diff --git a/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py b/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
index 06895c9..be50294 100755
--- a/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
+++ b/dev-tools/scripts/smokeTestRelease.py
@@ -609,6 +609,9 @@
         print('      %s' % line.strip())
       raise RuntimeError('source release has WARs...')
 
+    print('    initialize local settings for Gradle...')
+    java.run_java11('./gradlew --no-daemon localSettings', '%s/localsettings.log' % unpackPath)
+
     validateCmd = './gradlew --no-daemon check -p lucene/documentation'
     print('    run "%s"' % validateCmd)
     java.run_java11(validateCmd, '%s/validate.log' % unpackPath)