Get started

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

.NET Core (preferred)

Paket works entirely out of the box on .NET Core, and it's simple to get started.

Install .NET Core 3.0 or higher

If you don't have it already, you'll need to download and install the latest .NET Core.
Install and restore Paket as a local tool in the root of your codebase:
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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.
Initialize Paket by creating a dependencies file.
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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:

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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 Core build environment.

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

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#Paket dependency manager
paket-files/

If you're not using .NET Core, or you're stuck on .NET Core 2.2 or lower, you can use the paket bootstrapper.

Create a .paket directory in the root of your solution.
Download the latest paket.bootstrapper.exe into that directory.
Rename .paket/paket.bootstrapper.exe to .paket/paket.exe. Read more about "magic mode".
Commit .paket/paket.exe to your repository.
After the first .paket/paket.exe invocation Paket will create a couple of files in .paket — commit those as well.

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

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#Paket dependency manager
.paket/
paket-files/

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