<<<default>>> lifecycle is defined only with phases, <<without>> any associated plugin binding:
  plugins bindings for this lifecycle are {{{./default-bindings.html}defined separately for each packaging}}:

%{snippet|id=default|file=${project.basedir}/src/main/java/org/apache/maven/lifecycle/providers/DefaultLifecycleProvider.java}

* <<<clean>>> Lifecycle

  <<<clean>>> lifecycle phases are defined with their plugins bindings:

      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.

      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.

automatically terminate your rights under this License. However, parties
who have received copies, or rights, from you under this License will
not have their licenses terminated so long as such parties remain in
full compliance.

5. You are not required to accept this License, since you have not
signed it. However, nothing else grants you permission to modify or

We have a lifecycle mapping for the packaging of *jar* below. You see that for this packaging we have a *default* lifecycle and a list of phases where each phase is a comma separated list of goals to run and they are in the form groupId:artifactId:version.

<configuration>
  <lifecycles>
    <lifecycle>
      <id>default</id>
      <phases>
        <process-resources>org.apache.maven.plugins:maven-resources-plugin:resources</process-resources>

     1. plugin goal execution in a child is usually simply appended (at end): you can't try to insert in the middle of pre-existing inherited executions,

     2. append happens at plugin level first, then goal level, independently from phases.
        This means for example that adding pluginA:goal2 to pre-existing (pluginA:goal1, pluginB:goal) will lead to (pluginA:goal1, pluginA:goal2, pluginB:goal)

These particular phases in a plugin’s lifecycle can probably be generalized to all plugins so could be something implemented in all plugins. Here we could have the descriptor either point to methods for each of these phases to execute or we could create a lifecycle in Plexus for these phases.

For a particular application plugin there will be a declarative descriptor for that plugin type.

      "control" means (i) the power, direct or indirect, to cause the
      direction or management of such entity, whether by contract or
      otherwise, or (ii) ownership of fifty percent (50%) or more of the
      outstanding shares, or (iii) beneficial ownership of such entity.

      "You" (or "Your") shall mean an individual or Legal Entity
      exercising permissions granted by this License.