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ghogen merged 3 commits into from
Jan 6, 2026
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docs(msbuild): clarify AssemblySearchPaths defaults for SDK-style projects #11175

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docs(msbuild): clarify AssemblySearchPaths defaults
fuguiKz Dec 27, 2025
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docs(msbuild): note how to inspect SearchPaths
fuguiKz Dec 27, 2025
ce658b8
Update docs/msbuild/troubleshoot-assembly-references.md
ghogen Jan 6, 2026
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26 changes: 25 additions & 1 deletion docs/msbuild/troubleshoot-assembly-references.md
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Expand Up @@ -150,7 +150,31 @@ There were recent fixes made to `ResolveAssemblyReference` to alleviate the situ

There are two ways to customize the list of paths `ResolveAssemblyReference` searches in attempting to locate an assembly. To fully customize the list, the property `AssemblySearchPaths` can be set ahead of time. The order matters; if an assembly is in two locations, `ResolveAssemblyReference` stops after it finds it at the first location.

By default, there are ten locations `ResolveAssemblyReference` searches (four if you use the .NET SDK), and each can be disabled by setting the relevant flag to false:
`AssemblySearchPaths` is a semicolon-delimited list. It supports a set of built-in placeholders (for example, `{HintPathFromItem}` and `{GAC}`) that expand to actual locations during resolution.

By default, non-SDK-style projects use the following search path order:

1. Candidate assembly files (`{CandidateAssemblyFiles}`)
2. The `ReferencePath` property (`$(ReferencePath)`)
3. Hint paths from `<Reference>` items (`{HintPathFromItem}`)
4. The target framework directory (`{TargetFrameworkDirectory}`)
5. Assembly folders from `AssemblyFolders.config` (`$(AssemblyFoldersConfigFileSearchPath)`)
6. The registry (`{Registry:...}`)
7. Legacy registered assembly folders (`{AssemblyFolders}`)
8. The Global Assembly Cache (GAC) (`{GAC}`)
9. Treat the `<Reference Include="...">` value as a real file name (`{RawFileName}`)
10. The output directory (`$(OutDir)`)

The .NET SDK sets a smaller default `AssemblySearchPaths` (excluding GAC/registry/output directory searches by default):

- `{CandidateAssemblyFiles}`
- `{HintPathFromItem}`
- `{TargetFrameworkDirectory}`
- `{RawFileName}`

To see the effective value for your build, inspect the `SearchPaths` input logged by `ResolveAssemblyReference` (for example, in MSBuild Structured Log Viewer), or preprocess the project with `msbuild /pp`.

Each entry can be disabled by setting the relevant flag to `false`:

- Searching files from the current project is disabled by setting the `AssemblySearchPath_UseCandidateAssemblyFiles` property to false.
- Searching the reference path property (from a `.user` file) is disabled by setting the `AssemblySearchPath_UseReferencePath` property to false.
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