Getting started

Nebula.NET protects your compiled .NET assemblies against reverse engineering. This guide takes you from install to your first protected build in a few minutes.

1. Install

Download the Windows installer from the download page and run it. It installs both the command-line tool (nebula) and the desktop GUI. See Installation for details.

2. Create a configuration file

Nebula is driven by a small JSON config. Create nebula.config.json next to your build output:

{
  "schemaVersion": 1,
  "inputs": ["bin/Release/net8.0/MyApp.dll"],
  "outputDirectory": "protected",
  "preservePublicApi": true,
  "encryptStrings": true,
  "controlFlowObfuscation": true
}

• inputs — the assemblies to protect.
• outputDirectory — where protected copies are written.
• preservePublicApi — keep public types/members named (recommended for libraries).
• encryptStrings / controlFlowObfuscation — enable those transforms (Licensed edition removes the Free caps).

3. Protect your build

nebula --config nebula.config.json

You’ll see a summary of what was renamed, flattened and encrypted, and the protected assembly appears in protected/.

4. Verify it runs

Nebula validates output automatically, but you should always run your own tests against the protected build. Run your app or test suite from the protected/ folder and confirm behavior is unchanged.

5. Go further

• Protect automatically on every build with the MSBuild integration.
• Unlock the full suite with a license key.
• Understand each transform.

Free vs Licensed: the Free edition applies renaming plus a small number of encrypted strings and control-flow-protected methods. A license removes all caps and enables anti-tamper, resource encryption, Authenticode signing and stack-trace de-obfuscation.