Cake

Cake v7.0.0 released

2026-11-10T00:00:00Z

Version 7.0.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to Cake Scripting, Cake Frosting and Cake Sdk since the Cake v6.3.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

.NET 11 & C# 15 support — Cake now runs on .NET 11 and .NET 10 with C# 15 scripting support; .NET 8 and .NET 9 are no longer supported for running Cake itself.
One container, one host — Cake.Tool has moved from Autofac to Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection, and the ServiceProvider alias gives you the same DI experience across Cake .NET Tool, Cake Frosting and Cake.Sdk.
Unified dependency graph by default — When running multiple targets, shared dependencies now only execute once.
Tools on demand — New InstallTool / InstallTools aliases let you install tools from within a task, only when they're actually needed.
DSL improvements — IsDependentOn / IsDependeeOf with multiple tasks, async DoesForEach (including IAsyncEnumerable), IFile content extensions aligned with System.IO.File, and GetFileSystemInfos.
New aliases — Tar / Untar, DotNetRunCode, DotNetUpdatePackage, DotNetSlnMigrate, DotNetProjectConvert, DotNetDownloadPackage, DotNetNuGetWhy and DotNetNuGetLocals, plus new .NET 11 settings for DotNetRun, DotNetTest and DotNetFormat.
Container publishing — DotNetPublish can now produce container images, pushed to a registry, loaded into a local Docker / Podman / WSL container engine, or saved as a tarball.
.NET 11 process APIs — Kill child processes when Cake exits, fire-and-forget processes, discard output, and pipe content to standard input.
GitHub Actions to Azure without secrets — The new AzureLogin command exchanges a GitHub Actions OIDC token for an Azure access token.
Cake.Template cakeci template — Scaffold a minimal CI pipeline running your Cake file-based build for eight different CI providers.
Addin recommended Cake version set to 7.0.0
Bug fixes, dependency and SDK updates

.NET 11 support & C# 15 support

Cake now fully supports running on .NET 11, and with this C# 15, which means you can take advantage of the latest framework, runtime, and language improvements (#4998, #4999). When running on .NET 11, Cake is also built with the new .NET 11 runtime async enabled (#5177).

Cake itself will no longer run on .NET 8 or .NET 9 (#4997), but Cake will continue to support building projects targeting .NET 9, .NET 8, older versions of .NET and .NET Framework.

The supported platform matrix for Cake 7.0.0 will look like this:

Runner	.NET 11	.NET 10
Cake .NET Tool
Cake Frosting
Cake.Sdk

Cake.Template now defaults to net11.0.

Breaking changes

As with every major release, we've taken the opportunity to clean things up. Most builds should just work, but these are the changes worth knowing about:

.NET 8 & .NET 9 dropped — Cake now targets net10.0 and net11.0 (#4997, generator#206).
Unified dependency graph is now the default — See below for details and how to opt out (#5060).
Tri-state DotNet switches — Switches where the .NET CLI picks a default based on the environment are now bool?, so you can explicitly opt out. This affects Interactive on DotNetRestoreSettings, DotNetReferenceAddSettings, DotNetProjectConvertSettings, DotNetWorkloadInstallSettings and DotNetWorkloadRestoreSettings, and CreateManifestIfNeeded on DotNetToolInstallSettings. null (default) leaves it to the .NET CLI, true / false are passed on explicitly, i.e. --interactive false (#5169).
Autofac replaced by Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection in Cake.Tool (#2835). Modules registering through ICakeContainerRegistrar keep working as before.
Obsolete members removed (#5003) and Spectre.Console.Cli updated to 0.57.2 (#5079).
Cake.Sdk — The generated public Program.ServiceProvider is gone in favour of the Cake.Common ServiceProvider alias, so replace any Program.ServiceProvider with ServiceProvider or Context.ServiceProvider (generator#203). Likewise, the generated InstallTool helpers are replaced by the Cake.Common aliases, existing InstallTool(...) calls keep working, but Program.IToolInstaller references should use Cake.Core.Tooling.IToolInstaller (generator#201).

One container, one host

With Cake.Tool migrated from Autofac to Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection (#2835), all three runners now share the same DI container, and the ServiceProvider alias that Cake.Sdk users already know is now available on ICakeContext everywhere.

That means services registered by a module loaded with the #module directive can be resolved straight from your script:

#module nuget:?package=Cake.MyService.Module&version=1.0.0

Task("MyTask")
    .Does(() =>
{
    ServiceProvider
        .GetRequiredService<IMyService>()
        .DoWork();
});

RunTarget("MyTask");

The very same module works with Cake Frosting, where you also get constructor injection into your tasks:

return new CakeHost()
    .UseModule<MyServiceModule>()
    .ConfigureServices(services =>
        services.AddSingleton<IOtherService, OtherService>())
    .Run(args);

public sealed class MyTask(IMyService myService) : FrostingTask<FrostingContext>
{
    public override void Run(FrostingContext context)
    {
        myService.DoWork();
        context.ServiceProvider
            .GetRequiredService<IOtherService>()
            .DoWork();
    }
}

Cake.Sdk now also runs on the same BuildScriptHost as Cake .NET Tool (generator#208), so settings and behavior are identical regardless of runner. On the topic of consistency, Cake Frosting no longer exits with -1 for any kind of error; it now returns the CakeException.ExitCode (1 by default), just like the other runners (#3830, generator#207).

Unified dependency graph by default

In Cake 6.2.0 we introduced an opt-in unified dependency graph when running multiple targets, so dependencies shared between targets only execute once. In Cake 7.0.0 this is now the default (#5060).

dotnet cake --target=Test --target=Pack

Above, a shared Build dependency will now execute once, not once per target. If you rely on the previous behavior, you can opt out via argument

dotnet cake --target=Test --target=Pack --Settings_UnifiedDependencyGraphForMultipleTargets=false

or via cake.config

[Settings]
UnifiedDependencyGraphForMultipleTargets=false

Tools on demand & DSL improvements

#tool directives install tools up front, before your build runs. With the new InstallTool / InstallTools aliases (#2471) you can install tools from within a task, only when that task actually executes. This works with all runners.

Task("GitVersion")
    .Does(() =>
{
    InstallTool("dotnet:?package=GitVersion.Tool&version=6.8.2");
    // ...
});

The DSL also received a few quality of life improvements:

var unit = Task("Unit");
var integration = Task("Integration");

Task("Test")
    // Depend on multiple tasks, by builder or by name (#1462)
    .IsDependentOn([unit, integration])
    // Async DoesForEach, also supports IAsyncEnumerable (#5129)
    .DoesForEach(
        GetFiles("./artifacts/*.trx"),
        async trx =>
        {
            // IFile content extensions aligned with System.IO.File (#5081)
            var xml = await Context.FileSystem
                                .GetFile(trx)
                                .ReadAllTextAsync();

            Information($"{trx.GetFilename()}: {xml.Length} chars");
        });

IsDependentOn and IsDependeeOf accept multiple task names or task builders (#1462).
DoesForEach has async overloads, including IAsyncEnumerable<T> (#5129).
IFile has content read / write extensions mirroring System.IO.File, i.e. ReadAllText, ReadAllLines, WriteAllText, AppendAllLines, and their async counterparts (#5081).
GetFileSystemInfos lets you glob both files and directories in one go (#4660).

New aliases

Cake 7.0.0 comes with a bunch of new aliases:

// Create and extract tar archives (#5087)
Tar("./publish", "publish.tar.gz", new TarSettings {
    Compression = TarCompression.GZip
});
Untar("publish.tar.gz", "./publish");

// Update vulnerable packages (#5089)
DotNetUpdatePackage(new DotNetPackageUpdateSettings {
    Project = "./src/App.csproj",
    Vulnerable = true
});

// Migrate .sln to .slnx (#5105)
DotNetSlnMigrate("./src/HelloWorldApp.sln");

// Convert a file-based app to a project (#5107)
DotNetProjectConvert("./scripts/tool.cs");

// Run C# code via dotnet run - (#5127)
DotNetRunCode("""
    Console.WriteLine("Hello from dotnet run -");
    """);

Also new are DotNetDownloadPackage (#5103), DotNetNuGetWhy (#5109) and DotNetNuGetLocalsList / DotNetNuGetLocalsClear (#5112), together with new .NET 11 settings for DotNetRun (#5115), Microsoft Testing Platform settings for DotNetTest (#5119) and Framework for DotNetFormat (#5117).

Container publishing

DotNetPublish now supports publishing container images (#5159, #5173), either through the new Container settings or the convenience extension methods:

// Push to a container registry
DotNetPublish("./src/App/App.csproj", new DotNetPublishSettings()
    .WithContainerRegistry("ghcr.io", "devlead/app", "latest"));

// Load into local Docker, Podman or WSL container engine
DotNetPublish("./src/App/App.csproj", new DotNetPublishSettings()
    .WithContainerLocalRegistry(DotNetContainerLocalRegistry.Podman, "app")
    .WithContainerBaseImage("mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime:11.0"));

// Save as a tarball
DotNetPublish("./src/App/App.csproj", new DotNetPublishSettings()
    .WithContainerArchive("./artifacts/app.tar.gz"));

And as Cake.Sdk builds are regular .NET apps, you can publish your Cake build itself as a container, ready to run in any CI or container environment:

dotnet publish cake.cs \
  -t:PublishContainer \
  -p:ContainerBaseImage='mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:11.0-resolute-aot' \
  -p:ContainerUser=root \
  -p:ContainerRepository=cake-sdk \
  -p:LocalRegistry=Docker

.NET 11 process APIs

When Cake runs on .NET 11, ProcessSettings can opt in to the new .NET 11 process APIs on a per process basis (#5085), i.e. KillOnParentExit, StartDetached, RestrictInheritedHandles, DiscardStandardOutput and DiscardStandardError, and there's a new StartProcessAndForget alias returning the process id.

var dotnet = Context.Tools.Resolve("dotnet.exe")
             ?? Context.Tools.Resolve("dotnet");

var processId = StartProcessAndForget(dotnet, "--version");
Information("Process ID: {0}", processId);

var exitCode = StartProcess(
    dotnet,
    new ProcessSettings {
        Arguments = "--version",
        KillOnParentExit = true,
        RestrictInheritedHandles = true,
        DiscardStandardOutput = true,
        DiscardStandardError = true
    });

Regardless of .NET version, you can now also pass standard input to a process (#5125), as a string or bytes:

var exitCode = StartProcess(
    dotnet,
    new ProcessSettings {
        Arguments = "run -",
        StandardInput = """
            Console.Write("Hello from stdin");
            """
    });

GitHub Actions to Azure without secrets

Building on the NuGetLogin trusted publishing support from Cake 6.3.0, Cake 7.0.0 adds AzureLogin (#5070), which exchanges a GitHub Actions OIDC token for an Azure access token. No Azure CLI and no client secret needed:

Task("Deploy")
    .Does(async () =>
{
    var accessToken = await GitHubActions.Commands.AzureLogin(
        EnvironmentVariable("AZURE_TENANT_ID"),
        EnvironmentVariable("AZURE_CLIENT_ID"));

    // ...deploy using Azure SDK / tools
});

If you're using Azure.Identity, AzurePrepareWorkloadIdentity writes a federated token file that WorkloadIdentityCredential / DefaultAzureCredential picks up:

var workload = await GitHubActions.Commands.AzurePrepareWorkloadIdentity(
    EnvironmentVariable("AZURE_TENANT_ID"),
    EnvironmentVariable("AZURE_CLIENT_ID"));

DotNetRun("./src/Deploy", new DotNetRunSettings {
    EnvironmentVariables = {
        ["AZURE_TENANT_ID"] = workload.TenantId,
        ["AZURE_CLIENT_ID"] = workload.ClientId,
        ["AZURE_FEDERATED_TOKEN_FILE"] = workload.FederatedTokenFile.FullPath
    }
});

Your workflow needs the id-token: write permission for the token request to succeed.

