@Builder was introduced as experimental feature in lombok v0.12.0.

@Builder gained @Singular support and was promoted to the main lombok package since lombok v1.16.0.

@Builder with @Singular adds a clear method since lombok v1.16.8.

@Builder.Default functionality was added in lombok v1.16.16.

@Builder(builderMethodName = "") is legal (and will suppress generation of the builder method) starting with lombok v1.18.8.

@Builder(access = AccessLevel.PACKAGE) is legal (and will generate the builder class, the builder method, etc with the indicated access level) starting with lombok v1.18.8.

The @Builder annotation produces complex builder APIs for your classes.

@Builder lets you automatically produce the code required to have your class be instantiable with code such as:
Person.builder().name("Adam Savage").city("San Francisco").job("Mythbusters").job("Unchained Reaction").build();

@Builder can be placed on a class, or on a constructor, or on a method. While the "on a class" and "on a constructor" mode are the most common use-case, @Builder is most easily explained with the "method" use-case.

A method annotated with @Builder (from now on called the target) causes the following 7 things to be generated:

• An inner static class named FooBuilder, with the same type arguments as the static method (called the builder).
• In the builder: One private non-static non-final field for each parameter of the target.
• In the builder: A package private no-args empty constructor.
• In the builder: A 'setter'-like method for each parameter of the target: It has the same type as that parameter and the same name. It returns the builder itself, so that the setter calls can be chained, as in the above example.
• In the builder: A build() method which calls the method, passing in each field. It returns the same type that the target returns.
• In the builder: A sensible toString() implementation.
• In the class containing the target: A builder() method, which creates a new instance of the builder.

@Builder can generate so-called 'singular' methods for collection parameters/fields. These take 1 element instead of an entire list, and add the element to the list. For example: Person.builder().job("Mythbusters").job("Unchained Reaction").build(); would result in the List<String> jobs field to have 2 strings in it. To get this behaviour, the field/parameter needs to be annotated with @Singular. The feature has its own documentation.

Now that the "method" mode is clear, putting a @Builder annotation on a constructor functions similarly; effectively, constructors are just static methods that have a special syntax to invoke them: Their 'return type' is the class they construct, and their type parameters are the same as the type parameters of the class itself.

Finally, applying @Builder to a class is as if you added @AllArgsConstructor(access = AccessLevel.PACKAGE) to the class and applied the @Builder annotation to this all-args-constructor. This only works if you haven't written any explicit constructors yourself. If you do have an explicit constructor, put the @Builder annotation on the constructor instead of on the class.

If using @Builder to generate builders to produce instances of your own class (this is always the case unless adding @Builder to a method that doesn't return your own type), you can use @Builder(toBuilder = true) to also generate an instance method in your class called toBuilder(); it creates a new builder that starts out with all the values of this instance. You can put the @Builder.ObtainVia annotation on the parameters (in case of a constructor or method) or fields (in case of @Builder on a type) to indicate alternative means by which the value for that field/parameter is obtained from this instance. For example, you can specify a method to be invoked: @Builder.ObtainVia(method = "calculateFoo").

The name of the builder class is FoobarBuilder, where Foobar is the simplified, title-cased form of the return type of the target - that is, the name of your type for @Builder on constructors and types, and the name of the return type for @Builder on methods. For example, if @Builder is applied to a class named com.yoyodyne.FancyList<T>, then the builder name will be FancyListBuilder<T>. If @Builder is applied to a method that returns void, the builder will be named VoidBuilder.

The configurable aspects of builder are:

• The builder's class name (default: return type + 'Builder')
• The build() method's name (default: "build")
• The builder() method's name (default: "builder")
• If you want toBuilder() (default: no)
• The access level of all generated elements (default: public).

@Builder.Default

If a certain field/parameter is never set during a build session, then it always gets 0 / null / false. If you've put @Builder on a class (and not a method or constructor) you can instead specify the default directly on the field, and annotate the field with @Builder.Default:
@Builder.Default private final long created = System.currentTimeMillis();

@Singular

By annotating one of the parameters (if annotating a method or constructor with @Builder) or fields (if annotating a class with @Builder) with the @Singular annotation, lombok will treat that builder node as a collection, and it generates 2 'adder' methods instead of a 'setter' method. One which adds a single element to the collection, and one which adds all elements of another collection to the collection. No setter to just set the collection (replacing whatever was already added) will be generated. A 'clear' method is also generated. These 'singular' builders are very complicated in order to guarantee the following properties:

• When invoking build(), the produced collection will be immutable.
• Calling one of the 'adder' methods, or the 'clear' method, after invoking build() does not modify any already generated objects, and, if build() is later called again, another collection with all the elements added since the creation of the builder is generated.
• The produced collection will be compacted to the smallest feasible format while remaining efficient.

