Table of Contents

CLI Reference

Atom builds are invoked via dotnet run or the atom global tool. The repository currently requires the .NET 10 SDK. Libraries may target net8.0, net9.0, and net10.0.

Invocation

Via dotnet run (project-based)

dotnet run --project _atom -- <targets> [options] [--param-name value ...]

For a project located in the current directory, dotnet run -- <targets> ... is also sufficient.

To run a file-based build:

dotnet run Build.cs <targets> [options] [--param-name value ...]

Via the atom Global Tool

Install the tool:

dotnet tool install --global Invex.Atom.Tool

Then run:

atom <targets> [options] [--param-name value ...]

The tool searches the current directory and its parents for _atom, _build, Atom, or Build projects/files. On case-sensitive systems it also checks lowercase atom and build.

Targets

Specify one or more target names to execute:

dotnet run -- Compile Test Pack

Targets execute in dependency order. Duplicates are resolved automatically.

Options

Option Short Description
--help -h Display help information
--skip -s Skip execution of dependent targets
--headless -hl Non-interactive mode (no prompts, plain output)
--verbose -v Enable verbose (debug-level) logging
--interactive -i Prompt for missing required parameters
--project <name> -p <name> Specify the Atom project or project name
--file <path> -f <path> Specify a file-based C# build
--no-restore-cache Force restore and build instead of using the Atom caches

Parameters

Pass parameter values with --<param-name> <value>:

dotnet run --project _atom -- Deploy --api-key example-key --environment production

Parameter names use kebab-case on the command line and are matched to [ParamDefinition] attributes. Avoid passing real secrets on the command line because shell history and process diagnostics may expose them; use a secret provider, user secrets, or CI secret injection instead.

Examples

# Run a single target
dotnet run -- Compile

# Run multiple targets
dotnet run -- Compile Test

# Pass parameters (use a secret provider for real credentials)
dotnet run --project _atom -- Deploy --configuration Release --api-key example-key

# Interactive mode (prompt for missing params)
dotnet run -- Deploy -i

# Skip dependencies
dotnet run -- Pack -s

# Verbose output
dotnet run -- Compile -v

# Use a custom project with the global tool
atom --project MyBuildProject Compile

# Run a file-based build with the global tool
atom --file Build.cs SayHello

# Show help
dotnet run -- -h

The atom Tool

The atom global tool (Invex.Atom.Tool) provides the same interface but discovers your build project automatically:

atom Compile Test --verbose

It searches the current directory and parent directories, and does not search arbitrary child directories. Use --project or --file to select a specific build.

Adding a NuGet source

The nuget-add command adds a package source to the user-level NuGet configuration:

atom nuget-add my-feed https://example.invalid/nuget/index.json

If NUGET_TOKEN_MY_FEED is set, its value is used as the feed password. This command writes credentials to the user configuration; review the resulting NuGet configuration and protect it appropriately.

Restore & Build Caching

Because a consuming project's Atom build is distributed as source, the atom tool would normally trigger a dotnet restore and dotnet build on every invocation. To avoid this, the tool caches hashes of the relevant inputs and skips work that isn't needed:

  • Restore is skipped (--no-restore) when the build project file plus any Directory.Build.props, Directory.Build.targets, Directory.Packages.props, nuget.config and global.json files (found while walking up to the project root) are unchanged.
  • Build is skipped (--no-build) when, in addition to the restore inputs, every .cs source file under the build project (excluding bin/obj) is unchanged and a previous build output exists. --no-build implies --no-restore.

The hashes are stored in the build project's obj/.atom-restore.hash and obj/.atom-build.hash files, so they are automatically invalidated by dotnet clean and never committed to source control.

Note: source changes in projects referenced via <ProjectReference> are not tracked by the build cache. If your build project references other projects by source, force a full build with the opt-out below.

To force a full restore and build regardless of the caches, use either:

# CLI flag
atom Compile --no-restore-cache

# Environment variable (any value other than "0"/"false" enables the opt-out)
ATOM_NO_RESTORE_CACHE=1 atom Compile
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