Pulumi & C#, VB, F# (.NET)

Pulumi supports writing your infrastructure as code in any .NET language programs running on dotnet using any supported version.

You can use your favorite .NET tools — such as editors, package managers, build systems, and test frameworks — to create, deploy, and manage infrastructure on any cloud, including Azure, AWS, and Google Cloud.

Install .NET

Prerequisites

Before using Pulumi for .NET, you will need to install both Pulumi and a supported .NET version.

1. Install Pulumi
2. Install .NET SDK

Example

using System.Threading.Tasks;

using Pulumi;
using Pulumi.Azure.Core;
using Pulumi.Azure.Storage;

class Program
{
    static Task<int> Main() => Deployment.RunAsync<MyStack>();
}

public class MyStack : Stack
{
    public MyStack()
    {
        // Create an Azure Resource Group
        var resourceGroup = new ResourceGroup("resourceGroup", new ResourceGroupArgs
        {
            Location = "West Europe",
        });

        // Create an Azure Storage Account
        var storageAccount = new Account("storage", new AccountArgs
        {
            ResourceGroupName = resourceGroup.Name,
            AccountReplicationType = "LRS",
            AccountTier = "Standard",
        });

        // Export the connection string for the storage account
        this.ConnectionString = storageAccount.PrimaryConnectionString;
    }

    [Output] public Output<string> ConnectionString { get; set; }
}

module Program

open Pulumi.FSharp
open Pulumi.Azure.Core
open Pulumi.Azure.Storage

let infra () =
    // Create an Azure Resource Group
    let resourceGroup = new ResourceGroup "resourceGroup"

    // Create an Azure Storage Account
    let storageAccount =
        new Account("storage",
            new AccountArgs
               (ResourceGroupName = io resourceGroup.Name,
                AccountReplicationType = input "LRS",
                AccountTier = input "Standard"))

    // Export the connection string for the storage account
    dict [("connectionString", storageAccount.PrimaryConnectionString :> obj)]

[<EntryPoint>]
let main _ =
  Deployment.run infra

Imports System.Threading.Tasks
Imports Pulumi
Imports Pulumi.Azure.Core
Imports Pulumi.Azure.Storage

Module Program
    Public Function Run() As IDictionary(Of String, Object)
        ' Create an Azure Resource Group
        Dim resourceGroup = New ResourceGroup("resourceGroup")

        ' Create an Azure Storage Account
        Dim storageAccount = New Account("storageAccount", New AccountArgs With {
            .ResourceGroupName = resourceGroup.Name,
            .AccountReplicationType = "LRS",
            .AccountTier = "Standard"
        })

        ' Export the connection string for the storage account
        Return New Dictionary(Of String, Object) From {
            {"connectionString", storageAccount.PrimaryConnectionString}
        }
    End Function

    Sub Main()
        Deployment.RunAsync(AddressOf Run).Wait()
    End Sub

End Module

C#, F#, and VB Templates

You can write Pulumi programs in your favorite .NET language to get additional verification and tooling benefits. The fastest way to get started is to use a template. The template will autogenerate a set of files and initialize a Pulumi project.

$ mkdir myproject && cd myproject
$ pulumi new csharp

$ mkdir myproject && cd myproject
$ pulumi new fsharp

$ mkdir myproject && cd myproject
$ pulumi new visualbasic

.NET Tools

Pulumi packages are distributed on NuGet for download.

Although you can use any editor, Visual Studio Code, Visual Studio, or Rider will deliver full tooling support for .NET out-of-the-box, including auto-completion, red error markers and build errors.

Pulumi Programming Model

The Pulumi programming model defines the core concepts you will use when creating infrastructure as code programs using Pulumi. Concepts describes these concepts with examples available in Python. These concepts are made available to you in the Pulumi SDK.

The Pulumi SDK is available to .NET developers as a Nuget package. To learn more, refer to the Pulumi SDK Reference Guide.

The Pulumi programming model includes a core concept of Input and Output values, which are used to track how outputs of one resource flow in as inputs to another resource. This concept is important to understand when getting started with .NET and Pulumi, and the Inputs and Outputs documentation is recommended to get a feel for how to work with this core part of Pulumi in common cases.

Continuous Delivery

In addition to the CLI-driven workflows shown above, you can continuously deploy your infrastructure using .NET by integrating with your CI/CD provider of choice. This ensures automated deployments triggered by events such as commits to your Git repo.

Azure DevOps Pipelines

Pulumi can deploy infrastructure changes from your Azure DevOps Pipelines. This enables easy integration with your existing automation while using .NET for your infrastructure as code, leveraging the Pulumi task in the Visual Studio Marketplace.

