1-bin.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-bin.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/springwolf-examples/springwolf-kafka-example/build.gradle b/springwolf-examples/springwolf-kafka-example/build.gradle
index b3f1c61fd..b148bdf9d 100644
--- a/springwolf-examples/springwolf-kafka-example/build.gradle
+++ b/springwolf-examples/springwolf-kafka-example/build.gradle
@@ -79,6 +79,8 @@ docker {
 
 test {
     dependsOn dockerBuildImage
+    // generate the open api docs before tests are executed so that if it works, the json is already there
+    dependsOn generateOpenApiDocs
 }
 
 openApi {
@@ -88,5 +90,18 @@ openApi {
     outputFileName = "openapi-generated.json"
 }
 
-// generate the open api docs before tests are executed so that if it works, the json is already there
-test.dependsOn("generateOpenApiDocs")
+afterEvaluate {
+    tasks {
+        forkedSpringBootRun {
+            dependsOn bootJar
+            dependsOn compileTestJava
+            dependsOn dockerCreateDockerfile
+            dependsOn dockerBuildImage
+            dependsOn dockerSyncBuildContext
+            dependsOn jar
+            dependsOn processTestResources
+            dependsOn spotlessJava
+            doNotTrackState("See https://github.com/springdoc/springdoc-openapi-gradle-plugin/issues/102")
+        }
+    }
+}
diff --git a/springwolf-ui/build.gradle b/springwolf-ui/build.gradle
index decbdf98b..395cd30f3 100644
--- a/springwolf-ui/build.gradle
+++ b/springwolf-ui/build.gradle
@@ -20,7 +20,7 @@ npm_run_build {
   outputs.dir 'build'
 }
 
-task buildPages(type: NpmTask) {
+tasks.register('buildPages', NpmTask) {
   args = ['run', 'build_pages']
 
   inputs.files fileTree("src")
@@ -89,6 +89,9 @@ spotless {
     endWithNewline()
   }
 }
+
+sourcesJar.dependsOn(npm_run_build)
+
 tasks.named('spotlessStyling').configure {
   it.dependsOn('nodeSetup', 'npmSetup')
 }