Cake.Template cakeci template

Cake.Template has a new cakeci template (generator#255), which scaffolds a minimal CI pipeline running your Cake file-based build:

dotnet new install Cake.Template

dotnet new cakeci --Provider github
dotnet new cakeci --Provider github --OS matrix
dotnet new cakeci --Provider azuredevops
dotnet new cakeci --Provider gitlab --Framework net10.0

Supported providers are github, azuredevops, bitbucket, gitlab, appveyor, woodpecker, rwx and bitrise.

Addin recommended Cake version set to 7.0.0

We've now set the recommended version of Cake.Core for addins to target to 7.0.0 (#5001).

This won't break the build, but you might see warnings like the one below when addins or modules are loaded.

The assembly 'Cake.Addin, Version=6.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (6.0.0).
For best compatibility it should target Cake.Core version 7.0.0.

The recommended target framework monikers for addins are now:

net11.0
net10.0

...and more

This release also includes a lot of smaller improvements and fixes: interpolated strings now correctly bind to the FormattableString log overloads (#5155, generator#258), using declarations on the first line are no longer hoisted as using alias directives (#5157), GetSpecialPath maps correctly on Unix (#5095), legacy .NET Framework / CoreCLR host code has been removed and internals modernized with frozen collections, GeneratedRegex and System.Text.Json, and the API docs now include Cake DSL examples (#5024, #5026, #5028, #5030).

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

Cake

As part of this release we had Cake 106 issues closed.

Breaking change

#5169 Make environment-defaulted DotNet switches tri-state to allow explicit opt-out.
#5079 Update Spectre.Console.Cli to 0.57.2.
#5060 Make unified dependency graph the default when running multiple targets.
#5003 Remove obsolete members / methods.
#5001 Update LatestPotentialBreakingChange to 7.0.0.
#4997 Remove Unsupported TFMS .NET 8 & 9 (net8.0 & net9.0).
#2835 Migrate Cake.Tool from Autofac to Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection.

Feature

#5187 Update .NET SDK to 11.0.100.
#5159 Add container publishing support to DotNetPublish.
#5127 Add DotNetRunCode aliases for dotnet run -.
#5125 Add ProcessSettings.StandardInput for StartProcess.
#5115 Add .NET 11 DotNetRun settings (environment, file, device, artifacts-path, no-cache).
#5112 Add DotNetNuGetLocalsList and Clear aliases.
#5109 Add DotNetNuGetWhy aliases for package dependency graphs.
#5107 Add DotNetProjectConvert aliases for file-based apps.
#5105 Add DotNetSlnMigrate aliases for sln to slnx.
#5103 Add DotNetDownloadPackage aliases for dotnet package download.
#5089 Add DotNetUpdatePackage aliases for dotnet package update.
#5087 Add Tar and Untar aliases for creating and extracting tar archives.
#5085 Add opt-in .NET 11 Process API support to Cake.
#5081 Add IFile content read/write extensions aligned with System.IO.File.
#5070 Add GitHub Actions AzureLogin for OIDC.
#5066 Drop dead runtime checks and Task.Run wrappers.
#4999 C# 15 Scripting Support.
#4998 Add .NET 11 (net11.0) TFM.
#4660 Consider adding IFileSystemInfo returning APIs in addition to IFile and IDirectory.
#2471 Install a nuget tool on demand.
#1269 Request for Task.Tool("nuget:?package=etc") .

Improvement

#5189 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.15.
#5185 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 10.0.15 (net10.0) & 11.0.0 (net11.0).
#5183 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 10.0.15 (net10.0) & 11.0.0 (net11.0).
#5181 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.14.
#5177 Enable .NET 11 runtime async for net11.0 builds.
#5175 Render --description task list as a Spectre.Console table.
#5173 Add base image support to DotNetPublish container settings extensions.
#5164 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.13.
#5163 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 10.0.14 (net10.0) & 11.0.0-rc.3.26522.148 (net11.0).
#5162 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 10.0.14 (net10.0) & 11.0.0-rc.3.26522.148 (net11.0).
#5134 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 11.0.0-rc.2.26504.105 (net11.0).
#5133 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 11.0.0-rc.2.26504.105 (net11.0).
#5131 System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs 10.0.12 has a known severity.
#5129 Add async DoesForEach and IAsyncEnumerable overloads.
#5119 Add .NET 11 DotNetTest MTP settings.
#5117 Add DotNetFormat Framework setting.
#5093 Drop leftover CoreCLR / NETFRAMEWORK host branches.
#5091 Remove Framework-era host fallbacks now that Cake targets net10/net11 only.
#5072 Stop embedding Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms; resolve #addin assets with the portable RID graph.
#5068 Freeze the NuGet deny list and drop unused Rider/xUnit leftovers.
#5064 Follow-up: FrozenDictionary and GeneratedRegex.
#5062 Modernize remaining CoreCLR polyfill internals.
#5058 Use Length and Frozen/GeneratedRegex for engine hygiene/perf.
#5056 Handle empty Assembly.Location in CakeRunner and VersionResolver.
#5054 Migrate GoCD history JSON to System.Text.Json.
#5052 Use SHA256.HashData instead of static shared HashAlgorithm instance.
#5050 Remove dead TFM conditionals after net10.0/net11.0 cut.
#5036 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.12.
#5035 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.23.0.
#5019 Add missing Azure Pipelines System.PullRequest predefined variables.
#4231 MsBuild Path for BuildTools is not recognized correctly.
#2413 TFBuildCommand PublishTestResults API Change.
#2373 Add method to ProcessArgumentBuilder class to insert argument at any location.
#1462 IsDependentOn with multiple tasks.
#1461 Non-formatting ICakeConsole.WriteLine overload.
#1367 A comment precisely constructed with a hyperlink immediately after the // on the same line as your #addin preprocessor directive when just using the Package Name causes nuget to fail to find the package.
#1272 Improper quoting of all command line arguments.

Documentation

#5030 Add Cake DSL examples to ICakeContext, IFileSystem, ProcessArgumentBuilder, and ToolSettings.
#5028 Add Cake DSL examples to Task, Does, and CakeTaskBuilder.
#5026 Add a Cake DSL example to GetCallerInfo.
#5024 Add Cake DSL examples to BuildSystem and CI provider APIs.

Bug

#5157 Using declarations without parentheses on the first line are hoisted as using alias directives.
#5155 Interpolated strings bind to string log overloads instead of FormattableString overloads.
#5095 Fix Unix GetSpecialPath HOME and Program Files mapping.
#3830 [Cake.Frosting] has exit code -1 for any kind of error.
#3829 Error: Error getting value from 'CurrentUser' on 'Cake.Core.IO.WindowsRegistry'.
#2646 Incorrect translation of literal constants used as optional parameter values (when constants are defined in a separate file).

Generator

As part of this release we had Generator 45 issues closed.

Feature

#293 Update Cake.* to 7.0.0.

Breaking Change

#206 Drop net8.0 and net9.0; add net11.0 for Cake.Sdk.
#205 Bump Cake.* to 7.0.0-alpha0105.
#203 Cake 7.0: drop generated public Program.ServiceProvider; use Cake.Common alias (and optionally Cake.Cli UseModule).
#201 Remove generated InstallTool helpers; use Cake.Common aliases (Cake 7.0).

Improvement

#288 Update Microsoft.VisualStudio.DiagnosticsHub.BenchmarkDotNetDiagnosers to 18.13.37903.2.
#264 Update .NET SDK to 11.0.100-rc.3.
#260 Cake.Common.Build types like BuildProvider aren't available without a manual using.
#255 Add cakeci template for minimal CI pipelines running a Cake file-based build.
#250 Update cakefile example project to xunit v3 on Microsoft.Testing.Platform.
#247 Update .NET SDK to 11.0.100-rc.2.
#224 Cap shipped Roslyn at 5.0.0 for VS 2026 18.0.
#208 Use Cake.Cli.BuildScriptHost for Cake.Sdk runs.

Bug

#282 Cake.Sdk runtime-async TargetFramework condition evaluated too early in Sdk.props.
#258 Generated aliases don't carry OverloadResolutionPriority, so interpolated strings bind to string log overloads in Cake.Sdk scripts.
#253 Generated Cake aliases fail to compile for several addins in Cake.Sdk scripts.
#212 Preserve indentation in generated XML documentation.
#210 Escape optional string and char defaults in generated aliases.
#207 Return CakeException.ExitCode from generated host.

