For my project, I have used the below configuration to generate the thin jar

<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-jar-plugin</artifactId>
    <configuration>
        <archive>
            <manifest>
                <mainClass>
                    com.aaa.bbb.MainClass
                </mainClass>
            </manifest>
        </archive>
    </configuration>
</plugin>
<plugin>
    <groupId>org.apache.maven.plugins</groupId>
    <artifactId>maven-dependency-plugin</artifactId>
    <executions>
        <execution>
            <id>copy-dependencies</id>
            <phase>package</phase>
            <goals>
                <goal>copy-dependencies</goal>
            </goals>
            <configuration>
                <outputDirectory>${project.build.directory}/libs</outputDirectory>
                <includeScope>compile</includeScope>
            </configuration>
        </execution>
    </executions>
</plugin>

My jar is created without the dependent jars and using maven copy commands all the jars get copied into the respective folders.

Going forward I need to separate some selected jars from external jars, I have below two options

1. I want to add some selected jars(some other jars from the related project) to be a part of the main jar and exclude the external jars like hibernate, springfox, etc.. creating a semi-fat jar. But don't know to add some selected jars to be a part of main jar.
2. The selected jars can be placed in a folder inside the target folder(the main jar is still a thin jar) and then use the maven copy command to download only the external jars.