When I click the “Install add-on from disk” button, a Finder/file chooser window is opened. However, zip files are greyed out. If I unzip a zipped add-on (for instance, the ports add-on), I can open it, but that just navigates one directory deeper; it doesn’t let me install the add-on.
Am I missing something? Do I need to do something else to install an add-on from disk?
This isn’t documented well, but install from disk requires a .tar.gz archive (not .zip). Can you try installing that add-on as a tar?
No luck with .tar or .tar.gz:
This official Local add-on instructs to download a .zip, so it sure isn’t documented well 
Did you download the zip from the releases?
@tnorthcutt what version of Local are you using? I’m using 3.0.5 and there’s an extensions icon in the sidebar.
Clicking on Ports brings the following screen.
Clicking the Install Add-On button installs the add-on very nicely.
@afragen ha! I completely missed that this particular add-on is installable through the GUI.
But, I would still like the ability to install one from disk. I’ve tried a zip, a tar, a tar.gz, and a “regular” directory and they’re all greyed out.
Is anyone else able to install an add-on from disk?
@tnorthcutt you might try simply placing the unzipped folder in the Add-on directory and see if it shows up to be activated within Local. I think I’ve done that before.
So here’s the answer to the original question.
It’s broken. It really used to work. Now you have to do the following.
~/Library/Application\ Support/Local\ by\ Flywheel/addons directory, or your equivalentThe new add-on should now be available.
Thanks, @afragen!
Cant find the directory you mentioned (inW10) ,
“place it in the ~/Library/Application\ Support/Local\ by\ Flywheel/addons directory, or your equivalent”
and i’m also surprised that Local is not installed in the “traditionnal” c:/Program files but in the unusual LocalApp/program…
The above information is now outdated since Local 5.x
Still an issue as of 12/28/2020 on Local v5.9.7+5156. I downloaded the ports add-on and I think I need to convert it to a .tgz in order for it to be selectable in MacOS
Hey @rafdizzle, Welcome to the Local Community Forums!
The ports add-on is meant for the “Local Classic” version (3.3.0 and under) since it helps to manage the ports of the virtual machine that was being used.
More recent versions of Local don’t use a virtual machine, so a number of older addons no longer work. The addons page has a more recent list of addons that work with the new version of Local:
To address the original question of this thread, the only supported archive that Local can use when installing an addon is a .tgz file.
This is something that npm uses by default, so if you are trying to generate a new package from something like a source repo, you should be able to do something like:
npm install
npm pack