NuGet Client SDK

The NuGet Client SDK refers to a group of NuGet packages:

• NuGet.Indexing - NuGet's indexing library for the Visual Studio client search functionality.
• NuGet.Commands - Complete commands common to command-line and GUI NuGet clients.
• NuGet.Common - Common utilities and interfaces for all NuGet libraries.
• NuGet.Configuration - NuGet's configuration settings implementation.
• NuGet.Credentials - NuGet client's authentication models.
• NuGet.DependencyResolver.Core - NuGet's PackageReference dependency resolver implementation.
• NuGet.Frameworks - NuGet's understanding of target frameworks.
• NuGet.LibraryModel - NuGet's types and interfaces for understanding dependencies.
• NuGet.Localization - NuGet localization package.
• NuGet.PackageManagement - NuGet Package Management functionality for Visual Studio installation flow.
• NuGet.Packaging - Provides a set of APIs to interact with .nupkg and .nuspec files from a stream. NuGet.Protocol depends on this package.
• NuGet.ProjectModel - NuGet's core types and interfaces for PackageReference-based restore, such as lock files, assets file and internal restore models.
• NuGet.Protocol - Provides a set of APIs interact with HTTP and file-based NuGet feeds.
• NuGet.Resolver - NuGet's dependency resolver for packages.config based projects.
• NuGet.Versioning - NuGet's implementation of Semantic Versioning.

You can find the source code for these packages in the NuGet/NuGet.Client GitHub repository.

Support policy

All security bugs should be reported to the Microsoft Security Response Center (MSRC) at MSRC's report page. Also, see the security policy in the NuGet.Client repo.

We do not guarantee API stability, as our team's responsibility is tooling, not libraries. See the NuGet SDK documentation in the NuGet.Client repo for more information.

NuGet.Protocol

Install the NuGet.Protocol package to interact with HTTP and folder-based NuGet package feeds:

dotnet add package NuGet.Protocol

You can find the source code for these examples on the NuGet.Protocol.Samples project on GitHub.

List package versions

Find all versions of Newtonsoft.Json using the NuGet V3 Package Content API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
FindPackageByIdResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<FindPackageByIdResource>();

IEnumerable<NuGetVersion> versions = await resource.GetAllVersionsAsync(
    "Newtonsoft.Json",
    cache,
    logger,
    cancellationToken);

foreach (NuGetVersion version in versions)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Found version {version}");
}

Download a package

Download Newtonsoft.Json v12.0.1 using the NuGet V3 Package Content API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
FindPackageByIdResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<FindPackageByIdResource>();

string packageId = "Newtonsoft.Json";
NuGetVersion packageVersion = new NuGetVersion("12.0.1");
using MemoryStream packageStream = new MemoryStream();

await resource.CopyNupkgToStreamAsync(
    packageId,
    packageVersion,
    packageStream,
    cache,
    logger,
    cancellationToken);

Console.WriteLine($"Downloaded package {packageId} {packageVersion}");

using PackageArchiveReader packageReader = new PackageArchiveReader(packageStream);
NuspecReader nuspecReader = await packageReader.GetNuspecReaderAsync(cancellationToken);

Console.WriteLine($"Tags: {nuspecReader.GetTags()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Description: {nuspecReader.GetDescription()}");

Get package metadata

Get the metadata for the "Newtonsoft.Json" package using the NuGet V3 Package Metadata API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
PackageMetadataResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<PackageMetadataResource>();

IEnumerable<IPackageSearchMetadata> packages = await resource.GetMetadataAsync(
    "Newtonsoft.Json",
    includePrerelease: true,
    includeUnlisted: false,
    cache,
    logger,
    cancellationToken);

foreach (IPackageSearchMetadata package in packages)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Version: {package.Identity.Version}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Listed: {package.IsListed}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Tags: {package.Tags}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Description: {package.Description}");
}

Search packages

Search for "json" packages using the NuGet V3 Search API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
PackageSearchResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<PackageSearchResource>();
SearchFilter searchFilter = new SearchFilter(includePrerelease: true);

IEnumerable<IPackageSearchMetadata> results = await resource.SearchAsync(
    "json",
    searchFilter,
    skip: 0,
    take: 20,
    logger,
    cancellationToken);

foreach (IPackageSearchMetadata result in results)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Found package {result.Identity.Id} {result.Identity.Version}");
}

