This repo contains an example of how we can work with github packages as a nuget package storage, and how can we publish and consumes packages.

We will work in a very similar way to how we would work with nuget.org, with the additional feature that we can publish private packages, simply making the containing repository visibility private.

https://docs.github.com/es/github/authenticating-to-github/creating-a-personal-access-token

 <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>netstandard2.0</TargetFramework>
    <PackageId>SuperLibrary</PackageId>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <Authors>authors</Authors>
    <PackageDescription>Super library for testing github packages</PackageDescription>
    <RepositoryUrl>https://github.com/jcl86/github-packages</RepositoryUrl>
  </PropertyGroup>

You could publish the repository with a few commands:

dotnet pack ./src/SuperLibrary/SuperLibrary.csproj -c release -o ./artifacts
dotnet nuget push ./artifacts/SuperLibrary.*.nupkg --api-key yourAccesTokenWithWritepermissionInGithubPackages --source https://nuget.pkg.github.com/OWNER/index.json --skip-duplicate

Or you can configure a pipeline like this:

https://github.com/jcl86/github-packages/blob/main/.github/workflows/publish-to-github-packages.yml

Inside the pipeline, the gitub access token (which was created in the first step) can be accesed via ${{secrets.GITHUB_TOKEN}} variable, provided by the action itself.

Once the package is uploaded to github packages, we can consume it from other sources:

Add a file called Nuget.Config in your consumer repository root

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
    <packageSources>
        <clear />
        <add key="github" value="https://nuget.pkg.github.com/OWNER/index.json" />
    </packageSources>
    <packageSourceCredentials>
        <github>
            <add key="Username" value="USERNAME" />
            <add key="ClearTextPassword" value="TOKEN" />
        </github>
    </packageSourceCredentials>
</configuration>

You must replace:

• USERNAME with the name of your user account on GitHub.
• TOKEN with your personal access token.
• OWNER with the name of the user or organization account that owns the repository containing your project.

As it contains user secrets, add Nuget.Config file to your repository .gitignore file

dotnet add src/SuperConsumer/SuperConsumer.csproj package SuperLibrary --version 1.0.6

If we want to conume a package that we have previously uploaded to github packages, we must configure nuget in the action, and then add a source with our credentials:

https://github.com/jcl86/github-packages/blob/main/.github/workflows/consumer.yml

GITHUB_TOKEN should contain the committer acces token, but if this is not your case, you can always put a valid access token in a secret:

      dotnet nuget add source https://nuget.pkg.github.com/jcl86/index.json -u your_user -n github -p ${{ secrets.READ_ACCESS_TOKEN }} --store-password-in-clear-text

https://docs.github.com/en/packages/working-with-a-github-packages-registry/working-with-the-nuget-registry

https://docs.github.com/en/packages/managing-github-packages-using-github-actions-workflows