Betalgo NuGet Publisher

Stop writing complex PowerShell scripts for CI/CD. Publish your NuGet packages with version auto-discovery, deterministic builds, and multi-feed support in seconds.

Composite GitHub Action that publishes .NET packages to NuGet.org (and optionally GitHub Packages) using a dedicated .NET console application executed through dotnet run. The action performs version discovery, deterministic packing, feed pushes, and optional git tagging without requiring PowerShell.

Highlights

• Runs on .NET 8 LTS via actions/setup-dotnet.
• NuGet packages are cached by default via actions/setup-dotnet for faster restores.
• Automatically extracts PackageId and Version from your project or a custom file/regex.
• Skips publishing when the version already exists (configurable).
• Pushes to NuGet.org plus optional GitHub Packages, including symbol packages.
• Creates git tags safely (skips when the tag already exists).

Usage

name: Publish package

on:
  push:
    tags:
      - 'release/*'

jobs:
  nuget:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: write        # required for git tagging
      packages: write        # required when pushing to GitHub Packages
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Publish via Betalgo-Nuget-Publisher
        uses: Betalgo/NugetPublisher@v1
        with:
          project-file: src/MyProject/MyProject.csproj
          nuget-api-key: ${{ secrets.NUGET_API_KEY }}
          publish-to-github-packages: true

Inputs

Name	Required	Default	Description
project-file	✅	—	Path to the .csproj that will be packed.
package-name		derived from <PackageId>	Override for the NuGet package ID.
version-file		project file	File inspected to extract the version.
version-regex		—	Regex with a capture group for version extraction (skips XML parsing).
version-regex-options		Multiline	RegexOptions flags separated by |.
version-static		—	Explicit version string (disables file parsing).
tag-commit		true	Create/push a git tag using tag-format.
tag-format		v*	Template for the git tag (* is replaced with the version).
nuget-source		https://api.nuget.org	Base URL used to verify existing versions.
nuget-push-source		https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json	Feed passed to dotnet nuget push.
nuget-api-key		—	API key/token for the primary NuGet feed.
include-symbols		false	Generate and push symbol packages.
configuration		Release	dotnet pack configuration.
output-directory		nupkg next to project	Directory for generated packages.
clean		true	Run dotnet clean before packing.
publish-to-github-packages		false	Also push to GitHub Packages.
github-packages-owner		GITHUB_REPOSITORY_OWNER	Owner used to build the GitHub feed URL.
github-packages-source		derived	Fully qualified GitHub Packages feed URL.
github-packages-api-key		github.token	Token with packages:write scope.
github-packages-include-symbols		false	Include symbols when pushing to GitHub Packages.
dotnet-version		8.0.x	SDK used by actions/setup-dotnet.
git-user-name		github-actions	Git identity used for tagging.
git-user-email		actions@github.com	Git email used for tagging.
dry-run		false	Perform checks only (no pack/push).
skip-when-version-exists		true	Stop early when the version already exists on the feed.
extra-pack-arguments		—	Additional arguments appended to dotnet pack.
no-restore		false	Skip the dotnet restore step (pass --no-restore to pack).
continuous-integration-build		true	Set the ContinuousIntegrationBuild property to true.

Outputs

Name	Description
package-name	Final package ID used while packing.
version	Version assigned to the package.
should-publish	true when the version was missing on the NuGet feed.
published	true when at least one feed received a push.
package-path	Full path to the generated .nupkg.
symbols-package-path	Full path to the generated .snupkg (when available).
tag	Git tag that was created and pushed.
github-packages-source	GitHub Packages feed URL that was used.

Permissions and Secrets

• Permissions:
  • contents: write when tag-commit: true to allow creating/pushing tags
  • packages: write when publish-to-github-packages: true
• Secrets:
  • NUGET_API_KEY: API key for NuGet.org
  • GITHUB_TOKEN (repo default) or a PAT with packages:write when pushing to GitHub Packages

Requirements

• Run this action after actions/checkout so git metadata is available for tagging.
• Provide NUGET_API_KEY (and, if using GitHub Packages, GITHUB_TOKEN/PAT) via encrypted secrets.
• Ensure the workflow/job has required permissions (see above).

Local Testing

You can exercise the publisher locally:

export PROJECT_FILE=src/MyProject/MyProject.csproj
export NUGET_API_KEY=dummy
dotnet run --project NugetPublisher/NugetPublisher.csproj

Set DRY_RUN=true to verify version discovery without touching feeds.