# Should I name GH plugin repository with a prefix or not?

**URL:** <https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/should-i-name-gh-plugin-repository-with-a-prefix-or-not/72913>\
**Category:** Packer\
**Created:** [January 29, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/should-i-name-gh-plugin-repository-with-a-prefix-or-not/72913 "2025-01-29T13:48:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lzap](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/hashicorp/user_avatar/discuss.hashicorp.com/lzap/32/44635_2.png) [@lzap](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/u/lzap)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 1:48pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/should-i-name-gh-plugin-repository-with-a-prefix-or-not/72913/1 "2025-01-29T13:48:47Z")

</div>

Hey,

the docs say this:

…_.requires you to publish your plugin in a GitHub repo with the name `packer-plugin-*` where \* represents the name of your plugin…_

So I did exactly that, battled through outdated release GHA and config until I finally made a release. Now, when I want to test this packer says:

```auto
Error: Failed to parse source

  on _bootc_release_zzzap.pkr.hcl line 3, in packer:
   3: image-builder = {
   4: version = ">= 0.0.5"
   5: source = "github.com/lzap/packer-plugin-image-builder"
   6: }

Plugin source has a type with the prefix "packer-plugin-", which isn't valid.
Although that prefix is often used in the names of version control repositories
for Packer plugins, plugin source strings should not include it.

Did you mean "image-builder"?

```

I am confused.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![lzap](https://sea2.discourse-cdn.com/hashicorp/user_avatar/discuss.hashicorp.com/lzap/32/44635_2.png) [@lzap](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/u/lzap)\
**Post date:** [January 29, 2025, 2:00pm UTC](https://discuss.hashicorp.com/t/should-i-name-gh-plugin-repository-with-a-prefix-or-not/72913/2 "2025-01-29T14:00:27Z")

</div>

Ah I think I must use the url without the prefix. When I do it, I just get a confusing error because my repo had some tags without a release and the error message made no sense:

```auto
$ packer init _bootc_release_zzzap.pkr.hcl 
Failed getting the "github.com/lzap/image-builder" plugin:
2 errors occurred:
        * could not find a local nor a remote checksum for plugin "github.com/lzap/image-builder" ">= 0.0.1"
        * could not install any compatible version of plugin "github.com/lzap/image-builder"

```

Can someone explain to me what exactly my release is missing?

> **[Releases · lzap/packer-plugin-image-builder](https://github.com/lzap/packer-plugin-image-builder/releases)**
>
> WIP version of the new ibpacker plugin. Contribute to lzap/packer-plugin-image-builder development by creating an account on GitHub.