Getting started

This walks through publishing a Kotlin/Native library as a NuGet package and consuming it from a C# project, end to end. It mirrors test-library/build.gradle.kts and the IntegrationTests project in this repo, read those alongside this page for a working reference.

1. Apply the plugin

// build.gradle.kts
plugins {
  kotlin("multiplatform")
  id("io.github.xxfast.kotlin.native.nuget") version "<version>"
}

The plugin id on the Gradle Plugin Portal is io.github.xxfast.kotlin.native.nuget. The same artifacts are on Maven Central under io.github.xxfast.

2. Declare native targets

Every target that should ship a native binary needs a sharedLib binary. Leave baseName unset: the plugin names the native library from packageId (MyCatLib becomes kn_mycatlib.dll on Windows, libkn_mycatlib.dylib on macOS, ...), and the generated C# [DllImport]s that name.

kotlin {
  mingwX64 { binaries { sharedLib() } }
  macosArm64 { binaries { sharedLib() } }
}

Targets outside the supported set are skipped with a warning; see Prerequisites for the full target to RID table.

3. Configure the package

nuget {
  publish {
    packageId = "MyCatLib"
    version = "1.0.0"
    authors = "yourname"
    description = "My Kotlin/Native library"
    rootPackage = "com.example.cats"
  }
}

rootPackage is the Kotlin package the generated C# namespaces are rooted at; sub-packages map relative to it. See the nuget {} DSL reference for every field.

4. Pack it

./gradlew packNuget

packNuget runs KSP to generate the C# bindings, links the shared libraries for every configured target, and writes a real .nupkg at:

build/nuget/MyCatLib.1.0.0.nupkg

(the staged, unzipped contents sit alongside it at build/nuget/MyCatLib.1.0.0/). No .NET SDK is required for this step; see Prerequisites for what it does when one is present.

5. Consume it from C#

Point a C# project at the folder containing the .nupkg as a local NuGet feed and add a PackageReference. To publish to a real feed instead, run ./gradlew publishNuget; see Publish a Kotlin/Native library as NuGet. The package ships the native libs under runtimes/{rid}/native/ and the pre-generated Interop.cs under contentFiles/cs/<tfm>/, both wire up automatically, no consumer-side codegen.

<!-- your.csproj -->
<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="MyCatLib" Version="1.0.0" />
</ItemGroup>

using var oreo = new Cat("Oreo", 9);
Console.WriteLine(oreo.Speak());

For the mapping between individual Kotlin constructs and their generated C# shape, see Publishing Kotlin to C#.

Last modified: 03 November 2026