Working with the NuGet registry

Note: This package type may not be available for your instance, because site administrators can enable or disable each supported package type. For more information, see "Configuring packages support for your enterprise."

Authenticating to GitHub Packages

You need an access token to publish, install, and delete private, internal, and public packages.

You can use a personal access token to authenticate to GitHub Packages or the GitHub Enterprise Server API. When you create a personal access token, you can assign the token different scopes depending on your needs. For more information about packages-related scopes for a personal access token, see "About permissions for GitHub Packages."

To authenticate to a GitHub Packages registry within a GitHub Actions workflow, you can use:

GITHUB_TOKEN to publish packages associated with the workflow repository.
a personal access token with at least packages:read scope to install packages associated with other private repositories (which GITHUB_TOKEN can't access).

Authenticating in a GitHub Actions workflow

Use the following command to authenticate to GitHub Packages in a GitHub Actions workflow using the GITHUB_TOKEN instead of hardcoding a personal access token in a nuget.config file in the repository:

dotnet nuget add source --username USERNAME --password ${{ secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN }} --store-password-in-clear-text --name github "https://nuget.HOSTNAME/OWNER/index.json"

For more information about GITHUB_TOKEN used in GitHub Actions workflows, see "Authentication in a workflow."

Authenticating with a personal access token

You need an access token to publish, install, and delete private, internal, and public packages.

You can use a personal access token to authenticate to GitHub Packages or the GitHub Enterprise Server API. When you create a personal access token, you can assign the token different scopes depending on your needs. For more information about packages-related scopes for a personal access token, see "About permissions for GitHub Packages."

To authenticate to a GitHub Packages registry within a GitHub Actions workflow, you can use:

GITHUB_TOKEN to publish packages associated with the workflow repository.
a personal access token with at least packages:read scope to install packages associated with other private repositories (which GITHUB_TOKEN can't access).

You must use a personal access token with the appropriate scopes to publish and install packages in GitHub Packages. For more information, see "About GitHub Packages."

To authenticate to GitHub Packages with the dotnet command-line interface (CLI), create a nuget.config file in your project directory specifying GitHub Packages as a source under packageSources for the dotnet CLI client.

You must replace:

USERNAME with the name of your personal account on GitHub.
TOKEN with your personal access token.
OWNER with the name of the user or organization account that owns the repository containing your project.
HOSTNAME with the host name for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

If your instance has subdomain isolation enabled:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <packageSources>
        <clear />
        <add key="github" value="https://nuget.HOSTNAME/OWNER/index.json" />
    </packageSources>
    <packageSourceCredentials>
        <github>
            <add key="Username" value="USERNAME" />
            <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="TOKEN" />
        </github>
    </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

If your instance has subdomain isolation disabled:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <packageSources>
        <clear />
        <add key="github" value="https://HOSTNAME/_registry/nuget/OWNER/index.json" />
    </packageSources>
    <packageSourceCredentials>
        <github>
            <add key="Username" value="USERNAME" />
            <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="TOKEN" />
        </github>
    </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

Publishing a package

You can publish a package to GitHub Packages by authenticating with a nuget.config file, or by using the --api-key command line option with your GitHub personal access token.

Publishing a package using a GitHub personal access token as your API key

If you don't already have a PAT to use for your account on your GitHub Enterprise Server instance, see "Creating a personal access token."

Create a new project.
```
dotnet new console --name OctocatApp
```
Package the project.
```
dotnet pack --configuration Release
```

Publish the package using your personal access token as the API key.

dotnet nuget push "bin/Release/OctocatApp.1.0.0.nupkg"  --api-key YOUR_GITHUB_PAT --source "github"

After you publish a package, you can view the package on GitHub. For more information, see "Viewing packages."

Publishing a package using a nuget.config file

When publishing, you need to use the same value for OWNER in your csproj file that you use in your nuget.config authentication file. Specify or increment the version number in your .csproj file, then use the dotnet pack command to create a .nuspec file for that version. For more information on creating your package, see "Create and publish a package" in the Microsoft documentation.

Authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Authenticating to GitHub Packages."
Create a new project.
```
dotnet new console --name OctocatApp
```

Add your project's specific information to your project's file, which ends in .csproj. You must replace:

OWNER with the name of the user or organization account that owns the repository to which you want to connect your package.
REPOSITORY with the name of the repository to which you want to connect your package.
1.0.0 with the version number of the package.
HOSTNAME with the host name for your GitHub Enterprise Server instance.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <PackageId>OctocatApp</PackageId>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <Authors>Octocat</Authors>
    <Company>GitHub</Company>
    <PackageDescription>This package adds an Octocat!</PackageDescription>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://HOSTNAME/OWNER/REPOSITORY</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

Package the project.
```
dotnet pack --configuration Release
```

Publish the package using the key you specified in the nuget.config file.

dotnet nuget push "bin/Release/OctocatApp.1.0.0.nupkg" --source "github"

After you publish a package, you can view the package on GitHub. For more information, see "Viewing packages."

Publishing multiple packages to the same repository

To connect multiple packages to the same repository, you can include the same GitHub repository URL in the RepositoryURL fields in all .csproj project files. GitHub matches the repository based on that field.

For example, the OctodogApp and OctocatApp projects will publish to the same repository:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <PackageId>OctodogApp</PackageId>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <Authors>Octodog</Authors>
    <Company>GitHub</Company>
    <PackageDescription>This package adds an Octodog!</PackageDescription>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://HOSTNAME/octo-org/octo-cats-and-dogs</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <PackageId>OctocatApp</PackageId>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <Authors>Octocat</Authors>
    <Company>GitHub</Company>
    <PackageDescription>This package adds an Octocat!</PackageDescription>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://HOSTNAME/octo-org/octo-cats-and-dogs</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

Installing a package

Using packages from GitHub in your project is similar to using packages from nuget.org. Add your package dependencies to your .csproj file, specifying the package name and version. For more information on using a .csproj file in your project, see "Working with NuGet packages" in the Microsoft documentation.

Authenticate to GitHub Packages. For more information, see "Authenticating to GitHub Packages."

To use a package, add ItemGroup and configure the PackageReference field in the .csproj project file. Replace the OctokittenApp value in Include="OctokittenApp" with your package dependency, and replace the 12.0.2 value in Version="12.0.2" with the version you want to use:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>netcoreapp3.0</TargetFramework>
    <PackageId>OctocatApp</PackageId>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <Authors>Octocat</Authors>
    <Company>GitHub</Company>
    <PackageDescription>This package adds an Octocat!</PackageDescription>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://HOSTNAME/OWNER/REPOSITORY</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>

  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageReference Include="OctokittenApp" Version="12.0.2" />
  </ItemGroup>

</Project>

Install the packages with the restore command.
```
dotnet restore
```

Troubleshooting

Your NuGet package may fail to push if the RepositoryUrl in .csproj is not set to the expected repository .

If you're using a nuspec file, ensure that it has a repository element with the required type and url attributes.

If you're using a GITHUB_TOKEN to authenticate to a GitHub Packages registry within a GitHub Actions workflow, the token cannot access private repository-based packages in a different repository other than where the workflow is running in. To access packages associated with other repositories, instead generate a personal access token with the read:packages scope and pass this token in as a secret.