To learn more, see the Pulumi Azure DevOps user guide.

GitHub Actions

Pulumi can deploy infrastructure using GitHub Actions, making Git-driven deployments of your infrastructure as code straightforward. To learn more, see the Pulumi GitHub Actions user guide.

There is also a Pulumi GitHub App that integrates with Pull Requests so that you get previews of deployments before they are merged inline in your PRs where it’s easy to comment and collaborate.

Other CI/CD Integrations

If you don’t use Azure DevOps or GitHub Actions, Pulumi also supports a number of other CI/CD integrations.

Package Documentation

SDK reference documentation, organized by language.

Dev Versions

Pulumi SDKs also publish pre-release versions, that include all the latest changes from the main development branch. To use them you can use the --prerelease flag. For example dotnet add package Pulumi --prerelease.

Standard Packages

In addition to the standard packages the Pulumi Registry houses 100+ .NET packages.

Pulumi SDK

Pulumi

Pulumi FSharp SDK

Pulumi.FSharp

Pulumi Automation API

Pulumi.Automation

Troubleshooting

What .NET framework do I need to have installed?

While we will always officially support the current set of .NET Frameworks that are supported by Microsoft, that isn’t what is always in use at the moment. Pulumi supports multiple side-by-side versions of the .NET runtime at once. You might be supporting multiple programs that depend on different runtimes. Luckily, Pulumi actually is able to use a wide range of .NET runtime versions side-by-side.

This can get confusing. You may encounter an error like this:

It was not possible to find any compatible framework version
The framework 'Microsoft.NETCore.App', version '3.1.0' was not found.
      - The following frameworks were found:
          5.0.0 at [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
You can resolve the problem by installing the specified framework and/or SDK.
The specified framework can be found at:
      - https://aka.ms/dotnet-core-applaunch?framework=Microsoft.NETCore.App&framework_version=3.1.0&arch=x64&rid=osx.11.0-x64

error: an unhandled error occurred: Program exited with non-zero exit code: 150

What this error is telling you is that the Pulumi program you’re trying to run was defined as a .NET 3 app but the installed version of .NET you have is .NET 5. There are two ways to resolve that, either you can install the version of .NET that the program expects, or you can update the program to use the version you have. The framework version is defined in your .csproj/.fsproj file like this:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <OutputType>Exe</OutputType>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
  </PropertyGroup>

</Project>

Here the <TargetFramework> value is set to net8.0 indicating that this code requires the .NET 8 framework to run. Depending on the code you’re using, this could be any version of the .NET runtime from .NET 3 to .NET 9. You need to have the version installed that matches the project file.

To see the versions you have installed, run dotnet --info:

$ dotnet --info

.NET SDK:
 Version:   7.0.101
 Commit:    bb24aafa11

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Mac OS X
 OS Version:  13.2
 OS Platform: Darwin
 RID:         osx.13-x64
 Base Path:   /usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk/7.0.101/

Host:
  Version:      7.0.1
  Architecture: x64
  Commit:       97203d38ba

.NET SDKs installed:
  3.1.424 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  6.0.201 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  6.0.202 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  6.0.402 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  6.0.404 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]
  7.0.101 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/sdk]

.NET runtimes installed:
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.25 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 3.1.30 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 5.0.15 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.3 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.4 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.10 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 6.0.12 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.AspNetCore.App 7.0.1 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.AspNetCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 2.0.9 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 3.1.30 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 5.0.15 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.3 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.4 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.10 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 6.0.12 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]
  Microsoft.NETCore.App 7.0.1 [/usr/local/share/dotnet/shared/Microsoft.NETCore.App]

Notice that the SDKs, NETCore.App, and AspNetCore.App runtimes are all listed separately. Look closely at the error message Pulumi gave you and try to determine exactly which one of those you are missing, then download and install the correct version. For example, some installers don’t install the ASP.net runtime, which can leave you scratching your head if your project depends on it, and you have the right SDK version installed, but not the ASP.net runtime!

At the time of this writing, .NET 8 is the current long-term support version, and all of our built-in .NET templates have been upgraded to require .NET 8. If you have an older version like .NET 6 installed, you might need to upgrade your runtime before using a template, or it could give you an error. Always check the project file first! You can also try setting the project file back to .NET 6. We currently test on .NET 6 and .NET 8 so rolling it back to .NET 6 is likely to be fine and would be a simple edit to the project file’s <TargetFramework> property.

When in doubt, reach out! We have an active Community Slack channel and are happy to help you get unblocked if you’re running into an issue like this.