Is it safe to exclude Scaffolding packages from publish version?

Question

I have Microsoft.VisualStudio.Web.CodeGeneration.Design nuget in a project.

Can it be safely excluded from publishing (<ExcludeAssets>runtime</ExcludeAssets>)?

Is there scenario, when during runtime, code has dependency on this package?

As I understand this package is used only for generating the code during development.

I don't see any reason to add its dll in published code.

Answer 1

Is it safe to exclude Scaffolding packages from publish version?

As the package describes,

Code Generation tool for ASP.NET Core. Contains the dotnet-aspnet-codegenerator command used for generating controllers and views.

It only works for generating code for views or controllers during developing and the project itself does not depend on the package at runtime.

So it is safe to exclude that nuget package from publishing using your method. And you do not have to worry too much about it.