Installation

Installation

Cadenza ships as NuGet MSBuild SDK packages — there is no separate Cadenza installer. If you have the .NET SDK, you have everything you need to run a Cadenza script.

Requirements

Requirement	Why
.NET SDK 10.0.300+	File-based apps + custom #:sdk resolution land here
Any OS the .NET SDK supports	Windows, macOS, Linux (incl. Alpine)
(Optional) An editor with the C# extension	For IntelliSense — see Editor Setup

TODO: pin the exact minimum SDK once 10.0.300 ships GA.

Install the .NET SDK

Platform	Command
Windows	winget install Microsoft.DotNet.SDK.10
macOS	brew install --cask dotnet-sdk (preview channel)
Linux	See Microsoft's install docs
Container	mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:10.0

Verify:

dotnet --version

Verify Cadenza works

Save this as hello.cs:

#:sdk Cadenza@1.0.15
WriteLine("Hello from Cadenza");

Run it:

dotnet run hello.cs

The first run takes a few seconds (NuGet restores the SDK and any dependencies). Subsequent runs start in under a second.

Editor support (optional)

For full IntelliSense — bare names, #:sdk, completion across all five SDKs — you need a working C# language server. The base Roslyn-based C# extension is enough; Cadenza does not require the C# Dev Kit. See Editor Setup for VS Code, Cursor, and Kiro.

Updating

Cadenza pins exact versions via #:sdk Cadenza@1.0.15. To update a script, edit the version string. There is no global "cadenza-cli upgrade" — versions are per-script, which means a script you receive today will keep working forever.

See also

• Getting Started
• Editor Setup
• Directives — version pinning details