Android Kotlin and Gradle issue

[rupertpople]

I have been in a loop the last couple of days trying to configure Kotlin and Gradle so I can develop my app for Android in react. Within my React app I get this error when running any gradle command:

The binary version of its metadata is 1.9.0, expected version is 1.6.0.

The class is loaded from C:/Users/user/.gradle/wrapper/dists/gradle-8.6-all/3mbtmo166bl6vumsh5k2lkq5h/gradle-8.6/lib/kotlin-stdlib-1.9.20.jar!/kotlin/collections/ArraysKt___ArraysKt.class

In my project level build. gradle I have:

buildscript {
    ext {
        buildToolsVersion = "34.0.0"
        minSdkVersion = 21
        compileSdkVersion = 34
        targetSdkVersion = 34
        ndkVersion = "23.1.7779620"
        kotlinVersion = '1.9.20'
    }
    repositories {
        google()
        mavenCentral()
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath("com.android.tools.build:gradle:8.6.0")
        classpath("com.facebook.react:react-native-gradle-plugin")
        classpath("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-gradle-plugin:1.9.20") // Enforce Kotlin 1.6.0
    }
}

My app level build.gradle:

apply plugin: "com.android.application"
apply plugin: "com.facebook.react"
apply plugin: "kotlin-android" // Ensure Kotlin support
apply plugin: "kotlin-kapt"

import com.android.build.OutputFile

def enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture = false
def enableProguardInReleaseBuilds = false
def jscFlavor = 'org.webkit:android-jsc:+'
def reactNativeArchitectures() {
    def value = project.getProperties().get("reactNativeArchitectures")
    return value ? value.split(",") : ["armeabi-v7a", "x86", "x86_64", "arm64-v8a"]
}

android {
    compileSdkVersion 34
    ndkVersion "23.1.7779620"

    namespace "com.project"

    defaultConfig {
        applicationId "com.project"
        minSdkVersion 21
        targetSdkVersion 34
        versionCode 1
        versionName "1.0"
    }

    splits {
        abi {
            reset()
            enable enableSeparateBuildPerCPUArchitecture
            universalApk false
            include(*reactNativeArchitectures())
        }
    }

    signingConfigs {
        debug {
            storeFile file('debug.keystore')
            storePassword 'android'
            keyAlias 'androiddebugkey'
            keyPassword 'android'
        }
    }

    buildTypes {
        debug {
            signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
        }
        release {
            signingConfig signingConfigs.debug
            minifyEnabled enableProguardInReleaseBuilds
            proguardFiles getDefaultProguardFile("proguard-android.txt"), "proguard-rules.pro"
        }
    }

    applicationVariants.all { variant ->
        variant.outputs.each { output ->
            def versionCodes = ["armeabi-v7a": 1, "x86": 2, "arm64-v8a": 3, "x86_64": 4]
            def abi = output.getFilter(OutputFile.ABI)
            if (abi != null) {
                output.versionCodeOverride =
                        defaultConfig.versionCode * 1000 + versionCodes.get(abi)
            }
        }
    }
}

dependencies {
    implementation("com.facebook.react:react-android")
    implementation("androidx.swiperefreshlayout:swiperefreshlayout:1.0.0")

    debugImplementation("com.facebook.flipper:flipper:0.185.0")
    debugImplementation("com.facebook.flipper:flipper-network-plugin:0.185.0") {
        exclude group: 'com.squareup.okhttp3', module: 'okhttp'
    }
    debugImplementation("com.facebook.flipper:flipper-fresco-plugin:0.185.0")

    implementation("org.jetbrains.kotlin:kotlin-stdlib:1.9.20")

    if (hermesEnabled.toBoolean()) {
        implementation("com.facebook.react:hermes-android")
    } else {
        implementation jscFlavor
    }
}

apply from: file("../../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle")
applyNativeModulesAppBuildGradle(project)

gradle-wrapper.properties:

distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
distributionPath=wrapper/dists
distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.6-all.zip
zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
zipStorePath=wrapper/dists

Project-wide Gradle settings.

org.gradle.jvmargs=-Xmx2048m -XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=512m
android.useAndroidX=true

android.enableJetifier=true

FLIPPER_VERSION=0.125.0
reactNativeArchitectures=armeabi-v7a,arm64-v8a,x86,x86_64


newArchEnabled=false
hermesEnabled=true
kotlinVersion=1.9.20
settings.gradle:

rootProject.name = 'Project'
apply from: file("../node_modules/@react-native-community/cli-platform-android/native_modules.gradle"); applyNativeModulesSettingsGradle(settings)
include ':app'
includeBuild('../node_modules/react-native-gradle-plugin')