SKILL: .NET NuGet CI/CD Pipeline

Reusable pattern for .NET projects that produce NuGet packages.

CI Workflow Pattern (build.yml)

Triggers: push to main + pull_request to main.

Key steps (in order):

1. •dotnet restore <solution>
2. •dotnet build <solution> -c Release --no-restore
3. •dotnet test --no-build -c Release --verbosity normal
4. •dotnet pack -c Release --no-build -o nupkgs
5. •Upload nupkgs/*.nupkg as artifact

Best practices:

• •Use concurrency groups (build-${{ github.ref }} + cancel-in-progress: true) to kill stale runs.
• •Matrix on ubuntu-latest + windows-latest for cross-platform verification.
• •Only upload artifacts from one OS leg to avoid name collisions.
• •Always pass --no-restore to build and --no-build to test/pack for speed.

Release Workflow Pattern (release.yml)

Trigger: Push of a v* tag.

Key steps:

1. •Full build + pack (cannot reuse CI artifacts across workflows).
2. •dotnet nuget push "nupkgs/*.nupkg" --api-key ${{ secrets.NUGET_API_KEY }} --source https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json --skip-duplicate
3. •Create GitHub Release with softprops/action-gh-release@v2 attaching nupkg files.

Requirements:

• •NUGET_API_KEY repo secret.
• •permissions: contents: write for release creation.
• •--skip-duplicate prevents failures on re-runs.

Release Flow

developer pushes to main → build.yml runs CI
developer tags v0.1.0     → release.yml builds, packs, publishes to NuGet, creates GitHub Release

Anti-patterns to Avoid

• •Don't trigger NuGet publish on every push to main (accidental publishes).
• •Don't use dotnet pack without --no-build after a build step (double compilation).
• •Don't upload artifacts from every matrix leg (duplicate artifact names fail).