https://github.com/apache/servicemix-specs/tree/master/jsr303-api-1.1.0? This is a device that addresses the provider-neutral problems with the javax.validation API.

Hum, this only seems to contain the Validation class? So one would need that one in addition to the original spec JAR? If so, I think I'd prefer the approach of using the explicit provider resolver demonstrated in our tests (until it's fixed in the upstream spec JAR).

https://github.com/apache/servicemix-bundles/tree/master/hibernate-validator-5.0.2.Final is an incomplete solution, in that it does not solve the EL problem. However, it does avoid the non-OSGi dependencies. Would you like a patch that does what it does with OSGi metadata?

Not sure what it does with OSGi metadata. Some more details would be helpful.

That leaves the problem of EL. One approach is to add dynamic package imports for any well-known EL providers. I'm puzzled that there does not seem to be a servicemix 'spec' jar for this, but I might have missed it.

The javax.el-api-x.y.z.jar contains the required manifest. Tbh. I am not exactly sure what the problem here is; It's a feature defined by Bean Validation, and in case you don't want to use it, just use the other message interpolator suggested above.