This is an MSBuild task that is designed to simplify creating plugins for Dalamud.

Install the NuGet package DalamudPackager. When you build in release mode, a folder will be placed in your output directory containing your plugin manifest and latest.zip.

• Configuration
• Manifest generation
• YAML manifests
• csproj manifests
• ~.zip~ file generation
• Task attributes

If you need to additionally configure the task, create a file called DalamudPackager.targets in your project and use the template below.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<Project>
    <Target Name="PackagePlugin" AfterTargets="Build" Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
        <DalamudPackager
                ProjectDir="$(ProjectDir)"
                OutputPath="$(OutputPath)"
                AssemblyName="$(AssemblyName)"
                MakeZip="true"/>
    </Target>
</Project>

DalamudPackager reduces the amount of keys you need to include in your manifest, filling in the rest from sane defaults or your assembly. You can, of course, specify everything manually.

{
    "Name": "Test Plugin",
    "Author": "You",
    "Description": "This is a test plugin",
    "RepoUrl": "https://example.com/"
}

Notice how keys like AssemblyVersion and DalamudApiLevel are missing. You can include these if you’d like, but DalamudPackager will automatically do it for you when you build your project. If you build a project with this manifest in Release mode, you will find the following JSON file in your output directory.

{
  "Author": "You",
  "Name": "Test Plugin",
  // this will be set to your AssemblyName automatically
  "InternalName": "TestPlugin",
  // this will be set to your assembly's version automatically
  "AssemblyVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "Description": "This is a test plugin - this first line is a summary.\n\nDown here is a more detailed explanation of what the plugin\ndoes, manually wrapped to make sure it stays visible in the\ninstaller.",
  // this will be set to "any" automatically
  "ApplicableVersion": "any",
  "RepoUrl": "https://example.com/",
  // this will be set to 2 automatically
  "DalamudApiLevel": 2,
  // this will be set to 0 automatically
  "LoadPriority": 0
}

In addition, DalamudPackager allows you to use YAML, a more human-friendly format, for your manifest instead of JSON. YAML uses snake_case for keys instead of PascalCase like JSON. All the features of DalamudPackager work with YAML manifests. Just end your manifest’s file name with .yaml instead of .json to make use of it.

name: Test Plugin
author: You
description: |-
  This is a test plugin - this first line is a summary.

  Down here is a more detailed explanation of what the plugin
  does, manually wrapped to make sure it stays visible in the
  installer.
repo_url: https://example.com/

If you prefer to keep your configuration in your .csproj file, you can specify almost all manifest fields directly as properties.

<PropertyGroup>
    <Author>You</Author>
    <Name>Sample Plugin</Name>
    <MinimumDalamudVersion>13.0.0</MinimumDalamudVersion>
    <Punchline>A short one-liner that shows up in /xlplugins.</Punchline>
    <Description>A description that shows up in /xlplugins. List any major slash-command(s).</Description>
    <ApplicableVersion>2025.10.30.0000.0000</ApplicableVersion>
    <RepoUrl>https://github.com/goatcorp/SamplePlugin</RepoUrl>
    <Tags>sample;plugin;goats</Tags>
    <CategoryTags>debug;test</CategoryTags>
    <DalamudApiLevel>14</DalamudApiLevel>
    <LoadRequiredState>1</LoadRequiredState>
    <LoadSync>true</LoadSync>
    <CanUnloadAsync>true</CanUnloadAsync>
    <LoadPriority>1</LoadPriority>
    <ImageUrls>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goatcorp/DalamudPluginsD17/refs/heads/main/stable/SamplePlugin/images/image1.png;https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goatcorp/DalamudPluginsD17/refs/heads/main/stable/SamplePlugin/images/image2.png</ImageUrls>
    <IconUrl>https://raw.githubusercontent.com/goatcorp/DalamudPluginsD17/refs/heads/main/stable/SamplePlugin/images/icon.png</IconUrl>
    <Changelog>CHANGES!</Changelog>
    <AcceptsFeedback>true</AcceptsFeedback>
    <FeedbackMessage>Be nice.</FeedbackMessage>
</PropertyGroup>

DalamudPackager will also create a folder with latest.zip for you if MakeZip is true. Check your output directory for a folder with the name of your assembly. Inside will be your manifest and latest.zip, ready for distribution or PRs.

Note that the entire contents of your output directory will be zipped by default. Either turn off copy local for Dalamud references, set up a task to clean your output directory, or use Exclude or Include if you want to change this.

If you set ManifestType to csproj, you can specify your manifest fields directly in the task attributes. The following table lists all available attributes: