FWIW as an "newbie" I've used the Pants "native" backends as a reference a lot more than docs or the example plugin. It's more work to figure out what's happening, but it's also guaranteed to be up to date, idiomatic, and working. So I think what @wide-midnight-78598 proposes sounds sensible as an "end-user". And some cross-references like their guide on linting, and the testing one when that is done 😉