The Snyk Gradle plugin allows developers to scan their dependencies for known security vulnerabilities as part of their build cycle, making it easier to identify and address potential issues in their project. To use the plugin, a Snyk account is required, and the API key can be set either directly in the Gradle file or as an environment variable. The plugin offers various configuration options, such as setting the severity threshold, enabling automatic downloads of the Snyk CLI, and specifying extra arguments to the CLI. Two new tasks are made available: `snyk-test` for a scan of dependencies and `snyk-monitor` for monitoring dependencies over time. These tasks can be chained with other existing tasks to ensure scans happen automatically during build cycles.