Downloads files over HTTP during the build and registers them as build items, so large or frequently replaced binaries stay out of the repository.
dotnet add package Kebechet.Build.RemoteAssets<ItemGroup>
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v1/hero.webp" Path="wwwroot/img" />
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v1/intro.mp4" Path="wwwroot/video" />
</ItemGroup>In a Razor SDK project those resolve at _content/<YourProject>/img/hero.webp, exactly as if they
had been committed under wwwroot/. In a console or class library project they land next to the
built assembly.
| Metadata | Required | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
Include |
yes | The URL, or the file name when Url is also set |
Path |
no | Directory to save into, relative to the project. Defaults to $(RemoteAssetPath) |
Name |
no | File name to save as. Defaults to the last segment of the URL |
Url |
no | Explicit URL. Required when the URL contains ? - see below |
Sha256 |
no | Expected hash. The build fails if the bytes do not match |
ItemType |
no | Content (default), MauiAsset, EmbeddedResource or None |
| Property | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
RemoteAssetPath |
(empty) | Default Path for every item |
RemoteAssetItemType |
Content |
Default ItemType for every item |
RemoteAssetRetries |
3 |
Download attempts before failing |
RemoteAssetRetryDelayMilliseconds |
2000 |
Delay between attempts |
RemoteAssetsEnabled |
true |
Set to false to skip fetching entirely |
RemoteAssetStampDirectory |
$(BaseIntermediateOutputPath)RemoteAssets\ |
Where the cache manifest lives |
Set RemoteAssetPath once when everything shares a folder:
<PropertyGroup>
<RemoteAssetPath>wwwroot/img/app-previews</RemoteAssetPath>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v1/training-plans.webp" />
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v1/workout-summary.webp" />
</ItemGroup>A file already on disk for the current URL is never requested again, so incremental and offline builds do no network work. Change the URL and the cached copy is replaced:
<!-- v1 -> v2 is all it takes; nothing else to bump, no stamp to reset -->
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v2/hero.webp" Path="wwwroot/img" />A URL is mutable. If someone re-uploads over v1/hero.webp you would silently ship different
bytes and no commit would record it. Sha256 turns that into a build failure naming the file:
<RemoteAsset Include="https://cdn.example.com/v1/hero.webp"
Path="wwwroot/img"
Sha256="9f2c4e8a1b7d5f30c6e94a2b8d1f7c3e5a09b4d6f28e1c7a3b5d9f04e6a2c8b1" />Compute one with Get-FileHash hero.webp -Algorithm SHA256 or sha256sum hero.webp.
? is an MSBuild wildcard. A URL containing one, placed in Include, is expanded as a file glob,
matches nothing, and the item disappears without an error. Pass such URLs as Url metadata
instead, with the file name in Include:
<RemoteAsset Include="hero.webp"
Url="https://account.blob.core.windows.net/assets/hero.webp?sv=2024-01-01&sig=..."
Path="wwwroot/img" />The package detects the broken form and fails with a message pointing here rather than letting it pass silently.
Every downloaded file is tracked by a stamp under obj/RemoteAssets/. Remove an item and the next
build deletes the file it left behind. Only files this package downloaded are ever deleted, so a
committed file sitting in the same folder as fetched ones is never touched.
For a project building several target frameworks, the fetch runs once in the outer build before the inner builds fan out. Without that, every inner build would race the others to download the same URL into the same destination file - they run in parallel, so an existence check is not enough on its own.
The point of the package is that these files are not committed:
wwwroot/img/hero.webp
wwwroot/video/intro.mp4A build whose files are already cached needs no network. A cold build with no cache fails with a
message naming the URL, rather than producing output with the asset silently missing. Set
RemoteAssetsEnabled=false to skip fetching altogether.