Cake v6.3.0 released

2026-09-14T00:00:00Z

Version 6.3.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to Cake Scripting, Cake Frosting and Cake Sdk since the Cake v6.2.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

GitHub Actions OIDC trusted publishing — The new NuGetLogin command exchanges a GitHub Actions OIDC token for a short-lived NuGet.org API key, so publishing no longer needs a long-lived secret.
Improved nullability support — Aliases generated from nullable-enabled addins keep their annotations, so #nullable addins no longer cause CS8632 warnings in Cake scripts or generated Cake.Sdk code.
Improved report rendering — The task summary table no longer assumes a dark terminal background, so it stays readable in light themes.
Typed dotnet tool aliases — DotNetToolInstall, DotNetToolRestore, DotNetToolRun, DotNetToolList, DotNetToolSearch, DotNetToolUpdate, DotNetToolUninstall, and DotNetToolExecute.
Verbosity via configuration — Set verbosity in cake.config or CAKE_SETTINGS_VERBOSITY; the --verbosity argument still takes precedence. Also supported by the Cake.Sdk generator.
Global exception handling in Cake.Sdk — Generated scripts catch unhandled exceptions, condense the output, and exit with a non-zero code without any manual setup.
Build provider improvements — GitHub Actions exposes the remaining default environment variables (workflow TriggeringActor, WorkflowRef, RepositoryId, and runner Environment / IsDebug, among others), and Azure Pipelines gained the ##[command] formatting command.
Tool & nested build fixes — InnoSetup locates Inno Setup 7, and CakeExecuteScript / CakeExecuteExpression now honour HandleExitCode, NoWorkingDirectory, PostAction, and SetupProcessSettings when running on Cake.Tool.
Dependency and SDK updates

GitHub Actions NuGetLogin for OIDC trusted publishing

NuGet.org trusted publishing lets you exchange a GitHub Actions OIDC identity token for a short-lived API key, which means you no longer need to store a long-lived NUGET_API_KEY secret in your repository. Cake 6.3.0 adds NuGetLogin (#4945) so you can do that exchange from within your Cake script, without adding a separate login action step to your workflow and passing the key back into the build:

Task("Publish")
    .Does(async () =>
{
    var apiKey = await GitHubActions.Commands.NuGetLogin(EnvironmentVariable("NUGET_USERNAME"));

    var settings = new DotNetNuGetPushSettings
    {
        ApiKey = apiKey,
        Source = "https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json"
    };

    foreach (var package in GetFiles("./artifacts/*.nupkg"))
    {
        DotNetNuGetPush(package, settings);
    }
});

The OIDC token and the returned API key are automatically registered as secrets, so they're masked in the build log. Your workflow needs the id-token: write permission for the token request to succeed:

jobs:
  publish:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      id-token: write
    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v5
      - name: Run Cake
        uses: cake-build/cake-action@v3
        with:
          target: Publish
        env:
          NUGET_USERNAME: your-nuget-account

If you publish to a different feed, the GitHubNuGetLoginSettings overload lets you override the token service URL and OIDC audience:

var apiKey = await GitHubActions.Commands.NuGetLogin(
    new GitHubNuGetLoginSettings(
        UserName: "your-nuget-account",
        TokenServiceUrl: "https://www.nuget.org/api/v2/token",
        Audience: "https://www.nuget.org"));

Improved nullability support

Addins compiled with nullable reference types enabled used to produce CS8632 warnings ("the annotation for nullable reference types should only be used in code within a #nullable annotations context") because Cake generates the alias declarations above your script, in a compilation where annotations are disabled. Adding #nullable disable to your own script didn't help.

Cake 6.3.0 makes alias generation nullability-aware (#4977) rather than suppressing the warning:

Only aliases that actually carry a nullable annotation are wrapped in #nullable enable / #nullable restore, so the rest of your script keeps the context it has today.
Annotations round-trip through generics and arrays, so IList<string?>, string?[]?, and Task<string?> are all generated correctly.
Generic parameter constraints keep their nullability, with class? and notnull emitted where applicable, while unconstrained type parameters stay unannotated.

The Cake.Sdk generator received the matching fix (#165), so nullable return types are retained in generated code and flow into your IDE's nullable analysis.

Improved report and exception rendering

The task summary table styled both foreground and background colors, which assumed a dark terminal and made the report hard to read — in some cases unreadable — in light themes and terminals with a custom background (#4870). The report now only sets foreground colors and lets your terminal's own background show through, so it looks right regardless of theme.

Cake.Sdk scripts also got better exception reporting (#179). Generated code now registers handlers for unhandled and unobserved task exceptions during bootstrap, formats them with Spectre.Console instead of dumping a raw stack trace, and exits with a non-zero code on critical failures. Failures that previously crashed silently — or scrolled past as unreadable output — are now condensed into a readable report, and it works without any setup in your script.

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

Cake

As part of this release we had Cake 60 issues closed.

Feature

#4991 Add support for verbosity via configuration.
#4945 Add GitHub Actions NuGetLogin for OIDC trusted publishing.
#4890 Add typed Cake aliases for dotnet tool subcommands.

Improvement

#4979 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.22.0.
#4976 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.20 (net9.0) & 10.0.12 (net10.0).
#4968 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting ro 5.9.0.
#4966 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.11.
#4964 Update Autofac to 9.3.2.
#4958 Update NuGet.* to 7.9.0.
#4956 Update .NET SDK to 10.0.401.
#4931 Update Spectre.Console to 0.57.2.
#4929 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.18 (net9.0) & 10.0.10 (net10.0).
#4925 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 5.6.0.
#4923 Update Autofac to 9.3.1.
#4921 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.18 (net9.0) & 10.0.10 (net10.0).
#4919 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.19.2.
#4917 Update .NET SDK to 10.0.302.
#4916 Add format command support to IAzurePipelinesCommands.
#4909 Update Spectre.Console to 0.57.1.
#4904 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.9.
#4902 Update Autofac to 9.3.0.
#4900 Add support for Inno Setup 7.
#4897 Update Autofac to 9.2.0.
#4893 Update Spectre.Console to 0.57.0.
#4891 Add missing GitHub Actions default environment variables to GitHubActions provider.
#4888 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.17 (net9.0) & 10.0.9 (net10.0).
#4882 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.17 (net9.0) & 10.0.9 (net10.0).
#4876 Update Spectre.Console to 0.56.0.
#4867 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.19.1.

Bug

#4985 CakeExecuteScript/CakeExecuteExpression silently ignore several CakeSettings when running via Cake.Tool.
#4977 CS8632 when Cake.Tool generates aliases from nullable-enabled addins.
#4870 Report table rendering breaks in terminals without a black background.

Generator

As part of this release we had Generator 28 issues closed.

Feature

#197 Add support for verbosity via configuration.
#179 Add built-in global exception handling to generated Cake scripts.

Improvement

#199 Update Cake.* to 6.3.0
#185 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.20 (net9.0) & 10.0.12 (net10.0).
#181 Update .NET SDK to 10.0.401.
#171 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.18 (net9.0) & 10.0.10 (net10.0).
#167 Update .NET SDK to 10.0.302.
#154 Update .NET SDK to 10.0.301.
#142 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.17 (net9.0) & 10.0.9 (net10.0).

Bug

#165 Generator doesn't pick nullable return types it seems.

Cake v6.2.0 released

2026-05-22T00:00:00Z

Version 6.2.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes to Cake Scripting, Cake Frosting, and Cake.Sdk since the Cake v6.1.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

RWX build provider — Detect RWX CI runs with BuildSystem.Rwx and read documented environment variables; see RWX integration.
Multi-target scheduling — Shared dependencies are no longer executed twice when you run multiple targets, and SetupContext.TasksToExecute reflects every target when using RunTargets.
Quiet builds — The task summary report is suppressed when verbosity is Quiet; Cake.Sdk generator projects can skip the report printer via configuration.
dotnet & Frosting fixes — Empty MSBuild properties in DotNetBuild, correct DotNetMSBuild verbosity, package version lists from DotNetSearchPackage, and combined DirectoryPath / ConvertableFilePath values in Frosting.
Glob — GetFiles() with curly-brace glob patterns returns the expected files.
.NET 9 & 10 tool install — dotnet tool install uses --source instead of the removed --add-source switch.
NuGet security — Direct NuGet.* dependency updates to reduce transitive vulnerable-package warnings.
Dependency and SDK updates

RWX build provider

Cake now includes an RWX build provider (#4840), alongside GitHub Actions, GitLab CI, Azure Pipelines, and the other supported systems listed under build system integrations. Documentation is available on the RWX integration page. When your build runs on RWX, scripts get the same IsLocalBuild / provider detection pattern you already use elsewhere—for example:

if (BuildSystem.Rwx.IsRunningOnRwx)
{
    Information(
        "RWX run {0}: {1}",
        BuildSystem.Rwx.Environment.Run.Id,
        BuildSystem.Rwx.Environment.Run.Title);
}
else
{
    Information("Not running on RWX");
}

See IRwxProvider for run, task, git, and runtime metadata, plus BuildSystem.Rwx.Commands for output values and artifacts.

Running Cake on RWX

Below is an example of an RWX YAML configuration that runs on Ubuntu 26.04, checks out your code, installs the .NET SDK using global.json, and then shows the three ways to invoke Cake on CI—Cake.Sdk file script, Cake .NET Tool, and Cake Frosting. See Running Cake on RWX for more examples.

on:
  github:
    pull_request:
      init:
        commit-sha: ${{ event.git.sha }}
    push:
      - if: ${{ event.git.branch == 'develop' || event.git.branch == 'main' || starts-with(event.git.branch, 'hotfix/') }}
        init:
          commit-sha: ${{ event.git.sha }}
  cli:
    init:
      commit-sha: ${{ event.git.sha }}

base:
  image: ubuntu:26.04
  config: rwx/base 1.1.1

tasks:
  - key: code
    call: git/clone 2.0.7
    with:
      repository: https://github.com/your-org/your-repo.git
      ref: ${{ init.commit-sha }}
      fetch-full-depth: true
      preserve-git-dir: true

  - key: install-dotnet
    use: code
    call: dotnet/install 1.0.0
    with:
      global-json-file: global.json
    filter:
      - global.json

  - key: build
    use: [code, install-dotnet]
    run: |
      # Cake Sdk
      dotnet cake.cs

      # Cake Tool
      dotnet tool restore
      dotnet cake

      # Cake Frosting
      dotnet run --project cake.csproj

For a single runner in your own repo, keep only the dotnet commands you need.

Cake itself builds on RWX too

Cake.Tool and Cake.Sdk integration tests and pull requests now build continuously on RWX as well. Thank you to RWX for sponsoring the project with a build instance.

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 36 issues closed.

Feature

#4840 Add RWX as a build provider.

Improvement

#4832 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.16 (net9.0) & 10.0.8 (net10.0).
#4830 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.18.0.
#4822 Update Spectre.Console to 0.55.2.
#4820 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.8.
#4794 Update NuGet.* packages dependencies to avoid transitive package vulnerable warnings.
#4784 Update Spectre.Console.* to 0.55.0.
#4776 Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.17.0.
#4771 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.14 & 10.0.5 (net9.0&net10.0).
#4769 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.14 & 10.0.5 (net9.0&net10.0).
#4765 Update Autofac to 9.1.0.
#4763 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 5.3.0.
#4442 Frosting DirectoryPath + ConvertableFilePath combines strings instead of paths.
#4158 Cannot specify empty properties when using DotNetBuild.
#2101 CakeReportPrinter should be disabled in Verbosity = Quiet.