@Singular can only be applied to collection types known to lombok. Currently, the supported types are:

• java.util:
  • Iterable, Collection, and List (backed by a compacted unmodifiable ArrayList in the general case).
  • Set, SortedSet, and NavigableSet (backed by a smartly sized unmodifiable HashSet or TreeSet in the general case).
  • Map, SortedMap, and NavigableMap (backed by a smartly sized unmodifiable HashMap or TreeMap in the general case).
• Guava's com.google.common.collect:
  • ImmutableCollection and ImmutableList (backed by the builder feature of ImmutableList).
  • ImmutableSet and ImmutableSortedSet (backed by the builder feature of those types).
  • ImmutableMap, ImmutableBiMap, and ImmutableSortedMap (backed by the builder feature of those types).
  • ImmutableTable (backed by the builder feature of ImmutableTable).

If your identifiers are written in common english, lombok assumes that the name of any collection with @Singular on it is an english plural and will attempt to automatically singularize that name. If this is possible, the add-one method will use this name. For example, if your collection is called statuses, then the add-one method will automatically be called status. You can also specify the singular form of your identifier explictly by passing the singular form as argument to the annotation like so: @Singular("axis") List<Line> axes;.
If lombok cannot singularize your identifier, or it is ambiguous, lombok will generate an error and force you to explicitly specify the singular name.

The snippet below does not show what lombok generates for a @Singular field/parameter because it is rather complicated. You can view a snippet here.

With Jackson

You can customize parts of your builder, for example adding another method to the builder class, or annotating a method in the builder class, by making the builder class yourself. Lombok will generate everything that you do not manually add, and put it into this builder class. For example, if you are trying to configure jackson to use a specific subtype for a collection, you can write something like:

@Value @Builder
@JsonDeserialize(builder = JacksonExample.JacksonExampleBuilder.class)
public class JacksonExample {
	@Singular private List<Foo> foos;
	
	@JsonPOJOBuilder(withPrefix = "")
	public static class JacksonExampleBuilder implements JacksonExampleBuilderMeta {
	}
	
	private interface JacksonExampleBuilderMeta {
		@JsonDeserialize(contentAs = FooImpl.class) JacksonExampleBuilder foos(List<? extends Foo> foos)
	}
}

@Singular support for java.util.NavigableMap/Set only works if you are compiling with JDK1.8 or higher.

You cannot manually provide some or all parts of a @Singular node; the code lombok generates is too complex for this. If you want to manually control (part of) the builder code associated with some field or parameter, don't use @Singular and add everything you need manually.

The sorted collections (java.util: SortedSet, NavigableSet, SortedMap, NavigableMap and guava: ImmutableSortedSet, ImmutableSortedMap) require that the type argument of the collection has natural order (implements java.util.Comparable). There is no way to pass an explicit Comparator to use in the builder.

An ArrayList is used to store added elements as call methods of a @Singular marked field, if the target collection is from the java.util package, even if the collection is a set or map. Because lombok ensures that generated collections are compacted, a new backing instance of a set or map must be constructed anyway, and storing the data as an ArrayList during the build process is more efficient that storing it as a map or set. This behaviour is not externally visible, an implementation detail of the current implementation of the java.util recipes for @Singular @Builder.

With toBuilder = true applied to methods, any type parameter of the annotated method itself must also show up in the return type.

The initializer on a @Builder.Default field is removed and stored in a static method, in order to guarantee that this initializer won't be executed at all if a value is specified in the build. This does mean the initializer cannot refer to this, super or any non-static member. If lombok generates a constructor for you, it'll also initialize this field with the initializer.

Various well known annotations about nullity cause null checks to be inserted and will be copied to parameter of the builder's 'setter' method. See Getter/Setter documentation's small print for more information.

You can suppress the generation of the builder() method, for example because you just want the toBuilder() functionality, by using: @Builder(builderMethodName = ""). Any warnings about missing @Builder.Default annotations will disappear when you do this, as such warnings are not relevant when only using toBuilder() to make builder instances.

You can use @Builder for copy constructors: foo.toBuilder().build() makes a shallow clone. Consider suppressing the generating of the builder method if you just want this functionality, by using: @Builder(toBuilder = true, builderMethodName = "").

Due to a peculiar way javac processes static imports, trying to do a non-star static import of the static builder() method won't work. Either use a star static import: `import static TypeThatHasABuilder.*;` or don't statically import the builder method.

If setting the access level to PROTECTED, all methods generated inside the builder class are actually generated as public; the meaning of the protected keyword is different inside the inner class, and the precise behaviour that PROTECTED would indicate (access by any source in the same package is allowed, as well as any subclasses from the outer class, marked with @Builder is not possible, and marking the inner members public is as close as we can get.