title: Is Maven mandatory for Clojure on the JVM?
body: <p>I'm a bit surprised at the sheer number of articles / blogs / questions / answers about Clojure mentioning Maven. </p>
  
  <p>In about ten years working as a Java dev, working on both desktop apps and webapps, I've never ever used Maven once (typically --and that's a personal opinion but I know some people do think the same-- the projects I've seen using Maven where including the "kitchen sink" whereas the ones built with a more "controlled" build process where way "cleaner" and producing smaller jars, faster build time, etc.).</p>
  
  <p>Is Maven a requirement when you want to build a Clojure app?</p>
  
  <p>Is Maven mandatory when you want to use Leiningen? For example, can I add external jars as dependencies to a leiningen project "manually", without needing Maven?</p>
  
  <p>I think my question boils down to this: can you, in the Clojure/JVM world get away without ever using Maven, just like you can build, test, package and ship both Java desktop, webapps and Android apps without ever needing Maven?</p>