diff --git a/.github/workflows/build-and-publish.yaml b/.github/workflows/build-and-publish.yaml
index 04e4535..f8ddfca 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/build-and-publish.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/build-and-publish.yaml
@@ -8,7 +8,7 @@ on:
 jobs:
   build-and-publish:
     name: Java Gradle
-    uses: bakdata/ci-templates/.github/workflows/java-gradle-library.yaml@1.46.3
+    uses: bakdata/ci-templates/.github/workflows/java-gradle-library.yaml@1.56.0
     with:
       java-version: 17
     secrets:
diff --git a/.github/workflows/release.yaml b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
index ae9bee5..8d420bb 100644
--- a/.github/workflows/release.yaml
+++ b/.github/workflows/release.yaml
@@ -16,7 +16,7 @@ on:
 jobs:
   java-gradle-release:
     name: Java Gradle
-    uses: bakdata/ci-templates/.github/workflows/java-gradle-release.yaml@1.46.3
+    uses: bakdata/ci-templates/.github/workflows/java-gradle-release.yaml@1.56.0
     with:
       java-version: 17
       release-type: "${{ inputs.release-type }}"
diff --git a/build.gradle.kts b/build.gradle.kts
index fdda666..4e17976 100644
--- a/build.gradle.kts
+++ b/build.gradle.kts
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 plugins {
-    id("com.bakdata.release") version "1.4.0"
-    id("com.bakdata.sonar") version "1.4.0"
-    id("com.bakdata.sonatype") version "1.4.1"
-    id("io.freefair.lombok") version "8.4"
+    id("com.bakdata.release") version "1.6.1"
+    id("com.bakdata.sonar") version "1.6.1"
+    id("com.bakdata.sonatype") version "1.6.1"
+    id("io.freefair.lombok") version "8.11"
 }
 
 allprojects {
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar
index 943f0cb..7f93135 100644
Binary files a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar and b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.jar differ
diff --git a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
index 309b4e1..e0fd020 100644
--- a/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
+++ b/gradle/wrapper/gradle-wrapper.properties
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 distributionBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 distributionPath=wrapper/dists
-distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.4-all.zip
+distributionUrl=https\://services.gradle.org/distributions/gradle-8.12-all.zip
 networkTimeout=10000
+validateDistributionUrl=true
 zipStoreBase=GRADLE_USER_HOME
 zipStorePath=wrapper/dists
diff --git a/gradlew b/gradlew
index 65dcd68..1aa94a4 100755
--- a/gradlew
+++ b/gradlew
@@ -83,10 +83,8 @@ done
 # This is normally unused
 # shellcheck disable=SC2034
 APP_BASE_NAME=${0##*/}
-APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" && pwd -P ) || exit
-
-# Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
-DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
+# Discard cd standard output in case $CDPATH is set (https://github.com/gradle/gradle/issues/25036)
+APP_HOME=$( cd "${APP_HOME:-./}" > /dev/null && pwd -P ) || exit
 
 # Use the maximum available, or set MAX_FD != -1 to use that value.
 MAX_FD=maximum
@@ -133,10 +131,13 @@ location of your Java installation."
     fi
 else
     JAVACMD=java
-    which java >/dev/null 2>&1 || die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
+    if ! command -v java >/dev/null 2>&1
+    then
+        die "ERROR: JAVA_HOME is not set and no 'java' command could be found in your PATH.
 
 Please set the JAVA_HOME variable in your environment to match the
 location of your Java installation."
+    fi
 fi
 
 # Increase the maximum file descriptors if we can.
@@ -144,7 +145,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
     case $MAX_FD in #(
       max*)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -H is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045 
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         MAX_FD=$( ulimit -H -n ) ||
             warn "Could not query maximum file descriptor limit"
     esac
@@ -152,7 +153,7 @@ if ! "$cygwin" && ! "$darwin" && ! "$nonstop" ; then
       '' | soft) :;; #(
       *)
         # In POSIX sh, ulimit -n is undefined. That's why the result is checked to see if it worked.
-        # shellcheck disable=SC3045 
+        # shellcheck disable=SC2039,SC3045
         ulimit -n "$MAX_FD" ||
             warn "Could not set maximum file descriptor limit to $MAX_FD"
     esac
@@ -197,11 +198,15 @@ if "$cygwin" || "$msys" ; then
     done
 fi
 
-# Collect all arguments for the java command;
-#   * $DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, $JAVA_OPTS, and $GRADLE_OPTS can contain fragments of
-#     shell script including quotes and variable substitutions, so put them in
-#     double quotes to make sure that they get re-expanded; and
-#   * put everything else in single quotes, so that it's not re-expanded.
+
+# Add default JVM options here. You can also use JAVA_OPTS and GRADLE_OPTS to pass JVM options to this script.
+DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS='"-Xmx64m" "-Xms64m"'
+
+# Collect all arguments for the java command:
+#   * DEFAULT_JVM_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, JAVA_OPTS, and optsEnvironmentVar are not allowed to contain shell fragments,
+#     and any embedded shellness will be escaped.
+#   * For example: A user cannot expect ${Hostname} to be expanded, as it is an environment variable and will be
+#     treated as '${Hostname}' itself on the command line.
 
 set -- \
         "-Dorg.gradle.appname=$APP_BASE_NAME" \