.NET Local Tools

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

• Setting up consistent tooling across a development team
• Ensuring CI/CD pipelines use the same tool versions as local development
• Managing project-specific CLI tools (docfx, incrementalist, dotnet-ef, etc.)
• Avoiding global tool version conflicts between projects

What Are Local Tools?

Local tools are .NET CLI tools that are installed and versioned per-repository rather than globally. They're defined in .config/dotnet-tools.json and restored with dotnet tool restore.

Local vs Global Tools