SpringApplication.run main method

Using:

@ComponentScan
@EnableAutoConfiguration
public class Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);  

        //do your ReconTool stuff
    }
}

will work in all circumstances. Whether you want to launch the application from the IDE, or the build tool.

Using maven just use mvn spring-boot:run

while in gradle it would be gradle bootRun

An alternative to adding code under the run method, is to have a Spring Bean that implements CommandLineRunner. That would look like:

@Component
public class ReconTool implements CommandLineRunner {

    @Override
    public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
       //implement your business logic here
    }
}

Check out this guide from Spring's official guide repository.

The full Spring Boot documentation can be found here

You need to run SpringApplication.run() because this method starts whole Spring Framework. Code below integrates your main() with Spring Boot.

Application.java

@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
    }
}

ReconTool.java

@Component
public class ReconTool implements CommandLineRunner {

    @Override
    public void run(String... args) throws Exception {
        main(args);
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        // Recon Logic
    }
}

Why not SpringApplication.run(ReconTool.class, args)

Because this way spring is not fully configured (no component scan etc.). Only bean defined in run() is created (ReconTool).

Example project: https://github.com/mariuszs/spring-run-magic