NuGet Package Manager

Update whole NuGet package families in one review, including Microsoft.* or a narrower family such as Microsoft.Orleans.*. Select a package family, inspect every proposed version, and review the complete change set before applying it. The same .NET 10 engine powers the VS Code workbench and the nuget-manager command-line tool. The interface uses Managed Code's neutral monochrome branding while following the active VS Code light, dark, or high-contrast theme.

Install for VS Code · GitHub releases · NuGet tool

The native sidebar and wide editor workbench in VS Code, shown with a sample workspace. Click the screenshot to view it at full size.

VS Code

Click the NuGet Activity Bar icon to open the native Packages sidebar. The Activity Bar badge shows the number of packages that have updates. NuGet: Open NuGet Package Manager focuses that view and discovers declarations without opening an editor tab. For the wide workbench, run NuGet: Open NuGet Package Manager in Editor (nugetPackageManager.openEditor). You can also open the sidebar from the context menu on a Directory.Packages.props, .csproj, .fsproj, or .vbproj file. Both views use the same package state and review plan. Hiding or reopening one view preserves the active review; closing one view does not cancel work while the other remains open.

Packages appear by group first. Each family of related packages (such as Aspire, Azure or Microsoft) is one row with its update count, the shared version change or a major/minor/patch summary, and an Update button that reviews the whole group. Packages outside any family share an Other packages group. Open a group to see its packages and its narrower families as one-click selections, for example Orleans inside Microsoft selects every Microsoft.Orleans package but never Microsoft.OrleansExtra. Switch to List for a flat list of all updates with checkboxes. Every review lists the exact target versions per file and opens native VS Code diffs.

Search, the Groups/List switch and Prerelease (include preview versions) are always visible. The filter button opens the version policy (All including prereleases, Stable across all version numbers, Minor including patches within the current first number, or Patch within the current first and second numbers), update types (major, minor, patch, other), Show up-to-date packages and the package file; active filters appear as removable chips. Version numbers describe the search scope, not API compatibility or release quality. Choose families or individual packages to review their exact target versions. The footer shows the check status and the main Update action. Failed feed checks appear in a Couldn't check section and are never treated as up to date.

With nugetPackageManager.autoCheck enabled (default), the view automatically checks configured feeds when it opens, after you apply updates, and when package files change while the view is visible. Automatic checks reuse successful version lists for up to 10 minutes; Check for Updates always queries the feeds.

Wide layouts (780 px and wider) show groups, packages and package details side by side, with a neutral numeric updates overview. Narrower views open package details in a drawer. Use arrow keys to move, Right/Left to open or close a group, Space to select, Enter to open details and Escape to close the drawer or filter panel.

Updates require a trusted workspace. The extension applies version text through VS Code documents, preserving surrounding formatting. Files that were clean are saved; files that already had unsaved edits remain unsaved. A changed document invalidates the full review before edits are applied. Changing a central version affects all projects that consume it.

The VS Code display name is NuGet Package Manager by ManagedCode and the extension ID is managedcode.managedcode-nuget-package-manager. Install it from the VS Code Marketplace, or install a released .vsix from GitHub Releases using Extensions → … → Install from VSIX…. Release uploads to NuGet and Marketplace independently, without waiting for registry indexing.

The extension supports VS Code 1.100 or later and requires the .NET 10 runtime to run its bundled engine. Install the runtime using Microsoft's .NET download instructions. No Node.js installation is needed to use the extension.

Command-line tool

The tool package and command are named nuget-manager. Install a public release with:

dotnet tool install --global nuget-manager

Review and update the entire Orleans family in one operation:

nuget-manager update --family Microsoft.Orleans

Use --family Microsoft for the full first-segment family. Add --dry-run to inspect proposed changes without writing files.

The CLI and extension share the same parsing, NuGet version, feed listing, family matching, and edit engine. The CLI reviews proposed file changes before writing; use its dry-run/JSON options for automation and its confirmation option only when you intend to apply the reviewed updates. See CLI usage for the agreed command syntax.

An existing <Sdk Name="Aspire.AppHost.Sdk" Version="13.6.0" /> is included when updating the Aspire family, alongside its libraries. Each dependency uses its own available NuGet versions and selected update policy. Projects without an explicit SDK declaration stay unchanged; the manager never adds SDKs. Versionless SDKs are left alone. SDK versions in Project Sdk="Name/version", Import or global.json are not handled yet.

Supported scope and limits

• Central Package Management in Directory.Packages.props, literal PackageReference versions, and explicit <Sdk Name="…" Version="…" /> declarations in .csproj, .fsproj, and .vbproj files.
• First-segment package families and narrower dot-boundary prefixes, with bulk selection and review in both hosts.
• Listed versions discovered through configured NuGet V3 feeds. Stable versions are the default; prereleases can be included.
• Exact literal version edits with snapshot validation. Conditional declarations remain independently selectable.

Property expressions, ranges, wildcards, and other unsupported versions are visible for manual handling. The tool does not add or remove package references, resolve the .NET dependency graph, automatically restore projects, apply NuGet.config source mapping, or authenticate to private feeds. A failure from a configured source remains an error and cannot be represented as a complete successful check. Do not put credentials in source settings.

Development and project

The project follows the Managed Code Coding AI Framework (MCAF). See development setup, testing, and release operations. Public .NET skills are available in ManagedCode dotnet-skills. The extension and nuget-manager tool are licensed under the MIT License; imported MCAF skills carry CC BY 4.0 attribution in .codex/skills/MCAF-SOURCE.md.

Use Open manager at the top of the NuGet sidebar to open the full manager in an editor tab. Buttons and selected search segments follow your active VS Code theme.