Gradle counterpart to Maven archetype?

Use build init plugin:

~$ mkdir newproj
~$ cd newproj
~/newproj$ gradle init --type java-library

At the moment java-library, scala-library, groovy-library, java-application, pom and basic supported. The feature is incubating, thus it can be changed in future releases, so keep an eye on docs.

Gradle doesn't support this (yet). There's a open feature request opened already.