If the maven plugin doesn’t install the gems properly you need to do this: 1. Download jruby-complete-1.6.4.jar ( http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/jruby/jruby-complete/1.6.4/jruby-complete-1.6.4.jar ) 2. Run java -jar jruby-complete-1.6.4.jar -S gem install json --version=1.6.1 --no-rdoc --no-ri -i C:\Users\adelinac\.m2\repository\.jruby java -jar jruby-complete-1.6.4.jar -S gem install cucumber --version=1.1.2 --no-rdoc --no-ri -i C:\Users\adelinac\.m2\repository\.jruby java -jar jruby-complete-1.6.4.jar -S gem install cuke4duke--version=0.4.4 --no-rdoc --no-ri -i C:\Users\adelinac\.m2\repository\.jruby With cucumber 1.1.3 it doesn't work. :)