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Provides abstractions for reading `.deps` files. When a .NET application is compiled, the SDK generates a JSON manifest file (`<ApplicationName>.deps.json`) that contains information about application dependencies. You can use `Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel` to read information from this manifest at run time. This is useful when you want to dynamically compile code (for example, using Roslyn Emit API) referencing the same dependencies as your main application. By default, the dependency manifest contains information about the application's target framework and runtime dependencies. Set the PreserveCompilationContext project property to `true` to additionally include information about reference assemblies used during compilation.

Total Downloads
3.8B
3,832,872,321
Published
Oct 25, 2026
9d ago

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dotnet add package Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel --version 10.0.14
ProductVersions
.NET
net10.0net8.0net9.0
.NET Standard
netstandard2.0
Other
.NETFramework4.6.2

README

About

Provides abstractions for reading .deps files. When a .NET application is compiled, the SDK generates a JSON manifest file (<ApplicationName>.deps.json) that contains information about application dependencies. You can use Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel to read information from this manifest at run time. This is useful when you want to dynamically compile code (for example, using Roslyn Emit API) referencing the same dependencies as your main application.

By default, the dependency manifest contains information about the application's target framework and runtime dependencies. Set the PreserveCompilationContext project property to true to additionally include information about reference assemblies used during compilation.

How to Use

The following example shows how to display the list of assemblies used when compiling the current application. Include <PreserveCompilationContext>true</PreserveCompilationContext> in your project file to run this example.

using System;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel;

class Program
{
    static void Main()
    {
        Console.WriteLine("Compilation libraries:");
        Console.WriteLine();

        foreach (CompilationLibrary lib in DependencyContext.Default.CompileLibraries)
        {
            foreach (string path in lib.ResolveReferencePaths())
            {
                Console.WriteLine(path);
            }
        }
    }
}

Additional Documentation

Feedback & Contributing

Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyModel is released as open source under the MIT license. Bug reports and contributions are welcome at the GitHub repository.

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