OptionalDependencyItem is only there to wire together beans that actually existed - to be properly unwinded on undeploy. But I guess similar dependency item could be added from the beginning. You would only need to override unresolved() method, to only return true when the dependent bean exists. I just didn't introduce it, as it would always return true on isResolved() call. Where we actually only need it when dependency exists. View the original post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=viewtopic&p=4195372#... Reply to the post : http://www.jboss.com/index.html?module=bb&op=posting&mode=reply&a...