Here is the official NuGet V3 API documentation. The API is composed of multiple protocols, including:
- The Service Index - used by the client to discover the NuGet services
- The Search Service - used by clients to search for NuGet packages
- The Registration - A json-LD based structure that stores the packages' metadata. This includes packages' content, dependencies, descriptions, etc...
- The "PackageBaseAddress" - The store that contains the actual packages and their manifest files (the
nuspec
).
For example, say you wanted to download the package "Newtonsoft.
Json":
- Get the service index: `GET https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json
The response contains the address of the PackageBaseAddress (aka, incorrectly as the flat container, as it is hierarchical and not flat :) ):
{
"@id": "https://api.nuget.org/v3-flatcontainer/",
"@type": "PackageBaseAddress/3.0.0",
"comment": "Base URL of Azure storage where NuGet package registration info for DNX is stored, in the format https://api.nuget.org/v3-flatcontainer/{id-lower}/{version-lower}.{version-lower}.nupkg"
},
- Use the uri provided by the @id as a base uri to list the versions of the desired package:
GET https://api.nuget.org/v3-flatcontainer/newtonsoft.json/index.json
, note that this uri is subject to change and is not part of the API
- Use the same base uri to download a package:
GET https://api.nuget.org/v3-flatcontainer/newtonsoft.json/6.0.4/newtonsoft.json.6.0.4.nupkg
You may also want to look at the NuGet client. The client's source code is
here; you'll want to start from the NuGet.CommandLine project and walk your way down the stack.