dotnet tool¶

ID: dotnet
Links: Documentation · Repository
Upstream stars: ⭐ 3,218
Last commit: 2026-09-29
Version requirement: >= 8.0.400
Platforms: 🐧 Linux · 🍎 macOS · 🪟 Windows
Operations: installed · search · install · upgrade · upgrade_all · remove
purl types: pkg:dotnet/ · pkg:nuget/
CLI name: dotnet
Every call: dotnet tool <command>
Forced environment: DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT=1
DOTNET_CLI_UI_LANGUAGE=en-us
DOTNET_NOLOGO=1
Issues and PRs: 📦 manager: dotnet
Source: dotnet.py

.NET global tools, the CLI programs the .NET SDK installs from NuGet.

Every operation goes through the dotnet tool subcommand group, forced by DotNet.pre_args, and targets the user-wide scope with --global. Global tools land under ~/.dotnet/tools and are never shared between users, so no operation escalates: elevation is only ever needed for the separate --tool-path scenario, which this wrapper does not drive.

What `mpm` adds to `dotnet`¶

Through mpm, dotnet gains --exact and --extended search, to narrow to exact names or match descriptions.

Bigger still, mpm reaches across every manager at once: mpm installed and mpm outdated cover dotnet alongside every other manager you run in one table, mpm upgrade --all updates them together, and mpm sbom exports the whole machine as one bill of materials.

Every mpm command also gains --dry-run and --plan previews, cross-scheme version comparison and purl identifiers. See manager augmentations for how each one is built.

Your `dotnet` commands, in `mpm`¶

You already know dotnet: each operation maps one-to-one onto mpm, in an interface shared by every manager.

To…	With `dotnet`	With `mpm`
List what’s installed	`dotnet list --global`	`mpm --dotnet installed`
Search for a package	`dotnet search format`	`mpm --dotnet search format`
Install a package	`dotnet install --global dotnetsay`	`mpm install pkg:dotnet/dotnetsay`
Upgrade one package	`dotnet update --global dotnetsay`	`mpm --dotnet upgrade dotnetsay`
Upgrade everything	`dotnet update --global --all`	`mpm --dotnet upgrade --all`
Remove a package	`dotnet uninstall --global dotnetsay`	`mpm remove pkg:dotnet/dotnetsay`

Prefix any command above with --dry-run to simulate the underlying manager calls without touching the system: the safe way to watch what mpm would do before trusting it.

Operations¶

Operation	Supported	Notes
`installed`	✅
`outdated`	❌	The SDK ships no way to compare installed tools against NuGet without mutating them (dotnet/sdk#22853, closed as not planned); `upgrade --all` is unaffected.
`orphans`
`search`	✅	Exact and extended search backfilled by `mpm`.
`install`	✅
`upgrade`	✅
`upgrade_all`	✅
`remove`	✅
`sync`
`cleanup`	❌	Nothing clears only the global tools’ cache; `dotnet nuget locals` empties the machine-wide folder every .NET project restores against.
`doctor`

Configuration¶

Ignore dotnet on the mpm CLI by passing the --no-dotnet option.
Ignore it for every run in your configuration:
```
[mpm]
dotnet = false
```
Raise the timeout of all dotnet calls:
```
[mpm.overrides.dotnet]
timeout = 900
```

Run mpm config-template dotnet to print all overridable settings for your configuration file:

[mpm.overrides.dotnet]
cli_names = [
    "dotnet",
]
cli_search_path = []
dry_run = false
ignore_auto_updates = true
plan = false
post_args = []
pre_args = [
    "tool",
]
pre_cmds = []
requirement = ">=8.0.400"
stop_on_error = false
unmaintained = false
version_cli_options = [
    "--version",
]
version_regexes = [
    "^(?P<version>\\d+\\.\\d+\\.\\d+\\S*)",
]

[mpm.overrides.dotnet.extra_env]
DOTNET_CLI_UI_LANGUAGE = "en-us"
DOTNET_NOLOGO = "1"
DOTNET_CLI_TELEMETRY_OPTOUT = "1"

The arguments and environment variables listed in the box atop this page are forced on every dotnet call, so runs stay quiet, non-interactive and reproducible: the defaults you would set in CI anyway.

Recipes¶

A few jobs you would otherwise script around dotnet, one mpm command each:

Snapshot and clone a machine: mpm --dotnet dump dotnet.toml, then mpm restore dotnet.toml on the next one.
Export a compliance SBOM: mpm --dotnet sbom (CycloneDX by default, --spdx for SPDX).

Privilege escalation¶

mpm runs this manager as the current user and never prepends sudo by default. Flip the policy for its privileged operations with --sudo or the per-manager sudo override.

None of its operations is privileged.

See privilege escalation for the full policy.

Cooldown¶

State of dotnet tool’s release-age gating, from the cooldown support table:

Status: 🚧 Proposed (scoped to dotnet package flows, not dotnet tool)
Mechanism: minPublishAgeHours per source in nuget.config (open spec)
Reference: NuGet/Home#14657

A cooldown only pays off where a compromised release can be withdrawn while the clock runs, and can only be emulated where the registry dates its releases. From the retraction table:

Registry: NuGet.org (pkg:nuget)
Retraction: Yank (unlist): “nuget.org does not support permanent deletion of packages”, so an unlisted version leaves search and the gallery but “can still be downloaded and installed by using an exact version number” (policy). Malware is the carve-out, deleted outright, each removal landing in the public catalog as a PackageDelete leaf (catalog)
Publish date: ✅ published on each registration catalogEntry, but overwritten with 1900-01-01T00:00:00+00:00 the moment a version is unlisted, and absent from the search resource (API)

With --cooldown set, mpm skips this manager’s install and upgrade operations rather than run them unguarded (fail-closed); --cooldown best-effort opts back in.

Reference traces¶

A collection of raw native outputs captured from the manager’s own CLI and recorded in the manager source. If you know dotnet tool well and a transcript below looks wrong, or a newer release changed its output format, report it.

$ dotnet tool list --global
Package Id      Version      Commands
--------------------------------------
dotnet-ef       2.1.11       dotnet-ef

Version check¶

The version is probed by running:

$ dotnet --version
9.0.306

and extracted with:

r"^(?P<version>\d+\.\d+\.\d+\S*)"

Upstream project¶

Metrics	`dotnet/sdk`
Activity
Popularity
Metadata

Changelog¶

8.0.0 (2026-09-20)
- Resolve the pkg:conda, pkg:golang, pkg:haxe and pkg:nuget pURL types to these managers, which raised instead of routing.
- Add the .NET global tool manager with installed, search, install, upgrade and remove support, including version pinning, its localized listings pinned to one language.