# Npm package cannot be found in JupyterLab's extension manager search

**URL:** <https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/npm-package-cannot-be-found-in-jupyterlabs-extension-manager-search/15841>\
**Category:** extensions\
**Created:** [September 19, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/npm-package-cannot-be-found-in-jupyterlabs-extension-manager-search/15841 "2022-09-19T13:44:21Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![kaiyaointel](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/kaiyaointel/32/7977_2.png) [@kaiyaointel](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/kaiyaointel)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 1:44pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/npm-package-cannot-be-found-in-jupyterlabs-extension-manager-search/15841/1 "2022-09-19T13:44:21Z")

</div>

Hi, I’m a new developer of jupyter extension for my project. Just wondering, according to the doc, if I publish my extension as NPM package I should be able to see it in the extension manager. However, **I published NPM but searched the name of my NPM package in JupyterLab’s extension manager and nothing shows up**. Did anyone encounter this issue before or did I do something wrong? Thanks a lot for any advice!

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![bollwyvl](https://yyz1.discourse-cdn.com/flex031/user_avatar/discourse.jupyter.org/bollwyvl/32/904_2.png) [@bollwyvl](https://discourse.jupyter.org/u/bollwyvl)\
**Post date:** [September 19, 2022, 2:23pm UTC](https://discourse.jupyter.org/t/npm-package-cannot-be-found-in-jupyterlabs-extension-manager-search/15841/2 "2022-09-19T14:23:49Z")

</div>

Without knowing _what_ your extension is, you might just be missing `keywords:

[https://jupyterlab.readthedocs.io/en/stable/extension/extension\_dev.html?highlight=npm%20keywords#source-extensions](https://jupyterlab.readthedocs.io/en/stable/extension/extension_dev.html?highlight=npm%20keywords#source-extensions)

Of note: there are a fair number of perils involved with “source extensions,” and you should likely seek to also publish your extension on PyPI/conda-forge, etc. as a “pre-built extension.”

For most use cases, pre-built extensions, avoid a whole class of issues associated with:

- getting a working nodejs
- running webpack “hot,” against hundreds of megabytes of downloaded JS build cruft
- every downloaded package, and all its dependencies, getting to run arbitrary code at install time as the user
- mismatched versions of server extensions (if applicable)

In JupyterLab 4, there is an upcoming, extensible package-manager based system which will hopefully resolve _some_ of these issues.