The Android SDK version of November 2015 requires some manual tweaks in order to be able to use Gradle as the build system for an Android project.

Install Gradle

brew install gradle

Note: requires setting of the JAVA_HOME environment variable. Find out Java Home by executing /usr/libexec/java_home.

Create Android Project

android create project \
  -p my/root/dir    \
  -n MyProjectName  \
  -a MyActivity     \
  -k my.package     \
  -t 1              \
  -g                \
  -v 1.3.1

-t: ID of target Android platform (list available target platforms with android list target)

-g: use Gradle

-v: version of desired Android Plugin for Gradle. Find out existing versions of on http://developer.android.com/tools/revisions/gradle-plugin.html.

Help: android -h create project

Change Gradle Version for Android Project

In gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties change

distributionUrl=http\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-1.12-all.zip

to

distributionUrl=http\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-2.8-all.zip

or any newer Gradle version that is required for the selected version of the Android Plugin for Gradle.

Adapt Gradle Build File

In build.gradle change

runProguard false

to

minifyEnabled false

Build (now it should work)

./gradlew assembleDebug