NuGet Lens is a desktop tool I started building to visually inspect .NET solution dependencies, project references, and NuGet version conflicts without having to manually reconstruct everything from multiple .csproj files.
A while ago, I kept running into a problem that was starting to get pretty annoying in larger .NET solutions.
NuGet conflicts would show up, different versions of the same package would exist across projects, and some dependencies seemed to come out of nowhere. Understanding what was actually happening meant jumping between multiple .csproj files, checking references, comparing versions, and mentally rebuilding the relationship between projects.
At some point, I realized this was taking more manual effort than it should.
That is why I started building NuGet Lens.
The idea behind it is simple: open a .NET solution and visually inspect its project relationships, package dependencies, and version conflicts without having to decode everything by hand.
As solutions grow, understanding package relationships becomes harder than it should be.
A few of the pain points that pushed me in this direction were:
Even when the issue is “just” a version mismatch, the process of finding it can feel much more complicated than the problem itself.
Imagine a solution with a few projects that reference each other.
Two of those projects use different versions of the same package:
That may look small at first, but it is exactly the kind of thing that can lead to confusion during restore, build, or runtime behavior depending on the setup around it.
NuGet Lens is meant to make that visible immediately.
Instead of manually tracing every reference, the tool lets me see:
The project is still evolving, but it already does a few things that are genuinely useful:
That is already enough to make problem discovery much faster than doing everything manually.
So far, I have been building it with:
The analyzer is responsible for reading the solution, projects, package references, and building the graph data.
The desktop app handles the visual side of the inspection experience.
What I like most about this project is that it came from a very real frustration.
It was not born from trying to invent a random developer tool for the sake of it. It came from wanting a better way to understand dependency relationships and package issues in a space where the default experience often feels too scattered.
NuGet Lens still needs more polish, more edge-case handling, and more intelligence in the analysis layer, but it already feels like a real tool instead of just an idea.
There are still a few things I want to improve, including:
My goal is to keep iterating on it, fix bugs, refine the UX, and turn it into something genuinely useful.
If things keep moving in the right direction, I plan to release NuGet Lens publicly as an open source project once it is more polished and stable.
I want it to be something people can try, break, improve, or even use as a base for their own ideas.
This is still early, but I’m excited about where it is going.
2026-03-13
Pokemon? The Legend of Zelda? Final Fantasy? Looking for that weird walking (just up/down — left/right) style? don’t know how to implement it in your new video game project? well, I do and I’m gonna show you how to.
2026-03-13
Deno is a modern and secure runtime for JavaScript and TypeScript that uses V8 Javascript Engine and it's built in Rust, made by the Node.js creator, Ryan Dahl. Today we'll build a simple Deno App and make a container with it.
