# What is SourceProxy?
**URL:** https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312
**Category:** Development
**Created:** [April 2, 2024, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312 "2024-04-02T08:15:04Z")
**Posts on this page:** 4
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@joint](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/joint)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:15am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312/1 "2024-04-02T08:15:04Z")
Hello!
Could you please clarify what ‘SourceProxy’ in plugin xml means? And what is it needed for?
Best regards
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:17am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312/2 "2024-04-02T08:17:12Z")
> [@joint](#):
>
> Could you please clarify what ‘SourceProxy’ in plugin xml means?
It means a vtkSM **SourceProxy** will be created for managing this object client side.
> And what is it needed for?
vtkSMSourceProxy handle anything that produce data and goes into the pipeline.
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### Author:  [@joint](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/joint)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:18am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312/3 "2024-04-02T08:18:45Z")
Hi Mathieu, glad to see you
If a file vtkSMsmth is already present in the source directory, it will be just copied to build directory, not generated, right?
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### Author:  [@mwestphal](https://discourse.paraview.org/u/mwestphal)
#### Post date: [April 2, 2024, 8:22am UTC](https://discourse.paraview.org/t/what-is-sourceproxy/14312/4 "2024-04-02T08:22:01Z")
It will not be copied, it will be compiled from .cxx/.h into a .o file in the build directory.
It is indeed not a generated source file.