The object in this prebuilt directory is a copy of the jar from platform/tools/base From the commit 4614694b99a80f2c5498c2304762406389b2e852 Note: Before dropping the ddmlib-prebuilt.jar, please run the following command to strip the jar manifest file, which causes hidden dependency on jars in the Class-Path. $ zip -d ddmlib-prebuilt.jar META-INF/MANIFEST.MF