$ meson build --prefix=/usr/local
The Meson build system
Version: 1.2.3
Source dir: /home/dan/src/snapshot-explorer
Build dir: /home/dan/src/snapshot-explorer/build
Build type: native build
Project name: snapshot-explorer
Project version: 0.1.0
C compiler for the host machine: cc (gcc 13.2.0 "cc (Debian 13.2.0-13) 13.2.0")
C linker for the host machine: cc ld.bfd 2.42
Vala compiler for the host machine: valac (valac 0.56.14)
Host machine cpu family: x86_64
Host machine cpu: x86_64
Program msgfmt found: YES (/usr/bin/msgfmt)
Program desktop-file-validate found: YES (/usr/bin/desktop-file-validate)
Program appstream-util found: NO
Program glib-compile-schemas found: YES (/usr/bin/glib-compile-schemas)
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.8.1)
Run-time dependency gio-2.0 found: YES 2.78.4
Run-time dependency gtk+-3.0 found: YES 3.24.41
Run-time dependency libhandy-1 found: YES 1.8.3
Found pkg-config: /usr/bin/pkg-config (1.8.1)
Dependency gio-2.0 found: YES 2.78.4 (cached)
Program /usr/bin/glib-compile-resources found: YES (/usr/bin/glib-compile-resources)
Program msginit found: YES (/usr/bin/msginit)
Program msgmerge found: YES (/usr/bin/msgmerge)
Program xgettext found: YES (/usr/bin/xgettext)
Found CMake: /usr/bin/cmake (3.28.3)
WARNING: CMake Toolchain: Failed to determine CMake compilers state
Run-time dependency libnautilus-extension found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)

nautilus/meson.build:16:16: ERROR: Dependency "libnautilus-extension" not found, tried pkgconfig and cmake

A full log can be found at /home/dan/src/snapshot-explorer/build/meson-logs/meson-log.txt
WARNING: Running the setup command as `meson [options]` instead of `meson setup [options]` is ambiguous and deprecated.

meson build --prefix=/usr/local

data/meson.build:1:0: ERROR: Tried to assign an invalid value to variable.

$ meson build 
...
Preliminary CMake check failed. Aborting.
Run-time dependency libnautilus-extension4 found: NO (tried pkgconfig and cmake)

nautilus/meson.build:16:0: ERROR: Dependency "libnautilus-extension4" not found, tried pkgconfig and cmake

$ cat  build/meson-logs/meson-log.txt
...
Called `/usr/bin/pkg-config --modversion libnautilus-extension` -> 1
stderr:
Package libnautilus-extension was not found in the pkg-config search path.
Perhaps you should add the directory containing `libnautilus-extension.pc'
to the PKG_CONFIG_PATH environment variable
Package 'libnautilus-extension', required by 'virtual:world', not found

$ dpkg -l | grep libnautilus                    


ii  libnautilus-extension-dev:amd64               1:44.2.1-0ubuntu1                       amd64        libraries for nautilus components - development version
ii  libnautilus-extension4:amd64                  1:44.2.1-0ubuntu1                       amd64        libraries for nautilus components - runtime version

$ dpkg -L libnautilus-extension-dev | grep 'libnautilus-extension.*\.pc'
/usr/lib/x86_64-linux-gnu/pkgconfig/libnautilus-extension-4.pc