Let’s say you have two projects:
1) Project1.Api
2) Project2.Executable
Command line syntax for dotnet add reference:
cd Project2.Executable
dotnet add reference ../Project1.Api/Project1.Api.csproj
If you check the Project2.Executable.csproj file, you will see the following entry:
<ItemGroup>
<ProjectReference Include = "..\Project1.Api\Project1.Api.csproj" />
</ItemGroup>