An external feed is any artefact server Jaws Deploy can pull from. Configuration is one-time: provide the URL, the credentials, the feed type. From then on, deployment steps can reference packages by name and version, and the platform fetches them at deploy time.
Common external feed types
NuGet (any host)
Public nuget.org, GitHub Packages, MyGet, a self-hosted ProGet. Anything that speaks the NuGet v2/v3 protocol.
JFrog Artifactory
Generic, NuGet, npm, or Maven repos. Authenticate with an API key or username/password.
AWS S3
Treats the bucket as a flat package store. Versioning is by S3 object version or by version in the object key.
Azure Artifacts
Private NuGet, npm, or universal feeds in Azure DevOps. Personal access token or service connection.
Mixed feeds
A single project can pull from both the built-in feed and one or more external feeds. The release locks each package to a specific feed and version when it's created. Promotion across environments uses the same locked references - no risk of pulling a different artefact from a different feed when the release reaches Production.