Incrementalist 1.0.0-rc5

This is a prerelease version of Incrementalist.
There is a newer version of this package available.
See the version list below for details.
dotnet add package Incrementalist --version 1.0.0-rc5
                    
NuGet\Install-Package Incrementalist -Version 1.0.0-rc5
                    
This command is intended to be used within the Package Manager Console in Visual Studio, as it uses the NuGet module's version of Install-Package.
<PackageReference Include="Incrementalist" Version="1.0.0-rc5" />
                    
For projects that support PackageReference, copy this XML node into the project file to reference the package.
<PackageVersion Include="Incrementalist" Version="1.0.0-rc5" />
                    
Directory.Packages.props
<PackageReference Include="Incrementalist" />
                    
Project file
For projects that support Central Package Management (CPM), copy this XML node into the solution Directory.Packages.props file to version the package.
paket add Incrementalist --version 1.0.0-rc5
                    
#r "nuget: Incrementalist, 1.0.0-rc5"
                    
#r directive can be used in F# Interactive and Polyglot Notebooks. Copy this into the interactive tool or source code of the script to reference the package.
#:package Incrementalist@1.0.0-rc5
                    
#:package directive can be used in C# file-based apps starting in .NET 10 preview 4. Copy this into a .cs file before any lines of code to reference the package.
#addin nuget:?package=Incrementalist&version=1.0.0-rc5&prerelease
                    
Install as a Cake Addin
#tool nuget:?package=Incrementalist&version=1.0.0-rc5&prerelease
                    
Install as a Cake Tool

🔄 Incrementalist

<img src="https://raw.githubusercontent.com/petabridge/Incrementalist/refs/heads/dev/docs/incrementalist-logo-dark.svg" width="90" alt="Incrementalist Logo" />

Incrementalist is a .NET tool that leverages libgit2sharp and Roslyn to compute incremental build steps for large .NET solutions. It helps optimize your CI/CD pipeline by building and testing only the projects affected by your changes.

🎯 When to Use Incrementalist

Incrementalist is particularly valuable for:

  • 🏗️ Large Solutions: If your solution contains dozens or hundreds of projects, Incrementalist can significantly reduce build times by only building what's necessary.
  • 📦 Monorepos: When managing multiple applications or services in a single repository, Incrementalist helps identify and build only the affected components.
  • 🌐 Microservice Architectures: In repositories containing multiple microservices, build only the services impacted by your changes.
  • 🔗 Complex Dependencies: When projects have intricate dependencies, Incrementalist automatically determines the complete build graph.
  • CI/CD Optimization: Reduce CI/CD pipeline execution time by skipping unnecessary builds and tests.

⚙️ Requirements

  • .NET 8.0 SDK or later
  • Git installed and available in the system PATH

📥 Installation

Incrementalist is available in two forms:

  1. Incrementalist Library - a .NET 8 library for programmatic use
  2. Incrementalist.Cmd - a dotnet tool for command-line use ( recommended)

Install the command-line tool globally:

dotnet tool install --global Incrementalist.Cmd

Or install locally in your project:

# From your repository root
dotnet new tool-manifest # if you haven't already created a .config/dotnet-tools.json
dotnet tool install Incrementalist.Cmd

Running as a Global Tool

When installed globally, run commands directly using the incrementalist command with one of the available verbs:

# Get list of affected projects
incrementalist run --dry -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt

# List affected folders
incrementalist list-affected-folders -b dev -f ./affected-folders.txt

# Run tests for affected projects
incrementalist run -b dev -- test -c Release

# Run tests for affected projects those matching a glob
incrementalist run -b dev --target-glob "src/*.Tests.csproj" -- test -c Release

Running as a Local Tool

When using Incrementalist as a local tool, you need to use dotnet tool run with an additional -- before the Incrementalist commands:

# Get list of affected projects
dotnet incrementalist -- -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt

# List affected folders
dotnet incrementalist -- list-affected-folders -b dev -f ./affected-folders.txt

# Build affected projects
dotnet incrementalist -- run -b dev -- build -c Release --nologo

# Run tests with coverage
dotnet incrementalist -- run -b dev -- test -c Release --no-build --logger:trx --collect:"XPlat Code Coverage" --results-directory ./testresults

# Run in parallel mode
dotnet incrementalist -- run -b dev --parallel -- build -c Release --nologo

# Save affected projects AND run commands
dotnet incrementalist -- -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt run -- build -c Release --nologo

![NOTE] Don't call dotnet tool run incrementalist - this runs into some very annoying parse issues: https://github.com/petabridge/Incrementalist/issues/378 . Just call dotnet incrementalist instead.

