Azure Artifacts in Azure Pipelines

Overview

Azure Artifacts provides integrated package management for Maven, npm, NuGet, and Python packages. This tutorial shows how to publish and consume packages within an Azure Pipelines CI/CD workflow.

Prerequisites

• Azure DevOps organization with a project
• Azure Pipelines enabled
• Access to a repository containing your source code

Step 1 – Create an Azure Artifacts Feed

1. Navigate to Artifacts in your project.
2. Click New feed, give it a name (e.g., my-feed), and set visibility.

Step 2 – Configure Pipeline to Publish Packages

Below is a sample azure-pipelines.yml that builds a .NET project and publishes a NuGet package to the feed.

trigger:
- main

variables:
  buildConfiguration: 'Release'
  feedName: 'my-feed'

pool:
  vmImage: 'windows-latest'

steps:
- task: UseDotNet@2
  inputs:
    packageType: 'sdk'
    version: '6.x'

- script: dotnet restore
  displayName: 'Restore NuGet packages'

- script: dotnet build --configuration $(buildConfiguration)
  displayName: 'Build solution'

- script: dotnet pack --configuration $(buildConfiguration) --output $(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)
  displayName: 'Pack NuGet package'

- task: NuGetCommand@2
  inputs:
    command: 'push'
    publishVstsFeed: '$(feedName)'
    packagesToPush: '$(Build.ArtifactStagingDirectory)/*.nupkg'
    versioningScheme: 'off'

Step 3 – Consume Packages from the Feed

Add the feed to your nuget.config or use the dotnet restore command with the --source option.

<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <add key="MyFeed" value="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/YourOrg/YourProject/_packaging/my-feed/nuget/v3/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
</configuration>

Step 4 – Set Up Permissions

Best Practices

• Use semantic versioning for packages.
• Lock feed access to specific groups.
• Enable retention policies to clean up old packages.