Plugin descriptor 'plugin.xml' is not found when trying to publish plugin

Also running the gradle verifyPlugin task in the IDE completes without error.

I have tried specifying my resources directory in the build.gradle.kts like this:

sourceSets.getByName("main") {
    java.srcDir("src/main/java")
    resources.srcDir("src/main/resources")
}

And still have the issue.

Could you please provide your plugin artifact you're trying to upload?

I was attempting to upload the entire plugin in a zip, I do however have this setup:

Why do you use artifacts at all? Publishing Gradle-based plugins must be done using builtin Gradle tasks https://plugins.jetbrains.com/docs/intellij/deployment.html

Why do you use artifacts at all? Publishing Gradle-based plugins must be done using builtin Gradle tasks https://plugins.jetbrains.com/docs/intellij/deployment.html

In order to do this it says I need to have manually published to plugin the first time, that is what I'm trying to do.

ok will clarify page. please follow instructions from https://plugins.jetbrains.com/docs/intellij/deployment.html#building-distribution to obtain the plugin distribution built by Gradle

I have resolved the issue and it has now uploaded successfully, it seems I mis-understood what it meant by uploading a zip of the plugin. Thanks for your help.