Failing my builds if code isn't formatted about ktlint-gradle HOT 3 CLOSED

You likely want to configure the plugin to ignoreFailures:
https://github.com/JLLeitschuh/ktlint-gradle#configuration

from ktlint-gradle.

This is not a solution, as this just disables all checking, I want to be able to check for formatting, I just want it to only be manual, rather than be automatic when building

from ktlint-gradle.

This flag set to true will allow the checks to run and reports to generate, but the build to still succeed even if the check finds lint errors. It does not disable checking.

The fact that the check task runs as dependency of gradle build and gradle check is a standard gradle convention. If you wish to not run checks as part of your build, you can run gradle test to just build and test

from ktlint-gradle.