Application startup failure with disableShadowRelocate=true

Describe the bug

I disabled the shadow renaming for local builds by adding disableShadowRelocate=true to ~/.gradle/gradle.properties before building. It introduced by https://github.com/open-telemetry/opentelemetry-java-instrumentation/blob/main/docs/contributing/debugging.md#shadow-renaming

My application got following startup failure:

[otel.javaagent 2025-09-19 16:03:40:665 +0800] [main] INFO io.opentelemetry.javaagent.tooling.VersionLogger - opentelemetry-javaagent - version: 2.21.0-SNAPSHOT
OpenTelemetry Javaagent failed to start
java.lang.NullPointerException: Cannot invoke "io.opentelemetry.api.OpenTelemetry.meterBuilder(String)" because "openTelemetry" is null
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java8.internal.JmxRuntimeMetricsUtil.getMeter(JmxRuntimeMetricsUtil.java:28)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java8.Classes.registerObservers(Classes.java:48)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java8.Classes.registerObservers(Classes.java:43)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java8.internal.JmxRuntimeMetricsFactory.buildObservables(JmxRuntimeMetricsFactory.java:27)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java17.RuntimeMetricsBuilder.build(RuntimeMetricsBuilder.java:97)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.runtimemetrics.java17.internal.RuntimeMetricsConfigUtil.configure(RuntimeMetricsConfigUtil.java:50)
	at io.opentelemetry.instrumentation.javaagent.runtimemetrics.java17.Java17RuntimeMetricsInstaller.afterAgent(Java17RuntimeMetricsInstaller.java:23)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.tooling.AgentInstaller.runAfterAgentListeners(AgentInstaller.java:363)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.tooling.AgentInstaller.installBytebuddyAgent(AgentInstaller.java:225)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.tooling.AgentInstaller.installBytebuddyAgent(AgentInstaller.java:112)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.tooling.AgentStarterImpl.start(AgentStarterImpl.java:104)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.AgentInitializer$2.run(AgentInitializer.java:66)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.AgentInitializer$2.run(AgentInitializer.java:60)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.AgentInitializer.execute(AgentInitializer.java:82)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.AgentInitializer.initialize(AgentInitializer.java:59)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.OpenTelemetryAgent.startAgent(OpenTelemetryAgent.java:59)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.OpenTelemetryAgent.premain(OpenTelemetryAgent.java:46)
	at java.base/jdk.internal.reflect.DirectMethodHandleAccessor.invoke(DirectMethodHandleAccessor.java:103)
	at java.base/java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:580)
	at java.instrument/sun.instrument.InstrumentationImpl.loadClassAndStartAgent(InstrumentationImpl.java:560)
	at java.instrument/sun.instrument.InstrumentationImpl.loadClassAndCallPremain(InstrumentationImpl.java:572)

Exception in thread "main" java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: Could not initialize class io.opentelemetry.context.LazyStorage
	at io.opentelemetry.context.ContextStorage.get(ContextStorage.java:72)
	at io.opentelemetry.context.Context.current(Context.java:92)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.Java8BytecodeBridge.currentContext(Java8BytecodeBridge.java:23)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.callAppenders(Logger.java:255)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.buildLoggingEventAndAppend(Logger.java:421)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.filterAndLog_0_Or3Plus(Logger.java:383)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.log(Logger.java:765)
	at org.apache.commons.logging.LogAdapter$Slf4jLocationAwareLog.error(LogAdapter.java:433)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.reportFailure(SpringApplication.java:826)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.handleRunFailure(SpringApplication.java:801)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:325)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1226)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:1215)
	at com.example.demo.CPDemoApplication.main(CPDemoApplication.java:110)
Caused by: java.lang.ExceptionInInitializerError: Exception java.lang.NullPointerException [in thread "main"]
	at io.opentelemetry.context.Context.root(Context.java:105)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.opentelemetryapi.context.AgentContextStorage.getWrappedRootContext(AgentContextStorage.java:82)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.opentelemetryapi.context.AgentContextStorage.<init>(AgentContextStorage.java:51)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.instrumentation.opentelemetryapi.context.AgentContextStorage.lambda$wrap$0(AgentContextStorage.java:113)
	at io.opentelemetry.context.LazyStorage.<clinit>(LazyStorage.java:86)
	at io.opentelemetry.context.ContextStorage.get(ContextStorage.java:72)
	at io.opentelemetry.context.Context.current(Context.java:92)
	at io.opentelemetry.javaagent.bootstrap.Java8BytecodeBridge.currentContext(Java8BytecodeBridge.java:23)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.callAppenders(Logger.java:255)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.buildLoggingEventAndAppend(Logger.java:421)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.filterAndLog_0_Or3Plus(Logger.java:383)
	at ch.qos.logback.classic.Logger.log(Logger.java:765)
	at org.apache.commons.logging.LogAdapter$Slf4jLocationAwareLog.info(LogAdapter.java:454)
	at org.springframework.boot.StartupInfoLogger.logStarting(StartupInfoLogger.java:55)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.logStartupInfo(SpringApplication.java:637)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.prepareContext(SpringApplication.java:373)
	at org.springframework.boot.SpringApplication.run(SpringApplication.java:314)
	... 3 more

Steps to reproduce

Disable the shadow renaming for local builds by adding disableShadowRelocate=true to ~/.gradle/gradle.properties. Start an application by corresponding java agent.

Expected behavior

Application can start up normally

Actual behavior

Application can't start up normally

Javaagent or library instrumentation version

2.21.0-SNAPSHOT

Environment

JDK:
OS:

Additional context

No response

Tip

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Start with docs/contributing/debugging.md and reproduce the failure using disableShadowRelocate=true with the Java agent. Trace the startup path through AgentInstaller.runAfterAgentListeners and Java17RuntimeMetricsInstaller.afterAgent, then inspect JmxRuntimeMetricsUtil.getMeter and the reported Context initialization errors. Done means the application starts normally with shadow relocation disabled.