I have a couple of threads open as I struggle to create a plugin that will install into another project. I have had some help, but I now realise part of my attempts to resolve are guesswork, and part of the guessing game is that I'm not completely clear as to the meaning of build, test etc. Here is my guess:
build - build the war file
runtime - running on the target platform, maybe run-app as well
compile - compiling Groovy/Java
test - running test-app
provided - not really sure
Some of these scopes also include others, but from what I have seen in some SO answers, there is some confusion over this. I think a clear definition of scopes with examples and meanings is missing from the User Guide. Is that a fair observation?