detekt: Applying Detekt from external Gradle file fails with: Unable to load class 'com.android.build.gradle.BaseExtension'

Steps to Reproduce

I intended to upgrade detekt version from 1.9.1 to latest 1.16.0-RC1 in android project and build failed. The project uses classic groovy gradle files. It is nice to mention that i apply detekt as a seperate gradle script.

Here is the current detekt.gradle script

buildscript {
    ext.detektVersion = '1.9.1'
    repositories {
        jcenter()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath "io.gitlab.arturbosch.detekt:detekt-gradle-plugin:$detektVersion"
    }
}

apply plugin: io.gitlab.arturbosch.detekt.DetektPlugin

detekt {
    // some options
}

And that is how it’s applied into app apply from: '../scripts/detekt.gradle'

As i see 1.11.1 is the latest version which can be built without a problem. Starting 12.0.0 to the latest version, build fails. Gradle plugin versions are the latest one.

Stacktrace

FAILURE: Build failed with an exception.

* What went wrong:
A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
> Failed to notify project evaluation listener.
   > com/android/build/gradle/BaseExtension

* Exception is:
org.gradle.api.ProjectConfigurationException: A problem occurred configuring project ':app'.
Caused by: org.gradle.internal.event.ListenerNotificationException: Failed to notify project evaluation listener.
Caused by: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: com/android/build/gradle/BaseExtension
	at io.gitlab.arturbosch.detekt.internal.DetektAndroid$registerDetektAndroidTasks$1.execute(DetektAndroid.kt:59)
        at io.gitlab.arturbosch.detekt.internal.DetektAndroid$registerDetektAndroidTasks$1.execute(DetektAndroid.kt:21)
Caused by: java.lang.ClassNotFoundException: com.android.build.gradle.BaseExtension
        ... 139 more

* Get more help at https://help.gradle.org

BUILD FAILED in 435ms

Also #3476 #3260 these issues experienced similar exceptions as far as i can see.

Environment

• Version of detekt used: 1.16.0-RC1
• Version of Gradle used (if applicable): 4.1.2
• Version of Kotlin: 1.4.21