# Watch for changes does not appear to monitor the plugin manifest **URL:** \ **Category:** UXP Developer Tool\ **Created:** [November 20, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521 "2022-11-20T17:55:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Velara](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/velara/32/1278_2.png) [@Velara](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Velara)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 5:55pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/1 "2022-11-20T17:55:46Z")
I noticed in my tests that the _ **Watch for changes** _ option in UDT does not check for changes to the plugin manifest, ![image](https://us1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/uploads/xdplugins/original/2X/2/2303050441604d6b1363d0a2e55563c4c11c7615.png) Can anyone verify this? Load your plugin with UDT and then make changes to the manifest. See if the changes are loaded in? If this is true is this a bug or is there a reason for it? ---
**Author:** ![Jarda](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/jarda/32/1909_2.png) [@Jarda](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Jarda)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 6:22pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/2 "2022-11-20T18:22:22Z")
Do you use it with or without Webpack in Watch mode? If you rely on webpack then I had to add plugin as used here: [https://github.com/jardicc/alchemist/blob/dev3/webpack.config.js#L66](https://github.com/jardicc/alchemist/blob/dev3/webpack.config.js#L66) > **[webpack-watch-external-files-plugin](https://www.npmjs.com/package/webpack-watch-external-files-plugin?activeTab=readme)** > > Webpack plugin to watch external files. Latest version: 3.1.0, last published: 5 months ago. Start using webpack-watch-external-files-plugin in your project by running \`npm i webpack-watch-external-files-plugin\`. There is 1 other project in the npm... But it might not solve all issues 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Velara](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/velara/32/1278_2.png) [@Velara](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Velara)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 6:28pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/3 "2022-11-20T18:28:12Z")
HI Jarda, I use vanilla JS. LOL. It watches my plugin folder great. But when I make changes to the plugin manifest it does not seem to notice. ---
**Author:** ![Jarda](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/jarda/32/1909_2.png) [@Jarda](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Jarda)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 6:34pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/4 "2022-11-20T18:34:36Z")
Ok… so in that case it is up to DevTool to add support also for manifest. It would be handy for me too. ---
**Author:** ![Karmalakas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/karmalakas/32/1048_2.png) [@Karmalakas](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Karmalakas)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 9:15pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/5 "2022-11-20T21:15:06Z")
Same here. IIRC even plugin refresh doesn’t help and you have to reload it. It kinda makes sense, because plugin is basically loaded from manifest, so I doubt watcher could be added for manifest easily. I mean, unless UDT will manage to fully reload the plugin from changed manifest and again turn watcher back on and also open dev tools of it was open, then I don’t see support for watching manifest coming any time soon ---
**Author:** ![Jarda](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/jarda/32/1909_2.png) [@Jarda](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Jarda)\ **Post date:** [November 20, 2022, 10:06pm UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/6 "2022-11-20T22:06:21Z")
Maybe it could be a separate feature. Or additional settings. ---
**Author:** ![Karmalakas](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/karmalakas/32/1048_2.png) [@Karmalakas](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Karmalakas)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 6:59am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/7 "2022-11-21T06:59:25Z")
I don’t think it’s worth implementing. I believe technical challenge is way too big compared to the value it would bring. How often do you change the manifest while developing? At least for me it would be almost useless - I set up manifest first, then develop a plugin, then update manifest if needed. So mostly it’s two times I edit manifest. OK, maybe third time when I do all the icons for plugin and panels 🤔 Yes, I’ve been there, when I got a bit surprised when I didn’t see changes, but it was maybe a couple of times at the very beginning of development. Maybe some alert would be nice if UDT detects manifest change, but I don’t know if would want for plugin to be completely reloaded (refresh is different) without my knowledge 😕 ---
**Author:** ![Jarda](https://sea1.discourse-cdn.com/flex015/user_avatar/forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/jarda/32/1909_2.png) [@Jarda](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/u/Jarda)\ **Post date:** [November 21, 2022, 8:08am UTC](https://forums.creativeclouddeveloper.com/t/watch-for-changes-does-not-appear-to-monitor-the-plugin-manifest/5521/8 "2022-11-21T08:08:41Z")
> [@Karmalakas](#): > > but I don’t know if would want for plugin to be completely reloaded (refresh is different) without my knowledge 😕 Therefore separate checkbox in the context menu 😃 I don’t see it as that much complicated… add one file into file watcher. Then trigger unload and load command. That is it. When I tried to set up permissions correctly for localhost communication and changed it quite often because there was a bug and was trying to find how to write it correctly 😃