Crash in release build after updating to AGP 8.9.2 + Hilt 2.56.2: @HiltViewModel constructor stripped

[javadjafari1]

After updating both AGP to 8.9.2 and Hilt to 2.56.2, my app crashes in release builds due to a NoSuchMethodException when trying to create a @hiltviewmodel instance. The constructor appears to be stripped by R8.

Interestingly, this crash does not occur if I update only Hilt to 2.56.2, I found that this commit removed the keep rule:

-keepnames @dagger.hilt.android.lifecycle.HiltViewModel class * extends androidx.lifecycle.ViewModel

When I re-added this rule manually to my proguard-rules.pro, the crash was resolved.

Caused by: java.lang.NoSuchMethodException: <init> []
Caused by: java.lang.RuntimeException: Cannot create an instance of class x.x.x.MyViewModel
	at dagger.hilt.android.internal.lifecycle.HiltViewModelFactory.create(SourceFile:18)

Steps to Reproduce:

1. Use Hilt 2.56.1 + AGP 8.9.2
2. Create a simple @hiltviewmodel class with an injected constructor
3. Inject it in an @androidentrypoint activity using by viewModels()
4. Enable minification (minifyEnabled true) in release build
5. Build and run → crash on launch

[Chang-Eric]

Interestingly, this crash does not occur if I update only Hilt to 2.56.2

Just to clarify, are you saying that you can make this crash occur just by upgrading AGP to 8.9.2? Or is it only the combination of upgrading Hilt and AGP that causes the crash? Also, what is the previous version of AGP you are using?