Bug

#4834 .NET Tool installer switch from --add-source to --source for .NET 9 & 10.
#4456 DotNetMSBuild alias generates extra verbosity argument.
#4454 Impossible to retrieve package versions list with DotNetSearchPackage.
#4324 When running multiple targets, common dependent tasks are executed twice.
#4066 SetupContext.TasksToExecute only lists tasks related to first target when calling RunTargets.
#2666 GetFiles() using Glob curly braces gives empty result.

Cake v6.1.0 released

2026-03-01T00:00:00Z

Version 6.1.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting, Cake Frosting, and Cake Sdk since the Cake v6.0.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Update: Cake.Sdk 6.1.1 has been released to address a dependency issue. If you use Cake.Sdk, we recommend updating to 6.1.1.

Highlights of this release

FormattableString support in logging — Use interpolated strings and FormattableLogAction with Error, Warning, Information, Verbose, and Debug for cleaner logging.
Cake.Sdk In-Process NuGet client support - Install any NuGet package into tools
.slnx support — DotNetTest and solution parsing now recognize .slnx (XML solution) files; PathType autodetection includes .slnx.
NuGet Pack readme — NuGetPack supports the package readme file via the new ReadMe setting.
AssemblyInfo creator — You can now add multiple instances of the same custom attribute (e.g. multiple InternalsVisibleTo).
In-Process NuGet authentication — In-process NuGet restore supports authenticated feeds (e.g. GitHub Package Registry) via NuGet_ConfigFile and credential providers.
GitLab CI — Build, and pipeline IDs are now long instead of int, so they work on gitlab.com where IDs exceed 32-bit range (breaking for code that stores them in int).
Bug fixes — DotNetPublish uses non-boolean --self-contained arguments; DotNetSlnList respects DOTNET_CLI_UI_LANGUAGE; Frosting command-line configuration parsing corrected; console log colorization fixed.
Dependency and SDK updates

FormattableString support in logging

You can now pass interpolated strings directly to the logging aliases, so formatting is clear, and the cost of building the message is only paid when the log level is active.

Using a FormattableString (interpolated string):

var project = "MyApp";
var version = "1.0.0";
Information($"Building {project} v{version}");

Using FormattableLogAction for lazy evaluation (the message is only formatted if the current verbosity allows it):

Verbose(log => log($"Processing {items.Count} items in {stopwatch.ElapsedMilliseconds} ms"));

All of Error, Warning, Information, Verbose, and Debug support both overloads.

Cake.Sdk In-Process NuGet client support

Cake.Sdk now goes beyond .NET tools: you can install and run any NuGet package with #tool / InstallTool, just like Cake.Tool already does. That makes it easy to pull in platform-specific packages (e.g. Bicep CLI) and invoke them with Command or the tool aliases.

Example: installing the Bicep CLI for the current OS and architecture, then running it:

Task("Install-Bicep")
    .Does(() =>
{
    var osArch = (Context.Environment.Platform.Family, RuntimeInformation.OSArchitecture);
    Information($"Installing bicep tool for {osArch}");

    FilePath[] bicepToolPaths;
    switch (osArch)
    {
        case (PlatformFamily.Windows, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.X64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.win-x64&version=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep.exe");
            break;

        case (PlatformFamily.Windows, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.Arm64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.win-arm64&version=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep.exe");
            break;

        case (PlatformFamily.Linux, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.X64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.linux-x64&version=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep");
            break;

        case (PlatformFamily.Linux, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.Arm64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.linux-arm64=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep");
            break;

        case (PlatformFamily.OSX, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.X64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.osx-x64&version=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep");
            break;

        case (PlatformFamily.OSX, System.Runtime.InteropServices.Architecture.Arm64):
            bicepToolPaths = InstallTool("nuget:?package=Azure.Bicep.CommandLine.osx-arm64&version=0.41.2&include=/**/bicep");
            break;

        default:
            Warning($"Platform {osArch.Family} with architecture {osArch.OSArchitecture} is not supported.");
            return;
    }

    var bicepTool = bicepToolPaths.FirstOrDefault() ?? throw new FileNotFoundException("Failed to resole tool");

    Information($"Installed bicep to {bicepTool}");
    Command(
        new CommandSettings
        {
            ToolExecutableNames = ["bicep", "bicep.exe"],
            ToolName = "bicep",
            ToolPath = bicepTool
        },
        "--version");
});

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 43 issues closed.

Breaking change

#4656 Gitlab CI_PIPELINE_ID has exceeded the int limits on gitlab.com and the variable should be changed to a long.

Feature

#4698 Add FormattableString Support to Logging Methods.
#4520 add slnx support.
#4071 Unable to set multiple of the same attribute CustomAttributes in AssemblyInfo creator.
#3517 NuGet Pack Should support new readme file.
#2028 In-Process NuGet doesn't support authentication.

Improvement

#4740 Add CakeModule assemmbly attribute to NuGetModule.
#4737 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.13 & 10.0.3 (net9.0&net10.0).
#4735 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.16.0.
#4733 Update NuGet.* to 7.3.0.
#4715 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.12 & 10.0.2 (net9.0&net10.0).
#4713 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.12 & 10.0.2 (net9.0&net10.0).
#4694 Update Autofac to 9.0.0.
#4692 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 10.0.1 for net10.0.
#4688 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.15.0.
#4685 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 10.0.1 for net10.0.
#4683 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 5.0.0.
#4679 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.8.4.
#4677 Update NuGet.* to 7.0.1.
#4675 Update Spectre.Console & Spectre.Console.Cli to 0.54.0 & 0.53.1.
#4658 Add support for MSBuild 18 and VS2026.
#4635 DotCover no longer works with version 2025.2+ of JetBrains.dotCover.CommandLineTools.

Bug

#4720 Use non-boolean self-contained arguments for dotnet publish.
#4706 Add support for .slnx files in dotnet test PathType autodetection.
#4687 Cake Frosting FrostingConfiguration Command Line parameters are not parsed correctly.
#4667 DotNetSlnList hardcodes English output.
#4662 Colorization of console log output.

Cake v6.0.0 released

2025-11-11T00:00:00Z

Version 6.0.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to Cake Scripting, Cake Frosting, and the new Cake.Sdk runner since the Cake v5.1.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

.NET 10 support & C# 14 support
New runner: Cake.Sdk
Cake.Template
Addin recommended Cake version set to 6.0.0

.NET 10 support & C# 14 support

Cake now fully supports running on .NET 10, and with this C# 14, which means you can take advantage of the latest framework, runtime, and language improvements.

The supported platform matrix for Cake 6.0.0 will look like this:

Runner	.NET 10	.NET 9	.NET 8
Cake .NET Tool
Cake Frosting
Cake.Sdk

New runner: Cake.Sdk

We're excited to announce Cake.Sdk as a new official runner for Cake! Cake.Sdk provides a modern way to get the Cake tool scripting experience in regular .NET console applications. This brings you the stellar experience of the new "dotnet run app.cs" feature (requires .NET 10), while also working seamlessly with .NET 8 and 9 for regular csproj projects.

Here's the minimal example:

#:sdk Cake.Sdk

Information("Hello world!");

dotnet cake.cs

Cake.Sdk is a custom SDK that provides a convenient way to create Cake projects with minimal configuration. It automatically sets up common properties and provides a streamlined development experience for Cake-based build automation projects, whether you're using the new file-based approach or traditional project-based builds.

Key features include:

Minimal Project Configuration: Create Cake projects with just a few lines in your .csproj file
File-based Build Scripts: Use the new #:sdk Cake.Sdk directive for standalone .cs files
Optimized Build Settings: Pre-configured with optimal settings for Cake projects
Built-in Source Generation: Includes Cake.Generator by default for automatic source generation capabilities
Full Cake Addin & Module Support: All existing Cake addins and modules work seamlessly
Native .NET CLI Publish Support: Create self-contained precompiled binaries and containers

Cake.Template

The easiest way to get started with Cake.Sdk is using the Cake.Template package, which provides several templates for different scenarios:

First, install the template package:

dotnet new install Cake.Template

Create a new Cake file-based project:

dotnet new cakefile --name cake

For the simplest possible setup, you can use the minimal template:

dotnet new cakeminimalfile --name cake

For larger projects, you can organize your code across multiple files:

dotnet new cakemultifile --name cake

For traditional project-based approach:

dotnet new cakeproj --Framework net10.0 --name cake

Addin recommended Cake version set to 6.0.0

We've now set the recommended version of Cake.Core for addins to target to 6.0.0.

This won't break the build, but you might see warnings like the one below when addins or modules are loaded.

The assembly 'Cake.Addin, Version=5.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (5.0.0).
For best compatibility it should target Cake.Core version 6.0.0.

The recommended target framework monikers for addins are now:

net10.0
net9.0
net8.0

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 38 issues closed.

Breaking change

#4639 Make CakeSpectreReportPrinter the default ICakeReportPrinter.
#4638 Update Spectre.Console to 0.53.0.
#4593 Update LatestPotentialBreakingChange to 6.0.0.
#4534 Azure Pipleines Environement Agent Info uses FilePath instead of DirectoryPath.

Feature

#4592 C# 14 Scripting Support.
#4576 Add .NET 10 (net10.0) TFM.

Improvement

#4642 Display Delegated/Executed status as Succeded in Cake task summary.
#4636 Enhance file system abstraction with timestamps, Unix modes, and performance improvements.
#4627 .NET Test Platform Requires --project <PROJECT_PATH> / --solution <SOLUTION_PATH> to be specified.
#4624 Update System.* to 9.0.10.
#4623 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.10.
#4622 Update Spectre.Console to 0.52.0.
#4616 Replace using with await using for IAsyncDisposable resources.
#4615 Replace manual null checks with ArgumentNullException.ThrowIfNull().
#4614 Modernize Enum.GetName calls to use generic overload.
#4613 Use char literals instead of string literals for single characters in StreamWriter.Write.
#4612 Replace StringBuilder.Append(string.Join()) with StringBuilder.AppendJoin() for better performance.
#4611 Use char literals instead of string literals for single characters in StringBuilder.Append.
#4610 Replace string.Join with string.Concat for empty separator cases.
#4609 Optimize string.Join calls to use char separators instead of string separators.
#4608 Modernize dictionary access patterns with TryGetValue and deconstruction.

