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Listing on the Hub

Listing a connector on Meltano Hub is what makes it installable by name. Once a plugin definition exists on the Hub, anyone can run meltano add tap-yourthing and get a working plugin with its settings and capabilities already described, instead of writing that metadata themselves.

Getting listed is free, and you don't have to be the author of the connector to request it.

Listing is optional. A connector that isn't on the Hub is still perfectly usable - add it with --from-ref, --custom, or a definition in meltano.yml. Listing it on the Hub is about discoverability for other people, not about whether it works for you.

Option 1 - Request it​

The quickest route, and the right one if you'd rather not work with the Hub repository directly.

Open a new plugin request on the meltano/hub repository. The issue template asks for the details needed to build the definition - chiefly the repository URL of the tap or target.

A member of the Meltano team, or a community contributor, will pick it up and add it for you.

Option 2 - Contribute it yourself​

Plugin definitions live in the meltano/hub repository as YAML files under _data/meltano/<plugin_type>/<plugin_name>/<variant>.yml - for example _data/meltano/extractors/tap-slack/meltanolabs.yml. Adding a plugin means adding one of those files and opening a pull request.

The repository ships a hub-utils CLI that generates the file for you, prompting for anything it can't work out on its own. For a connector built with the Meltano Singer SDK, it installs the package into a temporary environment, runs --about, and populates the settings, capabilities and keywords from the output, so there's usually very little left to fill in by hand.

Walkthrough​

# 1. Clone the Hub repository and branch
git clone https://github.com/meltano/hub.git
cd hub
git checkout -b add-tap-slack

# 2. Add the plugin, answering the prompts
uv run hub-utils add

hub-utils add prompts for the plugin name, type, pip_url, namespace and executable, defaulting each from the repository URL you give it, then writes the definition and prints its path:

_data/meltano/extractors/tap-slack/meltanolabs.yml
Adds extractors tap-slack (meltanolabs)

Review that file, then tidy up the formatting and open a pull request:

# 3. Fix any YAML lint violations
uv run hub-utils yamllint fix _data/meltano/extractors/tap-slack/meltanolabs.yml

# 4. Commit and open a PR against meltano/hub
git add _data/meltano/extractors/tap-slack/meltanolabs.yml
git commit -m "Add tap-slack (meltanolabs)"
git push --set-upstream origin add-tap-slack

To update a definition that already exists rather than add a new one, use uv run hub-utils update-definition instead.

See CONTRIBUTING.md in the Hub repository for the complete reference, including command options, how non-SDK connectors are handled, and how to preview the Hub site locally before opening the PR.

Adding a variant of an existing plugin​

A variant is an independent implementation of the same connector. If a plugin with your connector's name already exists on the Hub, your submission becomes a new variant of it rather than a new plugin, and the process is the same - hub-utils add will prompt for the variant name, which is conventionally the GitHub owner of the repository.

Before adding one, it's worth reading Avoid creating a new variant when possible. Contributing your change back to the existing variant is usually better for everyone, yourself included.

Making a submission that will be useful​

The Hub renders whatever your definition declares, so the quality of the listing follows from the quality of the connector's own metadata:

  • Document every setting. Descriptions and labels are what appear on the Hub's plugin page, and configuration is the single most common thing people get stuck on.
  • Mark sensitive settings with sensitive: true so they're handled as credentials.
  • Declare accurate capabilities, such as state for incremental replication and catalog for stream selection.
  • Keep --about output current if the connector is SDK-based, since that's where the definition is derived from.

The plugin definition syntax reference documents every property a definition can set.

Next steps​

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