Configure NuGet With Nexus

Add a new <packageSource> with a unique key and the URL of your NuGet group repository. Use the following syntax to configure a package source in NuGet.Config file:

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="Nexus" value="<repository-url>" /> 
  </packageSources>
</configuration>

Where,

The following example configures a NuGet v3 group repository as the only package source:

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
    <add key="Nexus" value="https://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-group/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
</configuration>

Configure authentication with Nexus Repository by adding the packageSourceCredentials section in NuGet.Config file. Sonatype recommends using API tokens instead of basic authentication credentials:

<packageSourceCredentials>
  <Nexus>
    <add key="Username" value="%NEXUS_USERNAME%" />
    <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="%NEXUS_PASSWORD%" />
  </Nexus>
</packageSourceCredentials>

Where,

Example:

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="Nexus" value="https://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-group/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <Nexus>
      <add key="Username" value="admin" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="admin123" />
    </Nexus>
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

Example to configure both group (consumption) and hosted (publish) repositories in NuGet V3:

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="Nexus" value="http://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-group/index.json" />
    <add key="NexusHosted" value="http://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-hosted/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <Nexus>
      <add key="Username" value="admin" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="admin123" />
    </Nexus>
    <NexusHosted>
      <add key="Username" value="admin" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="admin123" />
    </NexusHosted>
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

Example to configure both group (consumption) and hosted (publish) repositories in NuGet V2:

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="Nexus" value="http://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-group" />
    <add key="NexusHosted" value="http://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-hosted/" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <Nexus>
      <add key="Username" value="admin" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="admin123" />
    </Nexus>
    <NexusHosted>
      <add key="Username" value="admin" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="admin123" />
    </NexusHosted>
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

Users with the nx-apikey-all privilege may access the NuGet API key feature. Using API keys requires the NuGet API-Key Realm to be activated. See Realms for more details.

To access your API Key, navigate to My Account → NuGet API Key → Access API Key.

This user specific key can be used for all NuGet repositories. If the key is regenerated, the previous keys would become invalid.

nuget setapikey <API_key> -Source <source_URL>

Note that the dotnet CLI does not directly support the setapikey command. The dotnet CLI uses user tokens for authentication with NuGet sources. To access usertoken, navigate to My Account → User Token → Access User Token.

You can also use environment variables to store credentials instead of hardcoding them in configuration files.

After setting environment variables, reference them in your NuGet.Config using the %VARIABLE_NAME% syntax.

Use the dotnet nuget commands to configure package sources without manually editing configuration files.

dotnet nuget add source "<repository-url>" \
  --name "<source-name>" \
  --username "<username>" \
  --password "<password-or-token>"

Where,

Example:

dotnet nuget add source "https://nexus.example.com/repository/nuget-group/index.json" \
  --name "Nexus" \
  --username "admin" \
  --password "admin123"

If you have already added the source and need to configure authentication, update your NuGet.Config file with credentials or use environment variables.

Sonatype recommends removing the default sources and only using Nexus Repository for retrieving packages. Use the dotnet nuget remove source command with the --name option to remove each source individually. It modifies the user-level nuget.config file. To clear sources for a specific project or solution, you'll need to run the command within the respective directory. Use dotnet nuget list source again to verify that they have been removed from your configuration.

dotnet nuget list source

dotnet nuget remove source --name "source_name_1"
dotnet nuget remove source --name "source_name_2"

You can also specify the source directly when using NuGet commands:

dotnet add package Newtonsoft.Json --source http://example.nexus.com/repository/nuget-group/index.json
 --username "your-nexus-username" --password "your-nexus-api-key"

To access a NuGet repository provide the URL from the repository manager to configure Name and Source in the Visual Studio configuration for the Package Sources of the NuGet Package Manager.

With this configuration in place, packages available in your NuGet repository are available in the NuGet Package Manager in Visual Studio.

Configure Chocolatey CLI to use Nexus Repository as the package source. Run the following command in an elevated (Administrator) PowerShell or Command Prompt:

choco source add `
  --name="<source-name>" `
  --source="<repository-url>" `
  --user="<username>" `
  --password="<password-or-token>"

Where,

Example:

choco source add `
  --name="nexus" `
  --source="https://example.nexus.com/repository/chocolatey/" `
  --user="admin" `
  --password="admin123"

Example to associate an API Key with a hosted repository using environmental variables:

choco apikey add
--source="https://nexus.example.com/repository/nuget-hosted/" `
--key="$env:NUGET_API_KEY"

Any SymSrv-compliant debugger can be pointed at a Nexus Repository symbol server URL. This section covers the common configuration methods for .NET debuggers. In all the cases, use the following URL structure for the debugger:

http://<nexus-host>:<nexus-port>/repository/<repository-name>/symbols

Where,

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="Nexus"
         value="http://your-nexus-server:8081/repository/nuget-group/index.json"
         allowInsecureConnections="true" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceCredentials>
    <nexus>
      <add key="Username" value="your-username" />
      <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="your-password" />
    </nexus>
  </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

dotnet-symbol --symbols \
  --server-path http://your-nexus-server:8081/repository/nuget-group/symbols \
  /path/to/MyLibrary.dll

{
  "version": "0.2.0",
  "configurations": [
    {
      "name": ".NET Core Launch (console)",
      "type": "coreclr",
      "request": "launch",
      "program": "${workspaceFolder}/bin/Debug/net8.0/MyApp.dll",
      "cwd": "${workspaceFolder}",
      "console": "internalConsole",
      "symbolOptions": {
        "searchPaths": [
          "http://your-nexus-server:8081/repository/nuget-group/symbols"
        ],
        "searchMicrosoftSymbolServer": false,
        "searchNuGetOrgSymbolServer": false
      }
    }
  ]
}