I get this all the time with dependencies. While I have no explanation for it, here are the common patterns that recur over and over.
Often, the code given by the plugin/library developer is wrong. When I go to their maven repository the version they have listed doesn't exist in the repository. I just update it to the right version and then boom it works. Also, for some reason some plugins work when I put them in plugins.sbt (the suggested place). While others only work if I stick them in project/build.sbt. It doesn't make sense, but as soon as I move it there it suddenly installs and runs. Combined dependency listings. If you are hacking stuff together and stick a dependency in both build.scala and build.sbt, it will throw a generic error that is completely unhelpful. Remove one or the other and suddenly it runs.
Also keep in mind that % causes a scala version to be appended to the name of it. whereas %% defines the name explicitly. Sometimes this causes errors when using % because it doesn't have a version available for that scala version. Go to the repository and enter the name of the package explicitly to fix this.