📄 Configuration Files

Incrementalist supports JSON configuration files to store commonly used settings. This eliminates the need to specify the same command-line arguments repeatedly.

# Use default configuration file (.incrementalist/incrementalist.json)
incrementalist run -- build

# Specify a custom configuration file
incrementalist -c my-config.json run -- build

# Create configuration file with current settings
incrementalist create-config -b dev --verbose --parallel

Create a configuration file in your repository:

{
  "gitBranch": "master",
  "solutionFilePath": "src/MySolution.sln",
  "verbose": true,
  "runInParallel": true
}

Command-line arguments take precedence over configuration file settings. See Configuration Documentation for complete details.

🚀 Quick Start Examples

# Get list of affected projects and save to file
incrementalist run --dry -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt

# Specify solution explicitly
incrementalist run --dry -s ./src/MySolution.sln -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt

# Get list of affected folders
incrementalist list-affected-folders -b dev -f ./affected-folders.txt

# Build only affected projects
incrementalist run -b dev -- build -c Release --nologo

# Run tests for affected projects
incrementalist run -b dev -- test -c Release --no-build --nologo

# Only include test projects in the final list
incrementalist run -b dev --target-glob "**/*.Tests.csproj" -f ./affected-test-projects.txt

# Exclude test projects from the final list
incrementalist run -b dev --skip-glob "**/*.Tests.csproj" -f ./affected-non-test-projects.txt

# Run tests with code coverage
incrementalist run -b dev -- test -c Release --no-build --nologo /p:CollectCoverage=true /p:CoverletOutputFormat=cobertura /p:CoverletOutput=./coverage/

# Save affected projects AND run commands
incrementalist run -b dev -f ./affected-projects.txt -- build -c Release --nologo

# Create configuration file with current settings (default path: .incrementalist/incrementalist.json)
incrementalist create-config -b dev --verbose --parallel

# Create configuration file with current settings and custom file name
incrementalist create-config -b dev --verbose --parallel -c ./my-incrementalist-config.json

# Run incrementalist with a custom configuration file
incrementalist run -c ./my-incrementalist-config.json -- build -c Release

# Perform a dry run without executing commands
incrementalist run -b dev --dry -- build -c Release --nologo

📄 Output Files

Incrementalist can generate two types of output files using -f, --file:

  1. Project Lists (with the run verb):

    D:\src\Project1\Project1.csproj,D:\src\Project2\Project2.csproj
    
  2. Folder Lists (with the list-affected-folders verb):

    D:\src\Project1,D:\src\Project2\SubFolder
    

These files can be used in build scripts, CI/CD pipelines, or other automation tools.

🛠️ Command-Line Options

Incrementalist now uses a verb-based command structure. Common options are available across all verbs, with some verb-specific options.

Common Options (available for all verbs)

  -s, --sln             Optional. Solution file to analyze. Uses first .sln in
                        current directory if not specified.

  -f, --file            Optional. Write output to the specified file.

  -b, --branch          Optional. Git branch to compare against
                        (e.g., 'dev' or 'master').

  -d, --dir             Optional. Working directory. Defaults to current directory.

  --verbose             Optional. (Default: false) Enable debug logging.

  -t, --timeout         Optional. (Default: 2) Solution load timeout in minutes.

  -c, --config          Optional. Path to the configuration file. Defaults to 
                        .incrementalist/incrementalist.json in the current directory.

  --continue-on-error   Optional. (Default: true) Continue executing commands even
                        if some fail.

  --parallel            Optional. (Default: false) Execute commands in parallel.

  --fail-on-no-projects Optional. (Default: false) Fail if no projects are affected.
                        
  --skip-glob           Optional. Glob pattern to exclude projects from the final
                        list. Applied after analyzing dependencies. Can be used
                        multiple times.
                        
  --target-glob         Optional. Glob pattern to include only matching projects in
                        the final list. Applied after analyzing dependencies. Can
                        be used multiple times.

  --help                Display help screen.

  --version             Display version information.

