Locally hosted manifest.json file

Hi, I’ve built a custom version of the arduino framework and am trying to get it connected and loading in my platform. I am using local hosting until I get this figured out, then I’ll update my bitbucket repo. I can install my custom platform from a local location using pio platform install file://localhost/. I have a local tar.gz file of my new arduino framework. My platform.json points to a local manifest.json file and the manifest.json points to my local tar file of my new arduino framework (called framework-arduinoespressif32ec". It seems the Library Manager can’t find any dependencies … like it can’t find my local reference to manifest.json. I get this error when compiling,
PackageManager: Installing framework-arduinoespressif32ec @ ~2.10004.191002a
Error: Detected unknown package ‘framework-arduinoespressif32ec’

framework-arduinoespressif32ec is defined in the platform.json file and in my local manifest.json file.

Is the manifest.json file required to be on a public http site? My reference looks like this,
“packageRepositories”: [
“file://localhost//PlatformIO/platform-espressif32/ec_manifest.json”
],

Is this not allowed?