Bug

#4603 Fix .NET framework version detection.

Cake v5.1.0 released

2025-10-04T00:00:00Z

Version 5.1.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v5.0.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

Add Woodpecker CI Support
Cake.Testing.Xunit.v3
Improved script caching behavior
New Aliases
- DotNetSlnRemove
Dependency and SDK updates

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 93 issues closed.

Feature

#4539 Add Woodpecker CI Support.
#4436 Add support for capturing MSBuild properties, items and target results.
#4431 Add property for GitLab's "Pipeline Source" to GitLabCIBuildInfo.
#4418 GitLab Server url should be available in GitLabCIServerInfo.
#4416 Make Merge Request source and target branch available in GitLabCIPullRequestInfo.
#4401 Add DotNetSlnRemove alias for dotnet sln remove command.

Improvement

#4584 Update Spectre.Console to 0.51.1.
#4583 Update Newtonsoft.Json to 13.0.4.
#4582 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.9.
#4581 Update System.* to 9.0.9.
#4549 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net90 to 1.8.3.
#4548 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net80 to 1.8.3.
#4547 Update Autofac to 8.4.0.
#4546 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.14.0.
#4545 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.8.
#4544 Update System.Reflection.Metadata to 9.0.8.
#4543 Update System.Collections.Immutable to 9.0.8.
#4542 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.8.
#4529 Update System.Reflection.Metadata 9.0.7.
#4528 Update System.Collections.Immutable to 9.0.7.
#4527 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.7.
#4526 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.7.
#4523 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.12.1.
#4510 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.12.0.
#4509 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net* to 1.8.2.
#4505 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net* to 1.8.1.
#4497 Cake.Testing.Xunit.v3 should not reference xunit.v3.
#4493 Update Spectre.Console to 0.50.0.
#4492 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.14.0.
#4491 Update System.Reflection.Metadata to 9.0.5.
#4490 Update System.Collections.Immutable to 9.0.5.
#4489 Update Autofac to 8.3.0.
#4488 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 9.0.5.
#4483 Update System.Security.Cryptography.Pkcs to 9.0.5.
#4482 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.11.0.
#4481 Update NuGet.* to 6.14.0.
#4471 Improve script caching behavior.
#4440 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net80 to 1.8.0.
#4426 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.12.0.
#4425 Update NuGet.* to 6.12.1.
#4421 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.3.0.
#4420 Update Autofac to 8.2.0.
#4412 NuGet 6.9 renamed no-cache to no-http-cache and deprecated the old setting name.
#4407 SignTool missing the /kc and /csp parameters. .
#4399 Refactor DotNetAliases: Extract methods into a separate partial class.

Bug

#4478 Failed to install addin when running from Windows powershell.exe.
#4475 Script execution does not always show a report summary.
#4410 AzurePipelinesPullRequestInfo fails to detect if build is running in the context of a GitHub Pull Request.
#4286 DotNetToolRunner doesn't support empty space at tool path.

Cake.Sdk 5.0.25257.82-beta released

2025-09-15T00:00:00Z

We're excited to announce the release of Cake.Sdk 5.0.25257.82-beta, a minor preview release that brings improvements to performance, the debugging experience, and native .NET CLI publish support.

.NET Publish Support

The biggest improvement in this release is that dotnet publish now works with Cake.Sdk. This means you can now create self-contained precompiled binaries and containers, which can provide substantial performance gains when the same code is executed multiple times across different stages.

Creating Self-Contained Binaries

You can now publish your Cake scripts as self-contained executables:

dotnet publish cake.cs --output cake.sdk

This will result in a self-contained cake.sdk binary in the output folder, eliminating the need for the .NET runtime to be installed on the target machine.

Container Support

Building containers is now straightforward with Cake.Sdk:

dotnet publish cake.cs \
    --output cake.sdk \
    --target:PublishContainer \
    -p ContainerBaseImage='mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/runtime-deps:10.0-noble-chiseled' \
    -p ContainerArchiveOutputPath=Cake.Sdk.tar.gz

Once built, you can import and run the container:

# Import the container
podman load -i Cake.Sdk.tar.gz

# Run the container
podman run -it --rm localhost/cake-sdk:latest

You can also publish directly to a container image registry. This enables powerful scenarios, for example, you can have your build pipeline pre-compiled and cached on build agents for even faster execution.

Feedback Welcome

This is still a preview release, and we'd love your feedback! You can:

Report issues on GitHub
Join the discussion on our discussion board
Contribute to the source code

Package References

Cake.Sdk - The main SDK package
Cake.Generator - Source generator for Cake aliases
Cake.Template - Templates for creating Cake projects

We're excited to see what you build with the enhanced Cake.Sdk capabilities! 🍰

Cake.Sdk 5.0.25253.70-beta released

2025-09-10T00:00:00Z

A new preview version of Cake.Sdk has been released! Version 5.0.25253.70-beta brings compatibility with .NET 10 RC1 and introduces powerful new features for modular build script organization. 🚀 🍰

What's new in this release

Compiled with/against .NET 10 RC1 - Full compatibility with the latest .NET 10 release candidate
Multiple Main Entry Points - Support for multiple Main_* methods for better script organization
Script Host IoC Integration - Enhanced dependency injection with script host action execution
Performance Optimizations - Significant improvements in build time and memory usage
New minimal template - Easily scaffold new Cake projects with the streamlined minimal template

.NET 10 RC1 Compatibility

This release is fully compiled against .NET 10 RC1, ensuring compatibility with the latest .NET 10 features and improvements. The SDK now takes full advantage of the latest framework capabilities while maintaining backward compatibility with .NET 8 and 9.

Multiple Main Entry Points

One of the most exciting new features is support for multiple main entry points through Main_* methods. This allows you to organize your build scripts into logical modules while maintaining a single entry point.

#:sdk Cake.Sdk@5.0.25253.70-beta

Task("Default")
    .IsDependentOn("Three");

RunTarget("Default");


// Additional main methods for different scenarios will be automatically invoked
static partial void Main_One()
{
    Task("One")
        .Does(() => Information("Building component one"));
}

static partial void Main_Two()
{
    Task("Two")
        .IsDependentOn("One")
        .Does(() => Information("Building component two"));
}

The generator automatically scans for Main_* methods and registers them as available entry points, making it easy to create modular build scripts that can be executed independently or as part of a larger workflow. This feature works in both file-based and project-based approaches, allowing you to organize your build logic across multiple files while maintaining a single entry point. This simplifies migrating from Cake script files that have Tasks registered in multiple files. When placing a partial main method in an external file, it must be inside a partial Program class:

public static partial class Program
{
    static void Main_Three()
    {
        Task("Build-Three")
            .IsDependentOn("Build-Two")
            .Does(() => Information("Building component three"));
    }
}

Script Host IoC Integration

Enhanced dependency injection capabilities now allow for deeper integration between the script host and IoC container. This enables dynamic task creation and more flexible service registration patterns, including the ability to add Cake Tasks via external Cake modules.

#:sdk Cake.Sdk@5.0.25253.70-beta

var target = Argument("target", "Test");

Task("Build")
    .Does(() => {
       // Build
    });

Task("Test")
    .IsDependentOn("Build")
    .Does(() => {
        // Test
    });

RunTarget(target);

// Register services with script host integration
static partial void RegisterServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    // Injects IOC-Task as an dependency of Build task
    services.AddSingleton(new Action<IScriptHost>(
                        host => host.Task("IOC-Task")
                                    .IsDependeeOf("Build")
                                    .Does(() => Information("Hello from IOC-Task"))));
}

This integration provides seamless access to registered services throughout your build script, enabling more sophisticated build automation patterns.

Performance Optimizations

This release includes significant performance improvements that result in:

Reduction in incremental build times
Reduction in peak memory usage
Reduction in CPU usage for large projects
Better scalability with large numbers of Cake aliases

Getting Started

To try out the latest preview, update your global.json file:

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "10.0.100-rc.1.25451.107"
  },
  "msbuild-sdks": {
    "Cake.Sdk": "5.0.25253.70-beta"
  }
}

Or install the latest template package:

dotnet new install Cake.Template@5.0.25253.70-beta

Create a new Cake file-based project with sample project to build:

dotnet new cakefile --name cake --IncludeExampleProject true

And run it with:

dotnet cake.cs

Minimal Template

For the simplest possible setup, you can use the new minimal template:

dotnet new cakeminimal --name cake

This creates a minimal cake.cs file with just the essential SDK directive and Information log statement. Perfect for getting started quickly or when you want to build your script from scratch.

Multi-file Organization

For larger projects, you can organize your code across multiple files:

dotnet new cakemultifile --name cake

This creates a structure that supports both single-file and multi-file approaches, i.e., for use with the new Main_* methods providing flexible entry points for different build scenarios. This allows you to organize your build logic across multiple files while maintaining a single entry point.

