In an ear file user defined modules referenced from MANIFEST.MF are available to ejb jars but not to the ejb jars manifested jars. When the jar manifested in tries to access a modules classes a java.lang.ClassNotFoundException is raised. By the java jar spec the manifested jar should be in classpath of the jar manifesting it. I tried putting the modules Dependencies: reference in both the ejb jars MANIFEST.MF as well as the non ejb jars MANIFEST.MF. This is a run time error it deploys fine.