Automating .NET Builds with Nuke and Azure Pipelines

The Problem

Manual builds and deployments are error-prone and time-consuming. When working on a multi-version Revit application, we needed to:

• Build for multiple Revit versions (2020-2025)
• Run tests across all configurations
• Package installers with proper versioning
• Deploy to internal distribution channels

Doing this manually took hours and was prone to mistakes.

The Solution: Nuke.Build + Azure Pipelines

Why Nuke.Build?

Nuke is a build automation system for .NET that lets you define builds in C# instead of YAML or scripts. Benefits include:

• Type-safe - Build logic in C# with full IDE support
• Cross-platform - Works on Windows, Linux, macOS
• Extensible - Easy to add custom build steps
• CI/CD agnostic - Same build locally and in pipelines

Pipeline Structure

Build Pipeline:
├── Restore dependencies
├── Build (all Revit versions in parallel)
├── Run unit tests
├── Run integration tests
├── Package with Inno Setup
├── Sign binaries
└── Publish artifacts

Key Optimizations

1. Parallel builds - Each Revit version builds simultaneously
2. Caching - NuGet packages cached between runs
3. Incremental builds - Only rebuild changed components
4. Artifact management - Versioned installers stored automatically

Results

• 40% reduction in deployment time
• Zero manual build errors
• Consistent builds across team members
• Automatic version numbering and changelog generation

Code Sample

Target Compile => _ => _
    .DependsOn(Restore)
    .Executes(() =>
    {
        DotNetBuild(s => s
            .SetProjectFile(Solution)
            .SetConfiguration(Configuration)
            .EnableNoRestore());
    });

The full build definition lives in the repository, making it versionable and reviewable like any other code.