Requirements

File-based approach: .NET 10 RC1 or later
Project-based approach: .NET 8.0 or later
Compatible with .NET 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 target frameworks

Example Repository

We've updated our comprehensive example repository at github.com/cake-build/cakesdk-example to demonstrate:

Multiple main entry points with Main_* methods
Script host IoC integration patterns
Performance-optimized build scripts
Multi-file organization strategies

GitHub Actions Support

The latest unreleased bits of cake-action include support for the new features:

steps:
  - name: Run Cake with multiple main entry points
    uses: cake-build/cake-action@master
    with:
      file-path: path/to/Build.cs
      arguments: --target="Main_One"

Feedback Welcome

This is still a preview release, and we'd love your feedback! You can:

Try out the new multiple main entry points and IoC features
Report issues on GitHub
Join the discussion on our discussion board
Contribute to the source code

Package References

Cake.Sdk - The main SDK package
Cake.Generator - Source generator for Cake aliases
Cake.Template - Templates for creating Cake projects

We're excited to see what you build with the enhanced Cake.Sdk capabilities! 🍰

Cake.Sdk 5.0.25225.53-beta released

2025-08-13T00:00:00Z

A new preview version of Cake.Sdk has been released! Version 5.0.25225.53-beta brings compatibility with .NET 10 Preview 7. 🚀 🍰

What's new in this release

Compiled with/against .NET 10 Preview 7 - Full compatibility with the latest .NET 10 preview
Updated dependencies - All underlying packages updated to their latest versions
Fixes for new analyzer warnings - Resolved potential compatibility issues with Preview 7 SDK

SDK Versioning in File-based Apps

One notable improvement addresses the issue mentioned in our previous announcement. The .NET 10 Preview 7 SDK now properly supports SDK versioning in file-based applications, allowing you to specify the Cake.Sdk version directly in your .cs files:

#:sdk Cake.Sdk@5.0.25225.53-beta

Information("Hello");

Getting Started

To try out the latest preview, update your global.json file:

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "10.0.100-preview.7.25358.103"
  },
  "msbuild-sdks": {
    "Cake.Sdk": "5.0.25225.53-beta"
  }
}

Or install the latest template package:

dotnet new install Cake.Template@5.0.25225.53-beta

Create a global.json file to pin versions:

dotnet new cakeglobaljson

Then create a new Cake file-based project:

dotnet new cakefile --name cake

And run it with:

dotnet cake.cs

PLEASE NOTE: this sample cake.cs file assumes that you have a file called 'example.sln' located in a folder called src. If you don't have such a solution file, you can create it like so:

dotnet new cakefile --name cake --IncludeExampleProject true --force

Feedback Welcome

This is still a preview release, and we'd love your feedback! You can:

Try out the new version and report any issues on GitHub
Join the discussion on our discussion board
Contribute to the source code

We're excited to see what you build with the latest Cake.Sdk! 🍰

dotnet cake.cs - preview

2025-07-17T00:00:00Z

We're excited to announce the preview of Cake.Sdk, a new way to get the Cake tool scripting experience in regular .NET console applications! This brings you the stellar experience of the new "dotnet run app.cs" feature (requires .NET 10), while also working seamlessly with .NET 8 and 9 for regular csproj projects. 🚀 🍰

Here's the minimal example:

#:sdk Cake.Sdk

Information("Hello world!");

dotnet cake.cs

After weeks of internal testing and development, we're now expanding the beta for public feedback and contribution. While this is still in early stages, we want to gather early feedback from the community and plan to be ready when .NET 10 launches in November.

What is Cake.Sdk?

Key Features

Minimal Project Configuration: Create Cake projects with just a few lines in your .csproj file
File-based Build Scripts: Use the new #:sdk Cake.Sdk directive for standalone .cs files
Optimized Build Settings: Pre-configured with optimal settings for Cake projects
Built-in Source Generation: Includes Cake.Generator by default for automatic source generation capabilities
Full Cake Addin & Module Support: All existing Cake addins and modules work seamlessly

Getting Started with Cake.Template

The easiest way to get started will be using the Cake.Template package, which provides several templates for different scenarios:

First, install the template package:

dotnet new install Cake.Template@5.0.25198.49-beta

Version Control with global.json

For all scenarios, it's recommended to create a global.json file to pin both the .NET SDK and Cake.Sdk versions:

dotnet new cakeglobaljson

This creates a global.json file that looks like:

{
  "sdk": {
    "version": "10.0.100-preview.6.25358.103"
  },
  "msbuild-sdks": {
    "Cake.Sdk": "5.0.25198.49-beta"
  }
}

If you already have a global.json file, you can add the msbuild-sdks section to control the Cake.Sdk version used.

Note: There's currently a bug in .NET 10, but hopefully by preview 7 you'll also be able to specify the Cake.Sdk version in file-based apps like this:
#:sdk Cake.Sdk@version

File-based Build Script (Requires .NET 10)

For the new file-based approach that works with dotnet cake.cs:

dotnet new cakefile --name cake --IncludeExampleProject true

This creates a standalone cake.cs file with the #:sdk Cake.Sdk directive and example code to clean, build and test a .NET solution. The --IncludeExampleProject true flag will create a sample project too (default is false). The resulting file structure will be shown below.

cake.cs
src
  │   Example.sln
  │
  ├───Example
  │       Class1.cs
  │       Example.csproj
  │
  └───Example.Tests
          Example.Tests.csproj
          UnitTest1.cs

Execute it with:

dotnet cake.cs

Multi-file File-based Build Script (Requires .NET 10)

For larger projects, you can organize your code into multiple files:

dotnet new cakemultifile --name cake

This creates a structure like:

build/
├── ExceptThisFile.cs
├── Models.cs
└── Utilities.cs
cake.cs

Where cake.cs contains similar project as single file but utilizing MSBuild properties IncludeAdditionalFiles and ExcludeAdditionalFiles to include/exclude additional files example:

#:sdk Cake.Sdk
#:property IncludeAdditionalFiles=build/**/*.cs
#:property ExcludeAdditionalFiles=build/**/Except*.cs

Project-based Build Script

For traditional project-based approach (works with .NET 8, 9, and 10):

dotnet new cakeproj --Framework net9.0 --name cake

This creates a cake folder with a cake.csproj with minimal configuration:

<Project Sdk="Cake.Sdk/5.0.25198.49-beta">
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework Condition="$(TargetFrameworks) == ''">net9.0</TargetFramework>
    <RunWorkingDirectory>$(MSBuildProjectDirectory)/..</RunWorkingDirectory>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

and a cake.cs containing minimal example code to clean, build, and test a .NET solution.

Deep Dive: Cake.Sdk Powered by Cake.Generator

Cake.Sdk is built on top of Cake.Generator, which provides automatic source generation capabilities. This means you get all the benefits of Cake's powerful aliases and functionality without any additional configuration.

What's Included

The Cake.Sdk automatically configures the following properties:

OutputType: Exe
Nullable: enable
ImplicitUsings: enable
Optimize: true
DebugType: portable
DebugSymbols: true
LangVersion: latest
PublishAot: false
JsonSerializerIsReflectionEnabledByDefault: true

Default Package References

The following packages are automatically included:

Cake.Generator - Source generator for Cake aliases
Cake.Core - Core Cake functionality
Cake.Common - Core Common functionality
Cake.Cli - Command-line interface for Cake
Cake.DotNetTool.Module - .NET Tool support for Cake
Cake.NuGet - NuGet support for Cake
Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection - IoC container support

Cake Addin & Module Support

Just like with Cake .NET Tool, code is generated for having methods, properties, and models conveniently available automatically by just adding NuGet package references. The same applies to modules, enabling you to replace Cake core functionality just by adding a reference to a Cake module.

Example Cake Addin in File-based Project

#:sdk Cake.Sdk
#:package Cake.Twitter@5.0.0

var oAuthConsumerKey        = EnvironmentVariable("TWITTER_CONSUMER_KEY");
var oAuthConsumerSecret     = EnvironmentVariable("TWITTER_CONSUMER_SECRET");
var accessToken             = EnvironmentVariable("TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN");
var accessTokenSecret       = EnvironmentVariable("TWITTER_ACCESS_TOKEN_SECRET");

TwitterSendTweet(oAuthConsumerKey, oAuthConsumerSecret, accessToken, accessTokenSecret, "Testing, 1, 2, 3");

Any Cake addin can be added as a PackageReference and its alias proxies will be generated automatically. The generator will scan the addin assembly and create proxy methods for all discovered Cake method and property aliases, making them available as static methods without requiring explicit ICakeContext parameters.

Example Module

#:sdk Cake.Sdk
#:package Cake.BuildSystems.Module@8.0.0

The generator supports Cake modules with automatic registration. Modules referenced in your project will have their method and property aliases automatically discovered and proxy methods generated, just like regular addins. This includes both NuGet package modules and local module assemblies.

Tool Installation Support

Just like other runners, Cake.Sdk supports the dotnet: and nuget: schemes for installing tools from NuGet. You can install tools using the same familiar syntax:

// Install a single tool
InstallTool("dotnet:https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json?package=GitVersion.Tool&version=5.12.0");

// Install multiple tools
InstallTools(
    "dotnet:https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json?package=GitVersion.Tool&version=5.12.0",
    "dotnet:https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json?package=GitReleaseManager.Tool&version=0.20.0"
);

// Using nuget: scheme
InstallTool("nuget:?package=xunit.runner.console&version=2.4.1");

This provides the same tool installation capabilities you're familiar with from Cake .NET Tool, making the transition to Cake.Sdk seamless.

Advanced Features

IoC Container

// Register services
static partial void RegisterServices(IServiceCollection services)
{
    services.AddSingleton<IMyService, MyService>();
}

// Resolve services in tasks
Task("MyTask")
    .Does(() => {
        var service = ServiceProvider.GetRequiredService<IMyService>();
        service.DoSomething();
    });

Requirements

File-based approach: .NET 10 Preview 6 or later (available for download at dotnet.microsoft.com)
Project-based approach: .NET 8.0 or later
Compatible with .NET 8.0, 9.0, and 10.0 target frameworks

Example Repository

We've created a comprehensive example repository at github.com/cake-build/cakesdk-example that demonstrates:

File-based build script using #:sdk Cake.Sdk
Project-based build script using Cake.Sdk
Multi-file file-based build script
GitHub Actions workflows for all approaches
Pinned versions via global.json

GitHub Actions Support

The latest unreleased bits of cake-action include support for these new file-based approaches:

steps:
  - name: Run a Cake C# file
    uses: cake-build/cake-action@master
    with:
      file-path: path/to/Build.cs

Get Involved

This is a preview release, and we'd love your feedback! You can:

Try out the templates and SDK
Report issues on GitHub
Join the discussion on our discussion board
Contribute to the source code

Package References

Cake.Sdk - The main SDK package
Cake.Generator - Source generator for Cake aliases
Cake.Template - Templates for creating Cake projects

We're excited to see what you build with Cake.Sdk! 🍰

Cake v5.0.0 released

2024-11-12T00:00:00Z

Version 5.0.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v4.2.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

.NET 9 support & C# 13 support
FreeBSD support
Addin recommended Cake version set to 5.0.0
100 million downloads of Cake.Tool

.NET 9 support & C# 13 support

Cake now fully supports running on .NET 9, and with this C# 13, which means you can take advantage of the latest framework, runtime, and language improvements.

Cake itself will no longer run on .NET 6 or .NET 7, but Cake will continue to support the building of .NET Framework projects, as well as projects targeting .NET 7.0 or older.

The supported platform matrix for Cake 5.0.0 will look like this:

Runner	.NET 9	.NET 8
Cake .NET Tool
Cake Frosting

FreeBSD support

The FreeBSD operating system should now be recognized as Environment.Platform.Family PlatformFamily.FreeBSD, and new bool IsRunningOnFreeBSD alias and bool IsUnix alias will now be true for FreeBSD.

Addin recommended Cake version set to 5.0.0

We've now set the recommended version of Cake.Core for addins to target to 5.0.0.

This won't break the build, but you might see warnings like the one below when addins or modules are loaded.

