{"id":18995321,"date":"2026-08-17T09:19:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T09:19:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/topic\/required-plugin-in-header-issue\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T09:19:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T09:19:12","slug":"required-plugin-in-header-issue","status":"publish","type":"topic","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/topic\/required-plugin-in-header-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Required plugin in header issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">I have a number of custom plugins that are not published in the WordPress.org plugin directory. These have &#8220;Required by&#8221; and &#8220;Requires&#8221; in the plugin headers that work correctly as far as I can see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">With the release of PCP 2.1.0 a new warning is showing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Warning<br \/>&#8211; plugin_header_requires_plugins_not_in_directory<br \/>&#8211; The plugin declares &#8220;xxxx-xxx&#8221; as a required plugin, but it could not be found in the WordPress.org plugin directory<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Whilst the statement is technicaly true it is misleading as it implies that there is an issue with the &#8220;Required by&#8221; action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol>\n<li>Instead of &#8220;plugin_header_requires_plugins_not_in_directory&#8221; it would be better to report a new Warning Code of &#8220;plugin-not-found-in-WordPress.org-plugin-directory&#8221; for ALL custom plugins.  The message could contain details such as &#8220;The plugin header declares &#8220;xxxx-xxx&#8221; as a required plugin&#8221;<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>If the required plugin is not found within the WordPress server being tested then a Error Code of &#8220;plugin_header_requires_plugin_not_found&#8221; would be better to indicate an actual problem.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Maybe I have misunderstood what I am seeing and I do need to fix something &#8211; so please let me know.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"template":"","class_list":["post-18995321","topic","type-topic","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic\/18995321","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/topic"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topic\/18995321\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.org\/support\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18995321"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}