Install the Scout C# SDK

01Before you start

Three things, and only the third one needs a person.

• 01
  A .NET 9 SDK

  The package targets net9.0. Older target frameworks won’t resolve it.

• 02
  Outbound HTTPS to downloads.scoutnotebook.com

  From developer machines and from CI. Restore pulls the package over plain HTTPS — no credentials, no auth header, nothing to put in a secret store.

• 03
  A Scout HQ token

  Not needed to install — needed to run. One SyncAsync call with your institution’s token provisions the install and pulls the recipe catalog down. Your VisionFI account team issues it.

02Commit a nuget.config

Put this file at your repository root, next to the .sln, and commit it. Every developer who clones the repo and every CI runner that builds it then resolves the package the same way, with no per-machine setup.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<configuration>
  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
    <add key="visionfi" value="https://downloads.scoutnotebook.com/dist/scout-main/nuget/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceMapping>
    <packageSource key="nuget.org">
      <package pattern="*" />
    </packageSource>
    <packageSource key="visionfi">
      <package pattern="VisionFI.*" />
    </packageSource>
  </packageSourceMapping>
</configuration>

Then, from the project that needs it:

Not this: dotnet nuget add source … writes to the developer’s machine-level config. It’s invisible to anyone reading the repo, it doesn’t reach CI, and it doesn’t reach the next teammate who clones. Fine for a throwaway experiment on your own box; never the way a project is set up.

03Stable and Insiders

Two feeds, one package ID. Stable is what production builds against; Insiders is a nightly prerelease train for teams who want the engine as it lands.

To use Insiders, add the second source and give it the same VisionFI.* mapping — a pattern can map to more than one source, and NuGet will consider both:

  <packageSources>
    <clear />
    <add key="nuget.org" value="https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json" />
    <add key="visionfi" value="https://downloads.scoutnotebook.com/dist/scout-main/nuget/index.json" />
    <add key="visionfi-insiders" value="https://downloads.scoutnotebook.com/dist/scout-insiders/nuget/index.json" />
  </packageSources>
  <packageSourceMapping>
    <packageSource key="nuget.org">
      <package pattern="*" />
    </packageSource>
    <packageSource key="visionfi">
      <package pattern="VisionFI.*" />
    </packageSource>
    <packageSource key="visionfi-insiders">
      <package pattern="VisionFI.*" />
    </packageSource>
  </packageSourceMapping>

With both sources configured, a plain dotnet add package still resolves Stable; --prerelease is the opt-in. Insiders builds carry a prerelease suffix, which is what keeps them out of the way of a normal restore.

Both feed URLs above are permanent. Partners move onto each new Stable release automatically as it publishes — nothing on their side changes, and there is no URL to update, ever.

04Pin an exact version in production

For anything you ship, pin. Don’t use a floating range.

The package version is the version of the native engine inside it — the two are stamped together and cannot drift apart. That’s a useful property, and it’s also the reason a float is dangerous here: a floating range silently swaps the engine underneath your application, not just the managed wrapper around it.

<PackageReference Include="VisionFI.Scout" Version="x.y.z" />

Multi-project solutions

Manage the version in one place with central package management: set ManagePackageVersionsCentrally in a Directory.Packages.props at the repo root, declare the version there once, and let each project reference the package without a version attribute.

<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <ManagePackageVersionsCentrally>true</ManagePackageVersionsCentrally>
  </PropertyGroup>
  <ItemGroup>
    <PackageVersion Include="VisionFI.Scout" Version="x.y.z" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Upgrading is then a one-line change in one file, reviewed like any other change — which is the point.

05The first restore is a big download

06Confirm what you actually installed

One line, and it belongs in your startup logs permanently.

It returns a single line in the shape VisionFI.Scout <version> (<channel>; scout-agent <tag> @ <sha>) — the package version, the channel it came from (stable or insiders), and the exact engine commit bundled inside it.

The end-to-end shape

Once the package restores, the whole flow is a handful of await lines. Arguments are plain C#; the SDK handles all marshalling into the native engine internally.

using VisionFI.Scout;

// Initialize once — point at where data lives on disk.
await using var scout = await ScoutKit.InitAsync(new ScoutKitConfig {
    ConfigDir    = "/data/scout/config",      // catalog + settings
    NotebooksDir = "/data/scout/notebooks",   // the .scoutnb files
});

// Provision from Scout HQ — one call, once per install (and to refresh).
// Pulls the recipe catalog and everything a run needs. Just the token in.
await scout.SyncAsync(hqToken);

// 1. A notebook is the unit of work: one loan file or package.
var meta     = await scout.Notebooks.CreateAsync("United LOC");
var notebook = scout.Notebook(meta.Id);

// 2. Ingest — stage every document of the package.
foreach (var path in Directory.GetFiles("/loans/united-loc", "*.pdf"))
    await notebook.StagedFiles.StageFileAsync(path);

// 3. Process — OCR + classify. This must finish before a recipe runs.
await notebook.ProcessAsync();

// 4. Run a recipe (a key from Catalog.ListRecipesAsync()).
var run = await notebook.Runs.RunRecipeAsync("loan-terms-summary");

// 5. Read the report back out.
var reports = await notebook.Artifacts.ListByTypeAsync("loan-terms-summary");
string? report = await notebook.Artifacts.Get(reports[^1].Id).ReadTextAsync();
Console.WriteLine(report);

07If something is wrong

Send us the output of BuildInfo.Describe() with your first message. It is the single most useful line in any Scout SDK bug report, and it usually shortens the conversation by a day.

• —
  “Unable to find package VisionFI.Scout”

  The feed isn’t configured for that build. Check the nuget.config is committed at the repo root, that packageSourceMapping includes the VisionFI.* pattern, and that the CI runner can reach downloads.scoutnotebook.com. Remember the package is not on nuget.org.

• —
  The package resolves, but a feature does nothing

  Suspect engine skew first. Log BuildInfo.Describe() and compare the scout-agent commit against the release you expect to be running.

• —
  Restore is slow or fills the CI cache

  Expected — see the download note above. Pin an exact version so the cache key stops moving.

• —
  Anything else

  hello@visionfi.ai, or your VisionFI account team. Include Describe(), the channel you’re on, and the OS the build runs on.