Available Verbs

create-config

Creates a new configuration file with current options.

incrementalist create-config [options]
list-affected-folders

List affected folders instead of .NET projects.

incrementalist list-affected-folders [options]
run

Run a command against affected projects. Use the --dry option to test without executing.

incrementalist run [options] -- [dotnet command and arguments]

Additional options for run:

  --dry                 Optional. (Default: false) Performs a dry run without
                        executing any commands. Useful for testing.

⚡ Running Commands

Execute dotnet CLI commands against affected projects using the run verb:

# Build affected projects
incrementalist run -b dev -- build -c Release --nologo

# Run tests
incrementalist run -b dev -- test -c Release --no-build --nologo

# Run in parallel
incrementalist run -b dev --parallel -- build -c Release --nologo

# Stop on first error
incrementalist run -b dev --continue-on-error=false -- build -c Release --nologo

# Perform a dry run (shows commands without executing them)
incrementalist run -b dev --dry -- build -c Release --nologo

🌐 Filtering Projects with Glob Patterns

After Incrementalist determines the initial set of affected projects based on Git changes and project dependencies, you can further refine this list using glob patterns.

  • --target-glob "<pattern>": Only includes projects whose paths match the specified glob pattern(s). If multiple patterns are provided, a project matching any of them will be included. This filter is applied first.
  • --skip-glob "<pattern>": Excludes projects whose paths match the specified glob pattern(s) from the list remaining after any --target-glob filters have been applied. If multiple patterns are provided, a project matching any of them will be excluded.

Both options can be specified multiple times on the command line.

Example: Find all affected projects, but only run the build command on non-test projects within the src directory.

incrementalist run -b dev --target-glob "src/**/*.csproj" --skip-glob "**/*.Tests.csproj" -- build -c Release --nologo

📚 Documentation

📜 License

Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0: http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

Copyright 2015-2025 Petabridge

Product Compatible and additional computed target framework versions.
.NET net8.0 is compatible.  net8.0-android was computed.  net8.0-browser was computed.  net8.0-ios was computed.  net8.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net8.0-macos was computed.  net8.0-tvos was computed.  net8.0-windows was computed.  net9.0 was computed.  net9.0-android was computed.  net9.0-browser was computed.  net9.0-ios was computed.  net9.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net9.0-macos was computed.  net9.0-tvos was computed.  net9.0-windows was computed.  net10.0 was computed.  net10.0-android was computed.  net10.0-browser was computed.  net10.0-ios was computed.  net10.0-maccatalyst was computed.  net10.0-macos was computed.  net10.0-tvos was computed.  net10.0-windows was computed. 
Compatible target framework(s)
Included target framework(s) (in package)
Learn more about Target Frameworks and .NET Standard.

NuGet packages

This package is not used by any NuGet packages.

GitHub repositories

This package is not used by any popular GitHub repositories.

Version Downloads Last Updated
1.1.0 149 9/3/2025
1.1.0-beta1 240 5/12/2025
1.0.0 169 4/18/2025
1.0.0-rc5 197 4/17/2025
1.0.0-rc4 193 4/17/2025
1.0.0-rc3 176 4/16/2025
1.0.0-rc2 213 4/14/2025
1.0.0-rc1 196 4/13/2025
1.0.0-beta4 97 2/25/2025
1.0.0-beta3 96 2/25/2025
1.0.0-beta2 98 2/24/2025
1.0.0-beta1 102 2/21/2025
0.9.0 311 11/22/2023
0.8.0 535 11/24/2022
0.7.0 557 5/24/2022
0.6.0 469 11/10/2021
0.5.0 480 6/16/2021
0.4.0 475 12/23/2020
0.3.0 670 9/26/2020
0.2.2 607 2/14/2020
0.2.1 608 11/18/2019
0.2.0 605 10/29/2019
0.1.7 644 9/9/2019
0.1.6 599 8/30/2019
0.1.5 656 8/30/2019
0.1.4 669 5/17/2019
0.1.3 680 5/15/2019
0.1.2 665 5/8/2019
0.1.1 657 5/8/2019

Bug fixes and improvements:

* Resolved: [Bug: config-based `SkipGlob` and `TargetGlob` get overwritten when not specified on CLI](https://github.com/petabridge/Incrementalist/issues/402)
* Resolved: [Don't log `null` when loading default config](https://github.com/petabridge/Incrementalist/pull/401)