Defining Package Conventions

NuGet uses a convention over configuration approach. These conventions are rather simple and easy to remember, but deserve special attention before we start creating our first packages. Many of these conventions will be described throughout this book as we dive deeper into more advanced topics, but you need to be aware of one set of conventions before creating your first NuGet package. These are defined in the NuGet package manifest, also known as a nuspec file.

The NuGet specification (nuspec) file is the one that is describing the contents and the metadata of your package. It is included in each NuGet package, or nupkg file, and it is also the file you'll need to create the actual package. In short, before you can create a package, you'll need to describe it.