NuGet.Packaging 6.7.1

Nuget.Packaging

NuGet.Packaging is a NuGet client SDK library that provides a set of APIs to interact with .nupkg and .nuspec files from a stream. It provides a way for developers to create and read packages and work with the package metadata.

Usage

It is strongly recommended that NuGet packages are created using the official NuGet tooling and instead of this low-level API. There are a variety of characteristics important for a well-formed package and the latest version of tooling helps incorporate these best practices.

For more information about creating NuGet packages, see the overview of the package creation workflow and the documentation for official pack tooling (for example, using the dotnet CLI).

Examples

Create a package

Create a package, set metadata, and add dependencies.

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.

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

Additional documentation

More information about the NuGet.Packaging library can be found on the official Microsoft documentation page and NuGet API docs.

Showing the top 20 packages that depend on NuGet.Packaging.

Packages Downloads
Microsoft.DotNet.Scaffolding.Shared
Contains interfaces for Project Model and messaging for scaffolding.
95
Microsoft.DotNet.Scaffolding.Shared
Contains interfaces for Project Model and messaging for scaffolding.
97
Microsoft.DotNet.Scaffolding.Shared
Contains interfaces for Project Model and messaging for scaffolding.
102
Microsoft.DotNet.Scaffolding.Shared
Contains interfaces for Project Model and messaging for scaffolding.
144
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration
Contains the CodeGenCommand that finds the appropriate code generator and invokes it from project dependencies.
95
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration
Contains the CodeGenCommand that finds the appropriate code generator and invokes it from project dependencies.
99
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration
Contains the CodeGenCommand that finds the appropriate code generator and invokes it from project dependencies.
146
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Core
Contains the core infrastructure used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
110
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design
Code Generation tool for ASP.NET Core. Contains the dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator command used for generating controllers and views.
146
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design
Code Generation tool for ASP.NET Core. Contains the dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator command used for generating controllers and views.
273
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.EntityFrameworkCore
Contains Entity Framework Core Services used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
120
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Templating
Contains Razor based templating host used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
95
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Templating
Contains Razor based templating host used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
104
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils
Contains utilities used by ASP.NET Core Code Generation packages.
95
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGenerators.Mvc
Code Generators for ASP.NET Core MVC. Contains code generators for MVC Controllers and Views.
95
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGenerators.Mvc
Code Generators for ASP.NET Core MVC. Contains code generators for MVC Controllers and Views.
142
NuGet.Packaging.Core
The (former home to) core data structures for NuGet.Packaging. Contains only the type forwarders to the new assembly.
98
NuGet.Protocol
NuGet's implementation for interacting with feeds. Contains functionality for all feed types.
177
Nuke.Common
Cross-platform build automation system
97
Nuke.Common
Cross-platform build automation system
99

.NET Framework 4.7.2

.NET 5.0

.NET Standard 2.0

Version Downloads Last updated
7.0.0 7 11/12/2025
6.14.0 54 05/15/2025
6.13.2 59 03/31/2025
6.13.1 58 03/31/2025
6.12.4 50 05/10/2025
6.12.1 72 11/14/2024
6.12.0 56 11/14/2024
6.11.1 57 10/17/2024
6.11.0 87 08/19/2024
6.11.0-preview.2 82 07/22/2024
6.10.2 73 08/19/2024
6.10.1 92 07/22/2024
6.10.0 77 07/22/2024
6.9.1 80 07/22/2024
6.8.1 79 07/22/2024
6.8.0 99 02/15/2024
6.7.1 94 07/22/2024
6.7.0 86 07/22/2024
6.6.2 92 07/22/2024
6.6.1 100 07/22/2024
6.6.0 88 07/22/2024
6.6.0-preview.3 78 07/22/2024
6.5.1 93 07/22/2024
6.5.0 93 07/22/2024
6.4.3 95 07/22/2024
6.4.2 79 07/22/2024
6.4.0 81 07/22/2024
6.3.4 82 07/22/2024
6.3.3 88 07/22/2024
6.3.1 184 02/04/2024
6.2.4 91 07/22/2024
6.2.2 86 07/22/2024
6.1.0 91 07/22/2024
6.0.6 81 07/22/2024
6.0.5 84 07/22/2024
6.0.3-rc.1 83 07/22/2024
6.0.2 73 07/22/2024
5.11.6 80 07/22/2024
5.11.5 87 07/22/2024
5.11.3 76 07/22/2024
5.11.0 104 02/04/2024
5.10.0 89 07/22/2024
5.9.3 91 07/22/2024
5.8.1 91 07/22/2024
5.7.3-rtm.5 79 07/22/2024
5.7.2 77 07/22/2024
5.6.0 87 07/22/2024
5.5.1 94 07/22/2024
5.4.0 80 07/22/2024
5.3.1 71 07/22/2024
5.2.1 71 07/22/2024
5.1.0 77 07/22/2024
5.0.2 88 07/22/2024
4.9.6 86 07/22/2024
4.8.2 92 07/22/2024
4.7.3 95 07/22/2024
4.6.4 90 07/22/2024
4.5.3 87 07/22/2024
4.4.3 87 07/22/2024
4.3.1 99 07/22/2024
4.2.0 83 07/22/2024
4.1.0 92 07/22/2024
4.0.0 86 07/22/2024
3.5.0 69 07/22/2024
3.4.4-rtm-final 87 07/22/2024
3.4.3 82 07/22/2024
3.3.0 88 07/22/2024
3.2.0 80 07/22/2024