The assembly 'Cake.Addin, Version=4.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (4.0.0).
For best compatibility it should target Cake.Core version 5.0.0.

The recommended target framework monikers for addins are now:

net9.0
net8.0

100 million downloads of Cake.Tool

We are thrilled to announce that Cake.Tool has reached an incredible milestone of 100 million downloads on NuGet.org! This accomplishment wouldn't have been possible without the contributions of over 300 individuals and the unwavering support of our users. Join us as we reflect on the journey of Cake, featuring 129 releases and over 300 third-party community add-ins.

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 13 issues closed.

Breaking change

#4384 Remove obsolete members / methods.
#4383 Update LatestPotentialBreakingChange to 5.0.0.
#4346 Remove Unsupported TFMS .NET 6 & 7 (net6.0 & net7.0).

Feature

#4396 Add DotNetSlnAdd alias for dotnet sln add command.
#4393 Add DotNetSlnList alias for dotnet sln list command.
#4379 C# 13 Scripting Support.
#4345 Add .NET 9 (net9.0) TFM.
#4310 Update Cake.Tool to support running on FreeBSD.

Bug

#4391 DownloadArtifacts errors in latest Cake 4.2.0 with 404 error.

Cake v4.1.0 released

2024-10-23T00:00:00Z

Version 4.1.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v4.0.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

GitHub Actions Artifact Upload and Download now uses API version 4
New aliases for .NET CLI
- DotNetAddReference
- DotNetListPackage
- DotNetListReference
- DotNetRemoveReference
- DotNetSearchPackage
Dependency and SDK updates

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 39 issues closed.

Feature

#4353 Add DotNetListReference alias for dotnet list reference command.
#4352 Add DotNetRemoveReference alias for dotnet remove reference command .
#4334 Add DotNetSearchPackage Alias for dotnet package search.
#4282 Add DotNetAddReference alias for dotnet add reference command.
#4224 Add DotNetListPackage alias for dotnet list package command.

Improvement

#4363 Update System.Reflection.Metadata to 8.0.1.
#4364 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 8.0.1.
#4362 Update NuGet.* to 6.11.1.
#4359 Update Microsoft.IdentityModel.JsonWebTokens to 8.1.2.
#4358 Update Autofac to 8.1.1.
#4355 Different target argument values depending on specifying --target or --Target.
#4351 Use NuGet Client built-in Settings Utility to Get Enabled Sources.
#4349 GitHubActionCommand DownloadArtifact is not using the latest @v4 Version.
#4343 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.11.0.
#4342 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.7.9.
#4341 Update Autofac to 8.1.0.
#4340 Update NuGet.* to 6.11.0.
#4335 Add ReportGenerator missing markdown report types.
#4331 GitHubActionCommand UploadArtifact is not using the latest @v4 Version.
#4322 FakeFileSystem throws on linux, when it is created on a Windows FakeEnvironment.
#4306 Update Autofac to 8.0.0.
#4305 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.9.2.
#4304 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.5.0.
#4303 Update Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk to 17.9.0.
#4302 Update Verify.Xunit to 23.5.2.
#4301 Update xunit to 2.7.0.
#4300 Update NuGet.* to 6.9.1.
#4299 Update NuGet.Packaging to 6.8.1.
#4278 Update Spectre.Console to 0.49.1.
#4276 Update NuGet.* to 6.8.0.
#4274 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.8.0.

Cake v4.2.0 released

2024-10-23T00:00:00Z

Version 4.2.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes a bug fix for Cake Frosting since the Cake v4.1.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

Bug fix for Cake Frosting command line parsing

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

devlead

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 1 issues closed.

Bug

#4374 Argument 'foo' was not set" after update to 4.1 in Cake Frosting.

Cake v4.0.0 released

2023-11-18T00:00:00Z

Version 4.0.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements, and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v3.2.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

.NET 8 support & C# 12 support
Improved file APIs
Addin recommended Cake version set to 4.0.0

.NET 8 Support & C# 12 Support

Cake now fully supports running on .NET 8, and with this C# 12, which means you can take advantage of the latest framework, runtime, and language improvements.

The supported platform matrix for Cake 4.0.0 will look like this:

Runner	.NET 8	.NET 7	.NET 6
Cake .NET Tool
Cake Frosting

Breaking changes

IFile has added methods for setting timestamps (see #4132), while the interface has default implementations it can still break ABI which is why we've marked this change as breaking.

Addin recommended Cake version set to 4.0.0

We've now set the recommended version of Cake.Core for addins to target to 4.0.0.

This won't break the build, but you might see warnings like the one below when addins or modules are loaded.

The assembly 'Cake.Twitter, Version=3.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (3.0.0).
For best compatibility it should target Cake.Core version 4.0.0.

The recommended target framework monikers for addins are now

net8.0
net7.0
net6.0

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 15 issues closed.

Breaking change

#4266 Update LatestPotentialBreakingChange to 4.0.0.
#4132 Add File APIs for setting timestamps (creation time, last write time, last access time).

Feature

#4250 Update System.Collections.Immutable to 8.0.0.

Improvement

#4260 Unzip alias should support overwrite files.
#4251 Update System.Reflection.Metadata 8.0.0.
#4249 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 8.0.0.

Bug

#4197 Execution of Cake script fails if an addin defines an alias that uses nullable reference types in its signature.
#4150 Cake script is contributing unactionable diagnostics in VS Code Problems pane.

Cake v3.2.0 released

2023-11-10T00:00:00Z

Version 3.2.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v3.1.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

DotNetRemovePackage alias
DotNetAddPackage alias
MacOS native dependency fixes
Dependency and SDK updates

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 18 issues closed.

Feature

#4225 Add DotNetRemovePackage alias for dotnet remove package command.
#4187 Add DotNetAddPackage alias for dotnet add package command.

Improvement

#4221 Add Azure Pipelines group logging commands.
#4219 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.7.0.
#4217 Update NuGet.* to 6.7.0.
#4215 Update Autofac to 7.1.0.
#4157 Upgrading to spectre.console 0.47.0 breaks the cake build.
#4144 DotNetMSBuildSettings is missing NodeReuse.

Bug

#3996 Error: Bad IL format with Cake MacOSX (2.3.0 - 3.1.0).

Cake v3.1.0 released

2023-07-09T00:00:00Z

Version 3.1.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v3.0.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

Ability to invoke multiple tasks with Cake.Frosting
Support for user home directory in Cake Environment
Dependency updates

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 28 issues closed.

Feature

#4122 Call multiple tasks from CLI in Frosting.
#4092 Add support for getting the user's home directory in the Cake Environment.

Improvement

#4184 Update Autofac to 7.0.1.
#4183 Update System.Reflection.Metadata to 7.0.2.
#4182 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.Net60/Net70 to 1.4.2.
#4181 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.6.0.
#4170 Update NuGet.* to v6.6.1.
#4138 Upgrade Spectre.Console to v0.46.0.
#4109 Add PublishReadyToRun to DotNetRestoreSettings.
#4107 DotNetPublishSettings is missing a way to set the --os option.
#4090 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to v4.4.0.
#4087 Update Newtonsoft.Json to v13.0.2.
#4086 Update Autofac to v6.5.0.
#4085 Update NuGet.* to v6.4.0.
#1317 CleanDirectory does not clean readonly files.

Documentation

#4095 Fix broken link to Cake Team on CONTRIBUTING.md.

Bug

#4128 Inconsistent determination of positional Argument when using context.Arguments versus context.Argument.

Celebrating 50 Million Downloads of Cake.Tool🎉

2023-07-05T00:00:00Z

We are thrilled to announce that Cake.Tool has reached an incredible milestone of 50 million downloads on NuGet.org! This accomplishment wouldn't have been possible without the contributions of over 300 individuals and the unwavering support of our users. Join us as we reflect on the journey of Cake, featuring 123 releases and over 300 third-party community add-ins.

A Journey of Collaboration and Growth

Cake was born out of a vision to simplify software development processes. Through the power of collaboration, we have built a robust and flexible platform that empowers developers worldwide. Hundreds' contributors have played a vital role in shaping the tool and driving its evolution.

123 Releases and Counting

With 123 releases, we have continuously improved Cake's feature set and capabilities. The core team's dedication and perseverance have been instrumental in ensuring a seamless experience for our users.

Community Add-ins: Expanding the Power of Cake

The vibrant ecosystem around Cake boasts over 300 third-party add-ins. These community-driven contributions have significantly enhanced the tool's capabilities, making it adaptable to a wide range of use cases. We extend our gratitude to the creators of these add-ins for their innovative contributions.

Gratitude and Future Endeavors

We extend our heartfelt thanks to our users for embracing Cake as an essential part of their development workflow. Your feedback and support have been invaluable in shaping the tool's evolution. We remain committed to continually improving and refining Cake to exceed your expectations.

Conclusion

The achievement of 50 million downloads on NuGet.org is a testament to the power of collaboration and the dedication of the development community. We are grateful to the contributors and users who have made Cake a success. As we look to the future, we anticipate further collaboration, innovation, and success.

Thank you for being a part of Cake's journey! 💖

Cake for Rider 5.0.0 released

2022-12-14T00:00:00Z

Version 5.0.0 of Cake for Rider has been released.

This version fixes a critical bug in Cake for Rider 4.0.0, which prevents the use in all non-EAP version of Rider 2022.3.

Breaking change: Cake for Rider dropped support for all Rider releases before 2022.3

Release Notes

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen in the release notes for this version.

Cake v3.0.0 released

2022-11-08T00:00:00Z

Version 3.0.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes several new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v2.3.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

.NET 7 Support & C#11 Support
TaskOf<T>
Multiple target support
Improved build providers
Addin recommended Cake version set to 3.0.0

Breaking changes

Being a major release we've taken the opportunity to remove obsolete aliases and members, i.e. DotNetCore* aliases were obsoleted and replaced by DotNet* aliases in Cake 2.0 and are now removed with 3.0.0.

Cake itself will no longer run on .NET Core 3.1 or .NET 5, but Cake will continue to support the building of .NET Framework projects, as well as projects targeting .NET 5.0 or older.

The supported platform matrix for Cake 3.0.0 will look like this:

Runner	.NET 7	.NET 6
Cake .NET Tool
Cake Frosting

.NET 7 Support & C# 11 Support

Cake now fully supports running on .NET 7, and with this C# 11, which means you can take advantage of the latest framework, runtime, and language improvements.

