explorer, autocompletion and basic attributes in Max6

I'll approach in reverse order:

3. You should be fine.

2. If you start typing, you'll find that "times~" is in the autocompletion from MSP too. *~ is added in addition to times~ but doesn't replace it. At this time that's the way the system works -- there is no way "unlist" the times~ object. The same applies to your bach.times object.

1. You need a qlookup file to define the metadata for your external. The qlookup file must be named such that it ends with "obj-qlookup.json" and is placed in the Cycling '74/interfaces folder. For TapTools I have named the file taptools-obj-qlookup.json. Here is an abridged version of that file's contents, including a UI object:

{
  "tap.comb~": {
    "digest": "Sweet sounding comb filter",
    "module": "msp",
    "category": [
      "Tap.Tools",
      "MSP Filters"
    ]
  },
  "tap.verb~": {
    "digest": "Reverb in a box",
    "module": "msp",
    "category": [
      "Tap.Tools",
      "MSP Effects"
    ]
  },
  "tap.dragwindow": {
    "digest": "Define a region of a window as a handle for dragging the window",
    "module": "max",
    "category": [
      "U/I"
    ],
    "palette": {
      "category": [
        "Interface"
      ],
      "action": "dropfile",
      "pic": "dropfile.svg"
    }
  }
}

As you can see, it references an SVG file which is then used for the icon.

Hope this helps!
Tim