NuGet.Packaging 6.14.0

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
NuGet.Protocol.Core.v3
NuGet Protocol for 3.1.0 servers
 19
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.EntityFrameworkCore
Contains Entity Framework Core Services used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
 18
NuGet.Repositories
NuGet.Repositories
 18
NuGet.Protocol.Core.v3
NuGet Protocol for 3.1.0 servers
 18
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Templating
Contains Razor based templating host used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
 17
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Utils
Contains utilities used by ASP.NET Core Code Generation packages.
 17
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.EntityFrameworkCore
Contains Entity Framework Core Services used by ASP.NET Core Code Generators.
 17
Microsoft.DotNet.Cli.Utils
Package Description
 17
NuGet.Protocol.Core.v3
NuGet Protocol for 3.1.0 servers
 17
NuGet.Protocol
NuGet's implementation for interacting with feeds. Contains functionality for all feed types.
 17
NuGet.Packaging.Core
The (former home to) core data structures for NuGet.Packaging. Contains only the type forwarders to the new assembly.
 17
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration
Contains the CodeGenCommand that finds the appropriate code generator and invokes it from project dependencies.
 17
Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGenerators.Mvc
Code Generators for ASP.NET Core MVC. Contains code generators for MVC Controllers and Views.
 17

.NET Framework 4.7.2

.NET Standard 2.0

.NET 8.0

Version Downloads Last updated
6.14.0 11 05/14/2025
6.13.2 15 03/01/2025
6.13.1 11 02/27/2025
6.12.4 13 05/11/2025
6.12.1 15 11/23/2024
6.12.0 17 11/23/2024
6.11.1 17 10/06/2024
6.11.0 15 11/23/2024
6.11.0-preview.2 15 11/30/2024
6.10.2 15 11/23/2024
6.10.1 14 10/06/2024
6.10.0 16 11/23/2024
6.9.1 17 10/06/2024
6.8.1 15 11/23/2024
6.8.0 16 11/23/2024
6.7.1 13 11/23/2024
6.7.0 17 10/06/2024
6.6.2 13 11/23/2024
6.6.1 19 10/06/2024
6.6.0 13 11/23/2024
6.6.0-preview.3 12 11/23/2024
6.5.1 13 11/21/2024
6.5.0 16 10/06/2024
6.4.3 13 10/06/2024
6.4.2 17 10/06/2024
6.4.0 20 10/06/2024
6.3.4 15 10/06/2024
6.3.3 17 10/06/2024
6.3.1 15 10/06/2024
6.3.0 15 09/14/2022
6.2.4 15 11/23/2024
6.2.2 14 11/23/2024
6.1.0 15 10/06/2024
6.0.6 16 11/23/2024
6.0.5 15 10/06/2024
6.0.3-rc.1 14 10/26/2024
6.0.2 13 11/23/2024
5.11.6 15 10/06/2024
5.11.5 14 11/23/2024
5.11.3 13 11/23/2024
5.10.0 14 11/23/2024
5.9.3 12 11/23/2024
5.8.1 15 11/23/2024
5.7.3-rtm.5 13 11/23/2024
5.7.2 17 11/23/2024
5.6.0 14 11/23/2024
5.5.1 15 10/06/2024
5.4.0 14 11/23/2024
5.3.1 17 10/06/2024
5.2.1 12 11/23/2024
5.1.0 14 11/23/2024
5.0.2 13 11/23/2024
4.9.6 16 10/06/2024
4.8.2 14 10/13/2024
4.7.3 14 11/23/2024
4.6.4 16 10/06/2024
4.5.3 14 11/09/2024
4.4.3 16 11/23/2024
4.3.1 15 11/23/2024
4.2.0 15 10/06/2024
4.1.0 16 10/06/2024
4.0.0 15 10/06/2024
3.5.0 14 10/06/2024
3.4.4-rtm-final 19 11/23/2024
3.4.3 15 10/06/2024
3.3.0 17 10/06/2024
3.2.0 14 10/06/2024