Download Symbols from NuGet Feed in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v28

In Business Central 2026 release wave 1 (v28), Microsoft introduced a powerful enhancement for AL developers — the ability to download symbols directly from global NuGet feeds.

With the new command “AL: Download Symbols from Global Sources”, developers can now retrieve application packages not only from Microsoft’s feeds but also from custom NuGet sources.

This significantly improves flexibility, dependency management, and development workflows.

What’s New?

Previously, symbol download was limited and often dependent on:

• Connected environments
• Tenant-specific apps
• Manual setup

Now, with this feature:

✔ Download symbols from Microsoft public NuGet feeds

✔ Support for custom NuGet feeds

✔ Ability to work with localized (country-specific) packages

✔ Greater control via VS Code settings

How It Works

You can now trigger symbol download directly from Visual Studio Code.

Steps:

1. Open Command Palette
2. Run:

AL: Download Symbols from Global Sources

3. The AL extension downloads symbols based on your configuration: Microsoft feeds Custom feeds (if configured)

Key Configuration Settings

This feature introduces new settings in VS Code (settings.json).

1. Custom NuGet Feeds

{
  "al.nugetFeeds": [
    "https://api.nuget.org/v3/index.json"
  ]
}

👉 Defines additional feeds to search for symbol packages.

2. Use Only Custom Feeds

{
  "al.useOnlyCustomFeeds": true
}

👉 When enabled:

• Only custom feeds are used
• Microsoft feeds are ignored

3. Country/Region-Specific Symbols

{
  "al.symbolsCountryRegion": "us"
}

👉 Supports localization using:

• ISO codes (us, de, dk, etc.)
• w1 for worldwide

If not set, the system prompts during download.

With this feature Developers are no longer tightly dependent on specific tenants,enviornment availability and symbols can be pulled directly from global sources, enabling more flexible development. As well as developers can download region-specific symbols by setting country.

The ability to download symbols from global and custom NuGet feeds in Microsoft Dynamics 365 Business Central v28 is a significant improvement for AL developers.

It modernizes the development experience by making symbol management more flexible, scalable, and automation friendly.