Set up a private repository

To host your own private Ballerina packages, create a standard Maven-type (hosted) repository following the Nexus documentation.

Configure and use the repository

Define the repository in the <USER_HOME>/.ballerina/Settings.toml file, using the URL you copied above.

[[repository.maven]]
id = "nexus_1" # This ID is used when pushing/pulling packages
url = "<repository-url>"
username = "<username>"
accesstoken = "<password>"

Generate the Ballerina archive and publish it to the repository.

$ bal pack
$ bal push --repository nexus_1

For more information on defining custom repositories, publishing packages, and using a published package as a dependency, see Use custom repositories for package management.

Configure a proxy repository

Follow the steps below to configure a Maven proxy repository in Sonatype Nexus that points to Ballerina Central.

1. Log in to your Nexus Repository Manager as an administrator.

2. Navigate to Settings → Repository → Repositories and click Create repository.

3. Select maven2 (proxy) as the recipe.

4. Fill in the repository details.

   Field	Value
   Name	A unique name for the repository (e.g., ballerina-central-proxy)
   Remote storage	https://api.central.ballerina.io/2.0/maven

5. Under the Maven 2 section, ensure Strict Content Type Validation is disabled (unchecked). Ballerina Central serves .bala package artifacts alongside customized Maven metadata, and enabling strict content type validation will cause downloads to fail for non-standard MIME types.

6. Under the Proxy section, set Maximum metadata age to a low value such as 1 minute. This ensures that newly published packages in Ballerina Central are discovered promptly without waiting for a long metadata cache expiry.

   Note: Setting Maximum metadata age to 0 forces Nexus to re-fetch metadata on every request, which may increase latency. A value between 1 and 5 minutes is a good balance between freshness and performance.

7. Click Create repository to save the configuration.

8. Copy the repository URL displayed on the repository list page. You will use it when configuring the Ballerina client to use the proxy.