Create Pipelines programmatically?

[Matt Q]

Is there an existing Java API for generating Jenkins Pipelines programmatically? 

I tried to execute a simple declarative pipeline as a Groovy Postbuild step:

#!/usr/bin/env groovy
pipeline {
agent any

stages {

stage('Test Stage') {

steps {

echo '----- In Test Stage------'

}

}

}

}

in Java code as follows:

import org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.SecureGroovyScript;
import org.jvnet.hudson.plugins.groovypostbuild.GroovyPostbuildRecorder;
import hudson.model.Project;

...

String pipeScript = new String("script above as a String");
SecureGroovyScript secureScript = new SecureGroovyScript(pipeScript, /*sandbox*/false, /*classpath*/null);
GroovyPostbuildRecorder groovy = new GroovyPostbuildRecorder(secureScript, /*behaviour*/2, /*matrix parent*/false);
myProject.getPublishersList().add(groovy);

This results in the stacktrace:

ERROR: Failed to evaluate groovy script.
groovy.lang.MissingMethodException: No signature of method: Script1.pipeline() is applicable for argument types: (Script1$_run_closure1) values: [Script1$_run_closure1@111b5ac]
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.ScriptBytecodeAdapter.unwrap(ScriptBytecodeAdapter.java:58)
	at groovy.lang.GroovyObject$invokeMethod.call(Unknown Source)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCall(CallSiteArray.java:48)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.call(AbstractCallSite.java:113)
	at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker$1.call(Checker.java:151)
	at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.GroovyInterceptor.onMethodCall(GroovyInterceptor.java:21)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.SandboxInterceptor.onMethodCall(SandboxInterceptor.java:75)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.SandboxInterceptor.onMethodCall(SandboxInterceptor.java:68)
	at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker$1.call(Checker.java:149)
	at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker.checkedCall(Checker.java:146)
	at org.kohsuke.groovy.sandbox.impl.Checker$checkedCall.callStatic(Unknown Source)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.CallSiteArray.defaultCallStatic(CallSiteArray.java:56)
	at org.codehaus.groovy.runtime.callsite.AbstractCallSite.callStatic(AbstractCallSite.java:194)
	at Script1.run(Script1.groovy:2)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.GroovySandbox.run(GroovySandbox.java:139)
	at org.jenkinsci.plugins.scriptsecurity.sandbox.groovy.SecureGroovyScript.evaluate(SecureGroovyScript.java:161)
	at org.jvnet.hudson.plugins.groovypostbuild.GroovyPostbuildRecorder.perform(GroovyPostbuildRecorder.java:362)
	at hudson.tasks.BuildStepMonitor$1.perform(BuildStepMonitor.java:20)
	at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.perform(AbstractBuild.java:779)
	at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.performAllBuildSteps(AbstractBuild.java:720)
	at hudson.model.Build$BuildExecution.post2(Build.java:185)
	at hudson.model.AbstractBuild$AbstractBuildExecution.post(AbstractBuild.java:665)
	at hudson.model.Run.execute(Run.java:1766)
	at com.tikal.jenkins.plugins.multijob.MultiJobBuild.run(MultiJobBuild.java:73)
	at hudson.model.ResourceController.execute(ResourceController.java:98)
	at hudson.model.Executor.run(Executor.java:410)
Build step 'Groovy Postbuild' marked build as failure
Finished: FAILURE

I assume this is because the Domain Specific Language used for Pipelines is similar to but not actually Groovy. Is there an existing plugin or API to accomplish this?

Thanks,

-Matt