// explicitly fill in "defaults"?
        DefaultMavenExecutionRequest mavenExecutionRequest = new DefaultMavenExecutionRequest();
        mavenExecutionRequest.setRepositoryCache(new DefaultRepositoryCache());
        mavenExecutionRequest.setInteractiveMode(true);
        mavenExecutionRequest.setCacheTransferError(false);
        mavenExecutionRequest.setIgnoreInvalidArtifactDescriptor(true);

        MavenExecutionRequest request = executionRequestPopulator.populateDefaults(cliRequest.request);
        request.setRepositoryCache(new DefaultRepositoryCache()); // reset caches

        if (cliRequest.request.getRepositoryCache() == null) {
            cliRequest.request.setRepositoryCache(new DefaultRepositoryCache());
        }

        eventSpyDispatcher.onEvent(request);