TaskOf<T>

For scripting, a new TaskOf<T> method has been introduced to simplify when working with shared typed data contexts, where one only needs to specify the type parameter once and only get task methods that are relevant, example:

public record BuildData(bool Initialized);

Setup(ctx => new BuildData(true));

TaskOf<BuildData>("TaskOfT")
    .Description("Very typed task")
    .WithCriteria((context, data) => data.Initialized)
    .Does((context, data) => context.Information("Initialized: {0}.", data.Initialized))
    .Does(async (context, data) => await /* async work*/)
    .DoesForEach(
        (data, context) => new [] { data.Initialized },
        (data, item, context) => context.Information("Item: {0}, Initialized: {1}.", item, data.Initialized)
    )
    .DoesForEach(
        new [] { true, false },
        (data, item, context) => context.Information("Item: {0}, Initialized: {1}.", item, data.Initialized)
    );

RunTarget("TaskOfT");

Multiple target support

Also for scripting, a new RunTargets(IEnumerable<string> targets) method is now available. It'll let you specify multiple targets as the entry point in Cake's dependency graph to execute, where dependencies and dependency order is still respected. For example calling script below with dotnet cake --target="A" --target="B"

Task("A")
    .Does(() => { /* do stuff */ });

Task("B")
    .IsDependentOn("C")
    .Does(() => { /* do stuff */ });

Task("C")
    .Does(() => { /* do stuff */ });

Task("Default");

RunTargets(Arguments<string>("target", new []{ "Default" }));

will generate the following execution

========================================
A
========================================

========================================
C
========================================

========================================
B
========================================

Task                          Duration
--------------------------------------------------
A                             00:00:00.0028166
C                             00:00:00.0006761
B                             00:00:00.0006161
--------------------------------------------------
Total:                        00:00:00.0041088

Improved build providers

Cake 3.0.0 comes with a few improvements to build providers i.e.

GitHub Actions
- SetStepSummary Command
- SetOutputParameter Command
- Workflow commands
TeamCity
- Build status message
- Statistics
GitLab
- SetEnvironmentVariable Command
- CI runner tags improvements

Addin recommended Cake version set to 3.0.0

We've now set the recommended version of Cake.Core for addins to target to 3.0.0.

This won't break the build, but you might see warnings like below when addins or modules are loaded.

The assembly 'Cake.Twitter, Version=2.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null' 
is referencing an older version of Cake.Core (2.0.0). 
For best compatibility it should target Cake.Core version 3.0.0.

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 45 issues closed.

Breaking change

#4046 Add typed data context CakeTaskBuilder.Finally overload.
#4000 Remove obsolete CakeEngine Setup/Teardown events.
#3997 Remove obsolete Logger property from DotNetTestSettings.
#3991 Remove Obsolete DotNetCore aliases.
#3972 Remove .NET Core 3.1 TFM.
#3969 Update Spectre.Console to 0.45.0.
#3949 Remove .NET 5 TFM.
#3946 Access to ITaskSetupContext in Frosting.
#3867 Rename WindowsFact to WindowsFactAttribute to follow best practices.
#3722 DotNetCore -> DotNet Rename Missed Objects.

Feature

#4047 Add typed CakeTaskBuilder / TaskOf() to easier work with typed data context.
#4028 Add GitLab CI SetEnvironmentVariable Command.
#4019 Add support for TeamCity build status message.
#4018 Add Support For TeamCity Statistics.
#4011 Add GitHub Actions SetStepSummary Command.
#4009 Add GitHub Actions SetOutputParameter Command.
#3950 Add .NET 7 Support.
#3328 Frosting: Support criteria description.
#2863 Add support for GitHub Action workflow commands.
#2470 Call multiple tasks from CLI and pass them to RunTarget.
#1146 Add OutputDirectory property for Chocolatey Aliases.

Improvement

#4060 Update Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms to 7.0.0.
#4059 Update System.Reflection.Metadata to 7.0.0.
#4058 Update System.Collections.Immutable to 7.0.0.
#4057 Update Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 7.0.0.
#4055 Add column to summary to include skip reason.
#4052 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.4.1.
#4050 Overhaul Chocolatey Cake aliases.
#4044 Overload missing for IsDependeeOf accepting a CakeTaskBuilder object.
#4038 Add missing MSBuildSettings to DotNetRunSettings.
#4036 Add missing MSBuildSettings to DotNetTestSettings.
#4032 Add additional settings for ILMerge.
#4020 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.4.0.
#4016 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.4.0-4.final.
#4006 Add missing GitVersion command line options.
#3124 EscapedBranchName is not supported by GitVersion.CommandLine.

Documentation

#4023 Update supported versions of Cake.

Bug

#4034 DotNetMSBuildSettings ArgumentCustomization is not called with all DotNet* aliases.
#4030 GitLab CI runner tags are not split correctly.

Cake v2.3.0 released

2022-10-14T00:00:00Z

Version 2.3.0 of Cake has been released. Take it for a spin and give us feedback on our discussion board.

This release includes new features, improvements and bug fixes to both Cake Scripting and Cake Frosting since the Cake v2.2.0 release! 🚀 🍰

Highlights of this release

Better global script cache support
.NET CLI workload aliases
Command aliases

Better global script cache support

Script cache introduced in v2.2.0 has been improved to support parallel builds and multiple versions of the same script even when the cache is in a globally shared location.

Command aliases

While Cake support many tools out of the box or via the many available addins, there will always be tools or scenarios where you need to execute a custom tool, while this is already possible using the StartProcess alias, you need to write custom code for things like i.e. tool resolution, exit code handling, and handling command output.

To solve this we've in this release introduced the Command alias which fills the gap in-between StartProcess and the out-of-the-box typed aliases, it lets you benefit from Cake's built-in tool resolution making it easier to support tools with different executables i.e. Posix/Windows or installed using tool directive. It will default fail the build on non-zero exit codes, and also provides more convenient access to standard output/error. A few Command alias examples below, and several more in the features pull request.

Executing tool using implicit ProcessArgumentBuilder

Command(
    new []{ "dotnet", "dotnet.exe"},
    "--version"
);

Executing tool using ProcessArgumentBuilder

#tool dotnet:?package=DPI&version=2022.8.21.54
Command(
    new []{ "dpi", "dpi.exe"},
    new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
        .Append("nuget")
        .AppendQuoted(Context.Environment.WorkingDirectory.FullPath)
        .AppendSwitch("--output", " ", "TABLE")
        .Append("analyze")
);

Executing tool specifying expected exit code

Command(
    new []{ "dotnet", "dotnet.exe"},
    expectedExitCode: -2147450751
);

Executing tool using settings customization

Command(
    new []{ "dotnet", "dotnet.exe"},
    settingsCustomization: settings => settings
                                            .WithToolName(".NET tool")
                                            .WithExpectedExitCode(1)
                                            .WithArgumentCustomization(args => args.Append("tool"))
);

Reusable tools settings i.e. created in setup.

#tool dotnet:?package=DPI&version=2022.8.21.54
// Reusable tools settings i.e. created in setup.
var settings = new CommandSettings {
        ToolName = "DPI",
        ToolExecutableNames =  new []{ "dpi", "dpi.exe"},
     };

// Example with ProcessArgumentBuilder
Command(
    settings,
    new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
         .Append("nuget")
         .AppendQuoted(Context.Environment.WorkingDirectory.FullPath)
         .AppendSwitch("--output", " ", "TABLE")
         .Append("analyze")
);

// Example with implicit ProcessArgumentBuilder
Command(
     settings,
     $"nuget --output TABLE analyze"
);

Handling standard output

using System.Text.Json.Serialization;
using System.Text.Json;
#tool dotnet:?package=DPI&version=2022.8.21.54

// Example with ProcessArgumentBuilder
var exitCode = Command(
    new []{ "dpi", "dpi.exe"},
    out var standardOutput,
    new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
         .Append("nuget")
         .AppendQuoted(Context.Environment.WorkingDirectory.FullPath)
         .AppendSwitch("--output", " ", "JSON")
         .Append("analyze")
);

var packageReferences =  JsonSerializer.Deserialize<DPIPackageReference[]>(
    standardOutput
);

// Record used in example above
public record DPIPackageReference(
    [property: JsonPropertyName("source")]
    string Source,
    [property: JsonPropertyName("sourceType")]
    string SourceType,
    [property: JsonPropertyName("packageId")]
    string PackageId,
    [property: JsonPropertyName("version")]
    string Version
);

Handling standard error

// Example with ProcessArgumentBuilder
var exitCode = Command(
    new []{ "dotnet", "dotnet.exe" },
    out var standardOutput,
    out var standardError,
    new ProcessArgumentBuilder()
        .Append("tool"),
    expectedExitCode:1
);

Verbose("Exit code: {0}", exitCode);
Information("Output: {0}", standardOutput);
Error("Error: {0}", standardError);

Contributors

This release was made possible thanks to the Cake team and the contribution of these awesome members of the Cake community listed below:

Full details of everything that was included in this release can be seen below.

Issues

As part of this release we had 41 issues closed.

Feature

#3947 Easier Way to Read Process Output?.
#3916 GitVersion: Add ShortSha property.
#3487 Add alias for dotnet workload update command.
#3486 Add alias for dotnet workload uninstall command.
#3484 Add alias for dotnet workload restore command.
#3483 Add alias for dotnet workload repair command.
#3482 Add alias for dotnet workload list command.

Improvement

#3978 Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection to 6.0.1.
#3976 Update NuGet.* to 6.3.1.
#3970 Update Basic.Reference.Assemblies.* to 1.3.0.
#3965 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.3.1.
#3956 Extensibility issue - CakeEngineActions is internal.
#3933 Update NuGet.* to 6.3.0.
#3920 Update Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms to 6.0.5.
#3909 Update Autofac to 6.4.0.
#3901 Update Microsoft.CodeAnalysis.CSharp.Scripting to 4.2.0.
#3899 Microsoft.NETCore.Platforms to 6.0.4.
#3897 Update NuGet.* to 6.2.1.
#3890 Update NuGet.* to 6.2.0.
#3880 Better support global script cache.
#2953 Allow setting MSBuild target via MSBuildSettings using a string.
#2591 Extensibility issue - CakeTaskBuilder is sealed and CakeTaskBuilder(CakeTask task) is internal. .

Bug

#3931 Cake fails to load native libraries on Ubuntu 22.04.
#3894 Guard against null Console instance on InfoFeature.
#3879 Build script caching throws after running dry-run on non-changed Cake script.
#3878 OpenCover filters should be case sensitive.
#1852 Incorrect escaping of semi-colon in property values for MS Build.