Custom recipes

I just started datapacks today and for some reason I can't get custom recipes working at all. The other aspects like functions work but even when I strip the code down, take the exact minecraft .json file and tweak the ingredients and even just delete the whole recipe nothing changes. I've checked the directory 3 times over and the datapack version is correct. My goal is to make an item with a custom name and an NBT tag for now. That is all but I can't even get the first step working. Please help.