Applying DependencyResolutionManagement configuration from a java gradle plugin to define a Version Catalog

Question

I am trying to develop a grade plugin in java to configure version catalogs. The plugin can configure a version catalog in one of two ways.

1. Add a file to libs.versions.toml to the dependent projects gradle folder.
2. Apply a version catalog as part of the plugin by configuring it something like this. Assume libs.versions.toml file is available as part of the plugin source.

toml file I defined.

[versions]
groovy = "3.0.5"
checkstyle = "8.37"

[libraries]
groovy-core = { module = "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy", version.ref = "groovy" }
groovy-json = { module = "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-json", version.ref = "groovy" }
groovy-nio = { module = "org.codehaus.groovy:groovy-nio", version.ref = "groovy" }
commons-lang3 = { group = "org.apache.commons", name = "commons-lang3", version = { strictly = "[3.8, 4.0[", prefer="3.9" } }

[bundles]
groovy = ["groovy-core", "groovy-json", "groovy-nio"]

[plugins]
jmh = { id = "me.champeau.jmh", version = "0.6.5" }

Plugin

public class SettingsSupportPlugin implements Plugin<Settings> {
  @Override
  public void apply(@Nonnull Settings settings) {
    configureDependencyResolution(settings);
  }

  private void configureDependencyResolution(Settings settings) {
    copyFileFromJar("libs.versions.toml", "build/libs.versions.toml");
    settings.getGradle().rootProject((rootProject) -> {
      FileCollection tomlFile = rootProject.files("build/libs.versions.toml");
      settings.dependencyResolutionManagement(
          dependencyResolutionManagement -> dependencyResolutionManagement.versionCatalogs(
              versionCatalogContainer -> versionCatalogContainer.register("libs",
                  versionCatalogBuilder -> versionCatalogBuilder.from(tomlFile))));
    });
  }
}

After publishing the plugin, and applying it in dependent projects settings.gradle file. when I try to access one of the dependency using implementation libs.groovy.core I run into the issue

> Could not get unknown property 'libs' for object of type org.gradle.api.internal.artifacts.dsl.dependencies.DefaultDependencyHandler.

My initial guess was the libs version catalog is not created. So, I added a libs.versions.toml file in gradle directory of the dependent project, along with applying the above plugin (option 1+ 2). This gives me an error

Cannot add a VersionCatalogBuilder with name 'libs' as a VersionCatalogBuilder with that name already exists.

This shows the version catalog with the name libs is being created by the plugin but somehow I am not able to reference it in my dependent project. I am not sure what I am doing wrong here.

Any thoughts?

Esmeraldaesmerelda