Answer for SO question: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/40398471/could-not-find-method-providedcompile-for-arguments-org-apache-tomcattomcat?noredirect=1#40398471

build.gradle

apply plugin: 'java'
apply plugin: 'war'
apply plugin: 'com.bmuschko.tomcat-base'

buildscript {
    repositories {
        jcenter()
        mavenCentral()
        maven {
            url "https://plugins.gradle.org/m2/"
        }
        maven { 
            url 'http://repo1.maven.org/maven2' 
        }
    }
    dependencies {
        classpath 'com.bmuschko:gradle-tomcat-plugin:2.2.5'
    }
}    

repositories {
    jcenter()
    mavenCentral()
}

configurations { providedCompile }

dependencies {
    providedCompile   'org.apache.tomcat:tomcat-servlet-api:7.0.37'

    compile group: 'org.apache.tomcat', name: 'tomcat-catalina', version: '8.5.0'
    compile group: 'log4j', name: 'log4j', version: '1.2.16'
    compile group: 'commons-io', name: 'commons-io', version: '2.5'
    compile group: 'org.apache.httpcomponents', name: 'httpclient', version: '4.4'
    compile group: 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core', name: 'jackson-annotations', version: '2.6.1'
    compile group: 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core', name: 'jackson-core', version: '2.6.1'
    compile group: 'com.fasterxml.jackson.core', name: 'jackson-databind', version: '2.6.1'
    //compile group: 'net.sf.json-lib', name: 'json-lib', version: '2.4' //<-- doesn't work
    compile group: 'javax.transaction', name: 'jta', version: '1.1'
    compile group: 'javax.xml.bind', name: 'jaxb-api', version: '2.2'
    compile group: 'com.sun.xml.bind', name: 'jaxb-impl', version: '2.2.5-5'
    compile group: 'com.sun.xml.bind', name: 'jaxb-xjc', version: '2.2'
    compile group: 'org.glassfish.jersey.core', name: 'jersey-client', version: '2.24'
    compile group: 'org.glassfish.jersey.core', name: 'jersey-common', version: '2.24'
    compile group: 'asm', name: 'asm', version: '3.1'
    compile group: 'org.codehaus.jackson', name: 'jackson-core-asl', version: '1.9.2'
    compile group: 'org.codehaus.jackson', name: 'jackson-jaxrs', version: '1.9.2'
    compile group: 'org.codehaus.jackson', name: 'jackson-mapper-asl', version: '1.9.2'
    compile group: 'org.codehaus.jackson', name: 'jackson-xc', version: '1.9.2'
    compile group: 'com.sun.jersey', name: 'jersey-client', version: '1.15'
    compile group: 'com.sun.jersey', name: 'jersey-core', version: '1.15'
    compile group: 'com.sun.jersey', name: 'jersey-json', version: '1.15'
    compile group: 'com.sun.jersey', name: 'jersey-server', version: '1.15'
    compile group: 'com.sun.jersey', name: 'jersey-servlet', version: '1.15'
    compile group: 'org.codehaus.jettison', name: 'jettison', version: '1.1'
    compile group: 'javax.ws.rs', name: 'jsr311-api', version: '1.1.1'
    compile files('mylocaljarfiles')
    testCompile 'junit:junit:4.12'
}

jar {
    baseName='endpoints'
    from ('bin')
}