Allow {stage,build}-snaps and extensions to point to locally provided snaps
Metadata
Current evaluation
Feature request to let build-snaps, stage-snaps, and extension dependencies reference local .snap files; support remains Store-only and the issue has not been triaged.
Suggested action: needs triage
Reason: The request has no labels, comments, assignee, or maintainer response, so it has not been assessed. Current craft-parts code passes every stage-snaps entry to SnapPackage.download, while the documentation explicitly says staged snaps come from the Store; implementing this across stage-snaps, build-snaps, extensions, and build environments also requires a local-path syntax and file-propagation design.
Evaluated by: mr-cal-bot
Impact:
48
Quick Win:
10
Complexity:
64
Confidence:
90
Actionability:
58
Issue body
Right now {stage,build}-snaps only support snaps from the Snap Store.
This is not so good for development, where one first wants to test that things are good before publishing.
So for example if snap S depends on build-snap B and you want to land a fix on B that would potentially fix snap S's build, one needs to do the very committal step of actually releasing B to the store.
Not to mention that one might not even have permission to upload B to the store.
As a consequence, ungraceful work-arounds have to be devised, e.g. https://github.com/ubuntu/gnome-sdk/pull/327.
It would be nice to have the syntax support pointing to a locally provided snap.
Evaluation history
| Date | Model | Scores | Action | Summary |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
48
Quick Win:
10
Complexity:
64
Confidence:
90
Actionability:
58
|
needs triage | Feature request to let build-snaps, stage-snaps, and extension dependencies reference local .snap files; support remains Store-only and the issue has not been triaged. | |
| stealth/space-bunny-alpha |
Impact:
52
Quick Win:
11
Complexity:
65
Confidence:
88
Actionability:
60
|
needs triage | Feature request to let stage-snaps, build-snaps, and extensions use local snap files, enabling dependency testing before store publication; needs syntax design and maintainer triage. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Impact:
50
Quick Win:
25
Staleness:
75
Complexity:
50
Confidence:
50
Support Request:
20
|
needs triage | Feature request to allow stage-snaps and build-snaps to reference locally provided snaps instead of only Snap Store snaps | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
85
Complexity:
60
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to allow stage-snaps and build-snaps to reference locally provided snap files instead of only Snap Store packages. Currently untriaged and inactive for 281 days. | |
| qwen/qwen3.6-35b-a3b |
Staleness:
90
Complexity:
55
Confidence:
80
Support Request:
5
|
needs triage | Feature request to allow stage/build-snap directives and extensions to reference locally provided snaps instead of only Snap Store snaps. Currently unlabelled and inactive for 280 days with no maintainer response. | |
| qwen3.6-35b-a3b-mtp-q6 |
Staleness:
80
Complexity:
45
Confidence:
85
Support Request:
10
|
needs triage | Feature request to allow stage/build-snap and extension configurations to reference locally provided snaps instead of only Snap Store snaps, improving local development workflows. Currently untriaged and inactive for 9 months. |
Update history
| Date | Change |
|---|---|
| created |
Related work
-
Related To:
snapcraft (launchpad)#1805214
(confidence 100%)
That issue introduced Store-backed stage-snaps through canonical/snapcraft#2468, but did not add local snap references.
Related issues
| Issue | Project | State | Summary | Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1805214 stage-snaps | snapcraft (launchpad) | closed | Feature request for a stage-snaps keyword (unpack a snap's content into the snap being built, like stage-packages) was implemented and merged in canonical/snapcraft#2468 (commit 0983e4063), then shipped in the 3.2 release; follow-up fixes in #2525 and #3211. |