diff --git a/core/pom.xml b/core/pom.xml
index 2b295101be..047c2b78d0 100644
--- a/core/pom.xml
+++ b/core/pom.xml
@@ -29,6 +29,7 @@
     <dependency>
       <groupId>com.google.errorprone</groupId>
       <artifactId>error_prone_annotations</artifactId>
+      <optional>true</optional>
     </dependency>
     <!--
      | ASM is embedded by default by the JarJar build profile