I have a maven multi-project setup, where one of the projects represents the "client API". Other applications/projects interacting with the service shall include the client API as dependencies.
The pom.xml of the client API references the parent pom, from where it inherits some dependencies. As a result, consumers of this client API currently also require access to this parent pom (which therefore also needs to be published).
Is this normal ("the way it should be")? Or is this avoidable? Is it possible to publish the client API as an independent package?
If you consume an artifact which is part of a multi module build then the consumer has to consume the parent of that artifact as well.
The question if it's correct to inherit dependencies (another discussion).
If you like to prevent the usage of a parent you have to split up the project and make a separate project for your API. But usually a separate project often has a parent as well (corporate; general parent etc.).
On the other hand I wouldn't recommend that cause if the api is in your project it's used and maintained their as well....which makes refactoring easier.