I often use

--clean

when installing but, honestly, I have no idea what it does compared to a bare

install

command, only that it sometimes fixes my issues! The docs state '_Subsequent calls to

meltano install

will upgrade a plugin to its latest version, if any. To completely uninstall and reinstall a plugin, use

--clean

.'_ When should I used

--clean

or not? When would a complete reinstall be required? https://docs.meltano.com/reference/command-line-interface#install

Using

--clean

is usually mostly harmless. In the worst case it will be a bit slower that not using it, since it recreates the plugin's virtualenv and clears any cached files, like the catalog. That said, I'd instruct (and we should probably document this) using

--clean

when you change your plugin's variant. It also helps when you're running into problems with the cached catalog file.