Proposal: Upgrade CI to Java 17

Problem

GitHub Actions CI builds are currently failing with the following error:

Required Java version 17 is not met by current version: 11.0.30

Root Cause

The quarkus-maven-plugin:3.6.9 (inherited from service-parent:5) requires Java 17 minimum:

<requiredJavaVersion>17</requiredJavaVersion>
<requiredMavenVersion>3.9.6</requiredMavenVersion>

GitHub Actions runner environments were recently upgraded from Maven 3.8.x to Maven 3.9.6+. Maven 3.9.6+ strictly enforces plugin prerequisites, causing all PR builds to fail since March 16, 2026.

Timeline:

• Last successful PR build: December 12, 2025 (PR Update indy-model to version 2.2 #108)
• First failure: March 16, 2026 (PR Improve error messages in ErrorResponseExceptionMapper #110)
• Cause: GitHub Actions ubuntu-latest runner upgraded Maven to 3.9.6+

Proposal: Upgrade to Java 17

We should upgrade our CI environment and runtime to Java 17 for the following reasons:

1. Quarkus 3.x officially requires Java 17+ - We're already using Quarkus 3.6.9
2. Java 11 LTS support ends September 2026 - Only 6 months away
3. Maven ecosystem moving forward - Maven 3.9.6+ enforces Java 17 for Quarkus plugins
4. Aligns with industry standards - Java 17 is the current LTS baseline

Required Changes

CI Workflows

• .github/workflows/pr-build.yml: Update java-version: '17'
• .github/workflows/merge-build.yml: Update java-version: 17

Runtime Environment

• Update Dockerfiles to use Java 17 base images
• Update Kubernetes/OpenShift deployment manifests
• Validate all dependent services are compatible with Java 17

Testing

• Run integration tests with Java 17
• Validate all services in the ecosystem

Impact

Currently blocked:

• PR Improve error messages in ErrorResponseExceptionMapper #110: "Improve error messages in ErrorResponseExceptionMapper"
• All new PRs will fail CI until this is resolved

Why local builds still work:

• Local Maven 3.8.8 doesn't strictly enforce plugin prerequisites
• CI uses Maven 3.9.6+ which enforces them

References

• Quarkus Maven Plugin: https://repo1.maven.org/maven2/io/quarkus/platform/quarkus-maven-plugin/3.6.9/
• Java 11 EOL Schedule: https://endoflife.date/java
• Maven Plugin Prerequisites: https://maven.apache.org/guides/plugin/guide-java-plugin-development.html