I posted a similar question on the new google group forum today: https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/drools-setup/aEG1s8MqgA0 The KieServicesImpl class lives in the drools-compiler jar file so I don't believe the compiler jar can be removed from the classpath. In my case that is fine but I don't think that the pre-compiled rules are loading at all and I am using code that is very similar to yours. Did you ever find a resolution for this? Thanks, Kyle -- View this message in context: http://drools.46999.n3.nabble.com/Loading-pre-compiled-rules-kbase-cache-... Sent from the Drools: User forum mailing list archive at Nabble.com.