How do you add packages from upstream sources in an Artifacts feed in Visual Studio?

Question

Reducing the availability risk of upstream sources is a compelling reason enough to use Artifacts, even if you don't have a need for private packages. However, once you have projects pointing to the Artifacts feed, the Visual Studio Package Management UI does not show the packages in the upstream feed e.g. nuget.org. Are devs expected to search using the web and use nuget install cli now? Is there a way to use the Package Management UI in Visual Studio instead?

Answer 1

Today, you'll need to use the NuGet Package Manager Console and an Install-Package command copied from NuGet.org.

Answer 2

How do you add packages from upstream sources in an Artifacts feed in Visual Studio?

As we know, when we download any packages from the Upstream sources, it will been cached in the Artifacts, so that we could see and use it next time.

So, if we want to use the packages from upstream feed e.g. nuget.org, we must cache the package to the Artifacts feed from upstream feed, then we could see it in the Visual Studio Package Management UI:

Update:

How are developers expected to add (or cache) an upstream source to the Artifacts feed?

Do you want to add (or cache) an upstream source to the Artifacts feed, so that your developers be able to browse the packages from upstream source directly in the Package Management UI?

I am afraid there is no out of box way to do this. Because we could not or not recommend to add (or cache) an upstream source to the Artifacts feed. You can check the reason from my other post:

Is there a way for new or updated packages in the upstream view to automatically be pushed to my feed?

As workaround, we could add those upstream sources as Package resource, then we select the All option in the UI:

hope this helps.