This guide shows how to get started with Paket in various ways, depending on your scenario:

• Get started with the .NET tool
• Convert from legacy NuGet

Paket is a .NET tool, and it's simple to get started.

1. Install the .NET SDK

   If you don't have it already, you'll need to download and install the latest .NET SDK.

2. Install and restore Paket as a local tool in the root of your codebase:

   dotnet new tool-manifest
   dotnet tool install paket
   dotnet tool restore

   This will create a .config/dotnet-tools.json file in the root of your codebase. It must be checked into source control.

3. Initialize Paket by creating a dependencies file.

   dotnet paket init

If you have a build.sh/build.cmd build script, also make sure you add the last two commands before you execute your build:

dotnet tool restore
dotnet paket restore
# Your call to build comes after the restore calls, possibly with FAKE: https://fake.build/

This will ensure Paket works in any .NET build environment. For a solution with projects that don't use the .NET SDK, such as .NET Framework projects built by Visual Studio, also run dotnet paket auto-restore on, see installation.

Make sure to add the following entry to your .gitignore:

# Paket dependency manager
paket-files/

Next, learn how to use Paket

If you are using legacy NuGet (packages.config-style), then check out the tutorial on how to automatically convert from legacy nuget.