Push a package

Push a package using the NuGet V3 Push and Delete API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
PackageUpdateResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<PackageUpdateResource>();

string apiKey = "my-api-key";

await resource.Push(
    "MyPackage.nupkg",
    symbolSource: null,
    timeoutInSecond: 5 * 60,
    disableBuffering: false,
    getApiKey: packageSource => apiKey,
    getSymbolApiKey: packageSource => null,
    noServiceEndpoint: false,
    skipDuplicate: false,
    symbolPackageUpdateResource: null,
    logger);

Delete a package

Delete a package using the NuGet V3 Push and Delete API:

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;

SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3("https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json");
PackageUpdateResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<PackageUpdateResource>();

string apiKey = "my-api-key";

await resource.Delete(
    "MyPackage",
    "1.0.0-beta",
    getApiKey: packageSource => apiKey,
    confirm: packageSource => true,
    noServiceEndpoint: false,
    logger);

Work with authenticated feeds

Use NuGet.Protocol to work with authenticated feeds.

ILogger logger = NullLogger.Instance;
CancellationToken cancellationToken = CancellationToken.None;
SourceCacheContext cache = new SourceCacheContext();
var sourceUri = "https://contoso.privatefeed/v3/index.json";
var packageSource = new PackageSource(sourceUri)
{
    Credentials = new PackageSourceCredential(
        source: sourceUri,
        username: "myUsername",
        passwordText: "myVerySecretPassword",
        isPasswordClearText: true,
        validAuthenticationTypesText: null)
};
// If the `SourceRepository` is created with a `PackageSource`, the rest of APIs will consume the credentials attached to `PackageSource.Credentials`.
SourceRepository repository = Repository.Factory.GetCoreV3(packageSource);
PackageMetadataResource resource = await repository.GetResourceAsync<PackageMetadataResource>();

IEnumerable<IPackageSearchMetadata> packages = await resource.GetMetadataAsync(
    "MyPackage",
    includePrerelease: true,
    includeUnlisted: false,
    cache,
    logger,
    cancellationToken);

foreach (IPackageSearchMetadata package in packages)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Version: {package.Identity.Version}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Listed: {package.IsListed}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Tags: {package.Tags}");
    Console.WriteLine($"Description: {package.Description}");
}

NuGet.Packaging

Install the NuGet.Packaging package to interact with .nupkg and .nuspec files from a stream:

dotnet add package NuGet.Packaging

Create a package

Create a package, set metadata, and add dependencies using NuGet.Packaging.

PackageBuilder builder = new PackageBuilder();
builder.Id = "MyPackage";
builder.Version = new NuGetVersion("1.0.0-beta");
builder.Description = "My package created from the API.";
builder.Authors.Add("Sample author");
builder.DependencyGroups.Add(new PackageDependencyGroup(
    targetFramework: NuGetFramework.Parse("netstandard1.4"),
    packages: new[]
    {
        new PackageDependency("Newtonsoft.Json", VersionRange.Parse("10.0.1"))
    }));

using FileStream outputStream = new FileStream("MyPackage.nupkg", FileMode.Create);
builder.Save(outputStream);
Console.WriteLine($"Saved a package to {outputStream.Name}");

Read a package

Read a package from a file stream using NuGet.Packaging.

using FileStream inputStream = new FileStream("MyPackage.nupkg", FileMode.Open);
using PackageArchiveReader reader = new PackageArchiveReader(inputStream);
NuspecReader nuspec = reader.NuspecReader;
Console.WriteLine($"ID: {nuspec.GetId()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Version: {nuspec.GetVersion()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Description: {nuspec.GetDescription()}");
Console.WriteLine($"Authors: {nuspec.GetAuthors()}");

Console.WriteLine("Dependencies:");
foreach (var dependencyGroup in nuspec.GetDependencyGroups())
{
    Console.WriteLine($" - {dependencyGroup.TargetFramework.GetShortFolderName()}");
    foreach (var dependency in dependencyGroup.Packages)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"   > {dependency.Id} {dependency.VersionRange}");
    }
}

Console.WriteLine("Files:");
foreach (var file in reader.GetFiles())
{
    Console.WriteLine($" - {file}");
}

Third-party documentation

You can find examples and documentation for some of the API in the following blog series by Dave Glick, published 2016:

• Exploring the NuGet v3 Libraries, Part 1: Introduction and concepts
• Exploring the NuGet v3 Libraries, Part 2: Searching for packages
• Exploring the NuGet v3 Libraries, Part 3: Installing packages

Martin Björkström did a follow-up blog post to Dave Glick's blog series where he introduces a different approach on using the NuGet Client SDK to install NuGet packages:

• Revisiting the NuGet v3 Libraries