diff --git a/rewrite-gradle/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleDependencyConfiguration.java b/rewrite-gradle/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleDependencyConfiguration.java
index b944ebbc832..8e045820275 100644
--- a/rewrite-gradle/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleDependencyConfiguration.java
+++ b/rewrite-gradle/src/main/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleDependencyConfiguration.java
@@ -439,8 +439,13 @@ public List<GradleDependencyConfiguration> allExtendsFrom() {
         return null;
     }
 
+    /**
+     * Find a direct dependency of this configuration matching the given coordinates. This does not walk into the
+     * transitive closure of each direct dependency; use {@link #getResolved()} and iterate there if you need to
+     * match a transitive. Uses {@link #getDirectResolvedShallow()} so it does not trigger a full transitive download.
+     */
     public @Nullable ResolvedDependency findResolvedDependency(@Nullable String groupId, String artifactId) {
-        for (ResolvedDependency d : getDirectResolved()) {
+        for (ResolvedDependency d : getDirectResolvedShallow()) {
             ResolvedDependency dependency = d.findDependency(groupId == null ? "" : groupId, artifactId);
             if (dependency != null) {
                 return dependency;
diff --git a/rewrite-gradle/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleProjectTest.java b/rewrite-gradle/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleProjectTest.java
index 6f51f624b7a..d87842b667f 100644
--- a/rewrite-gradle/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleProjectTest.java
+++ b/rewrite-gradle/src/test/java/org/openrewrite/gradle/marker/GradleProjectTest.java
@@ -554,10 +554,16 @@ void changeConstraint() {
                   .extracting(GradleDependencyConstraint::getRequiredVersion)
                   .isEqualTo("2.19.2");
 
-                // Verify the runtimeClasspath has the updated resolved version
+                // Verify the runtimeClasspath has the updated resolved version. jackson-databind is a transitive
+                // of rewrite-core, so search the flat resolved list rather than findResolvedDependency (which is
+                // direct-only).
                 GradleDependencyConfiguration runtimeClasspath = updated.getConfiguration("runtimeClasspath");
                 assertThat(runtimeClasspath).isNotNull();
-                ResolvedDependency resolvedJackson = runtimeClasspath.findResolvedDependency("com.fasterxml.jackson.core", "jackson-databind");
+                ResolvedDependency resolvedJackson = runtimeClasspath.getResolved().stream()
+                  .filter(d -> "com.fasterxml.jackson.core".equals(d.getGroupId()) &&
+                    "jackson-databind".equals(d.getArtifactId()))
+                  .findFirst()
+                  .orElse(null);
                 assertThat(resolvedJackson).isNotNull()
                   .extracting(ResolvedDependency::getVersion)
                   .as("jackson-databind should be resolved to the constrained version")