NuGet

Package manager for .NET that defines how libraries are created, hosted, and consumed. Packages are single ZIP files with compiled code, metadata, and a manifest, and can be published to public or private hosts for other projects to install and use.

NuGet maintains the central nuget.org repository with over 100,000 packages used by millions of .NET developers daily. Microsoft supports both the client tools and the public gallery. Private feeds can be hosted on Azure DevOps, internal networks, or the local filesystem. Compared to manually shipping DLLs, NuGet handles dependency resolution across the full graph, including version conflicts when multiple packages reference different versions of the same dependency.

Key features:

• CLI tools: dotnet CLI for SDK-style projects, nuget.exe for .NET Framework and non-SDK projects
• Visual Studio integration: Package Manager UI and PowerShell console for install and update
• Dependency resolution and automatic package restore for CI/CD and build servers
• Private feed hosting alongside the public nuget.org gallery
• Multi-targeting support: packages can contain assemblies for multiple .NET frameworks in one package
• Global packages folder and cache to avoid redundant downloads across projects

Common scenarios: adding libraries like Entity Framework, Serilog, or Newtonsoft.Json to .NET projects, publishing internal shared libraries to a private feed, restoring packages on build agents for Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions. Developers rely on package restore during build and when cloning repositories, keeping only reference lists in source control instead of binaries.