Happy to help with the documentation surrounding this: I have developed a tap and it is in its own directory and is built from the cookiecutter template. In another directory I have Meltano installed in its own directory and a different environment. However, I cannot install the custom tap in my Meltano project. I get:

- Warning! Plugin 'tap-woocommerce' is not installable.

The extractor in the meltano.yml that was generated using the cookiecutter file looks like :

- name: tap-woocommerce
    namespace: tap_woocommerce
    executable: /Users/jazzy/Documents/git/gitlab-work/singer-sdk/tap-woocommerce/tap-woocommerce.sh
    capabilities:
    - state
    - catalog
    - discover
    settings:
    - name: consumer_key
      kind: password
    - name: consumer_secret
      kind: password
    - name: url
    - name: user_agent
    - name: after
    config:
      after: '2021-05-16T08:00:25'
      consumer_key: null
      consumer_secret: null
      url: ''
      user_agent: ''

When using the command:

meltano add --custom extractor tap-woocommerce

I get the following prompts: - (namespace) [tap_woocommerce]: - (pip_url) [tap-woocommerce]: The instructions for local directory are: - local directory, in editable/development mode: -e extract/tap-woocommerce - I assumed this would be -e /Users/jazzy/Documents/git/gitlab-work/singer-sdk/tap-woocommerce/tap-woocommerce.sh and have also tried - /Users/jazzy/Documents/git/gitlab-work/singer-sdk/tap-woocommerce/tap-woocommerce.sh - (executable) [tap-woocommerce]: I've tried a few different combinations in each of the prompts but unsure what I need to do to make it installable.

Not sure how to make this more discoverable I"m sure the Meltano team would take tips https://meltano.com/tutorials/create-a-custom-extractor.html walks through how to do this

executable

is the magic I believe

@jazzy - Thanks for logging this. I believe the issue you are seeing is the same as we have here: Support custom non-pip plugins whose executables are already present on the system by specifying `executable` but no `pip_url` (#2341) · Issues · meltano / Meltano · GitLab

Thanks @visch I have been using that document but it just says use meltano install command when you add a new plugin and it fails there And thanks @aaronsteers I'll keep an eye on that issue

Mine works with that setup so I'm not sure what to tell you 🤷

🥴 With Meltano installed in a different repo and the same command?

meltano add --custom extractor tap-woocommerce (your tap here)

The steps https://meltano.com/tutorials/create-a-custom-extractor.html#passing-sensitive-setting-values don't use meltano add

I managed to get it installed by adding in pip_url and just used the stripe git path and invoked the tap locally

Okay, thanks for the update. Hopefully that works itself out but let us know if not. 🙂

Yeah it worked! First tap developed and output to JSON. I had left a print statement of the params I was sending to the tap in, which was causing a single quote double quote issue for JSONL I've also created my first issue and created a branch to update some of the docs based on my experience 😄

Issues and docs updates are always very much appreciated! Thanks, @jazzy!

I can't push to the repo though so assume the process is to fork?

Yes, forking is required to push back the MR. Sorry, I know the extra step is a pain but it’s required for security. 🤷

Totally makes sense! Will open an issue and request to update this in the contribution docs as well as was not clear to me