Browse skills

Use webhint in .NET repositories that ship browser-facing frontends. Use when a repo needs CLI audits for accessibility, performance, security headers, PWA signals, SEO, or runtime page quality against a. USE FOR: the repo ships a browser-facing site and the user asks about accessibility, performance, SEO, security headers, or page quality; the repo has .hintrc, hint scripts, or a. DO NOT USE FOR: JavaScript or TypeScript semantic linting; route that to eslint or biome; stylesheet-only linting; route that to stylelint. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.

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Guide developers through capturing diagnostic artifacts to diagnose production .NET performance issues. Use when the user needs help choosing diagnostic tools, collecting performance data, or understanding tool trade-offs across different environments (Windows/Linux, .NET Framework/modern .NET, container/non-container).

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Applies cross-parameter default rules when creating .NET projects with dotnet new, filling gaps consistently without overriding values the user set explicitly. USE FOR: choosing which target framework to pair with native AOT, deciding whether to keep HTTPS when authentication is enabled, recognizing that controllers and minimal-API flags are mutually exclusive, filling unset related parameters during project creation, explaining why a default was applied and ensuring an explicit user value is never overridden. DO NOT USE FOR: creating the project itself (use template-instantiation), finding or comparing templates (use template-discovery and template-comparison), authoring or validating custom templates (use template-authoring and template-validation).

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Guide for diagnosing and improving MSBuild project evaluation performance. USE FOR: builds slow before any compilation starts, high evaluation time in binlog analysis, expensive glob patterns walking large directories (node_modules, .git, bin/obj), deep import chains (>20 levels), preprocessed output >10K lines indicating heavy evaluation, property functions with file I/O ($([System.IO.File]::ReadAllText(...))), multiple evaluations per project. Covers the 5 MSBuild evaluation phases, glob optimization via DefaultItemExcludes, import chain analysis with /pp preprocessing. DO NOT USE FOR: compilation-time slowness (use build-perf-diagnostics), incremental build issues (use incremental-build), non-MSBuild build systems.

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Helps find, inspect, and compare (at a high level) .NET project templates. Resolves natural-language project descriptions to ranked template matches with pre-filled parameters. USE FOR: finding the right dotnet new template for a task, inspecting a template's parameters and constraints, understanding what a template produces before creating a project, resolving intent like "web API with auth" to concrete template + parameters. DO NOT USE FOR: actually creating projects (use template-instantiation), authoring custom templates (use template-authoring), producing a detailed side-by-side comparison (use template-comparison), choosing cross-parameter defaults during creation (use template-smart-defaults), MSBuild or build issues (use dotnet-msbuild plugin), NuGet package management unrelated to template packages.

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Validates custom dotnet new templates for correctness before publishing. Catches missing fields, parameter bugs, shortName conflicts, constraint issues, and common authoring mistakes that cause templates to fail silently. USE FOR: checking template.json files for errors before publishing or testing, diagnosing why a template doesn't appear after installation, reviewing template parameter definitions for type mismatches and missing defaults, finding shortName conflicts with dotnet CLI commands, validating post-action and constraint configuration. DO NOT USE FOR: finding or using existing templates (use template-discovery), creating projects from templates (use template-instantiation), creating templates from existing projects (use template-authoring).

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Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries. Activate when ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive target and developers are trying to optimize it directly. Explains that the reported time includes wait time for dependent project builds and is misleading. Guides users to focus on task self-time instead. Do not activate for general build performance -- use build-perf-diagnostics instead.

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Canonical patterns for writing custom MSBuild targets. USE FOR: diagnosing and fixing custom target authoring anti-patterns; broken SDK target chains across files (e.g., Directory.Build.targets silently redefining SDK targets); targets that replace CompileDependsOn instead of extending it with $(CompileDependsOn); query targets returning stale results from Outputs vs Returns misuse; missing Inputs/Outputs causing unnecessary rebuilds; missing FileWrites registration. Covers DependsOnTargets vs BeforeTargets vs AfterTargets, the Build→CoreBuild three-level pattern, and the $(XxxDependsOn) chain-extension pattern. DO NOT USE FOR: incremental build tuning (use incremental-build), parallelization (use build-parallelism), general anti-patterns (use msbuild-antipatterns), non-MSBuild build systems.

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Activate this skill when BenchmarkDotNet (BDN) is involved in the task — creating, running, configuring, or reviewing BDN benchmarks. Also activate when microbenchmarking .NET code would be useful and BenchmarkDotNet is the likely tool. Consider activating when answering a .NET performance question requires measurement and BenchmarkDotNet may be needed. Covers microbenchmark design, BDN configuration and project setup, how to run BDN microbenchmarks efficiently and effectively, and using BDN for side-by-side performance comparisons. Do NOT use for profiling/tracing .NET code (dotnet-trace, PerfView), production telemetry, or load/stress testing (Crank, k6).

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Own MSBuild generated-artifact integration. USE FOR: a target that creates or should create source, Content, None, or another physical file but the artifact is missing from compilation or output; target timing; evaluation-time glob misses; $(IntermediateOutputPath) placement; and FileWrites clean tracking. The prompt may describe the generated artifact without naming the producing task. DO NOT USE when the primary defect is general Include/Remove/Update semantics, item metadata or batching, duplicate/overlapping declarations, or a generated-item identity relationship; use item-management. Exclude Roslyn source-generator internals and non-MSBuild systems.

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Guides creation and validation of custom dotnet new templates from existing projects. Generates a .template.config/template.json that preserves the source project's conventions. USE FOR: creating a reusable dotnet new template from an existing project, bootstrapping .template.config/template.json with correct identity, shortName, parameters, and post-actions, adding parameters or conditional content to a template you are authoring, validating the template.json you are authoring before publishing, packaging templates as NuGet packages for distribution. DO NOT USE FOR: validating an existing template.json as a standalone task (use template-validation), finding or using existing templates (use template-discovery and template-instantiation), MSBuild project file issues unrelated to template authoring, NuGet package publishing (only template packaging structure).

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Compares two or more dotnet new templates side by side to help users choose between them based on parameters, feature support, frameworks, and classifications. USE FOR: deciding between similar templates (webapi vs webapp, blazor vs blazorwasm, console vs worker), producing a side-by-side comparison of parameters and feature support, understanding how templates differ before creating a project. DO NOT USE FOR: creating a project from a template (use template-instantiation), authoring or validating custom templates (use template-authoring and template-validation), general single-template discovery (use template-discovery).

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Convert .NET projects and solutions (.sln, .slnx) to NuGet Central Package Management (CPM) using Directory.Packages.props. USE FOR: converting to CPM, centralizing or aligning NuGet package versions across multiple projects, inlining MSBuild version properties from Directory.Build.props into Directory.Packages.props, resolving version conflicts or mismatches across a solution or repository, updating or bumping or syncing package versions across projects. Also activate when packages are out of sync, drifting, or inconsistent -- even without the user mentioning CPM. Provides baseline build capture, version conflict resolution, build validation with binlog comparison, and a structured post-conversion report. DO NOT USE FOR: packages.config projects (must migrate to PackageReference first) or repositories that already have CPM fully enabled.

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Creates .NET projects from templates with validated parameters, smart defaults, Central Package Management adaptation, and latest NuGet version resolution. USE FOR: creating new dotnet projects, scaffolding solutions with multiple projects, installing or uninstalling template packages, creating projects that respect Directory.Packages.props (CPM), composing multi-project solutions (API + tests + library), getting latest NuGet package versions in newly created projects. DO NOT USE FOR: finding templates (use template-discovery), producing a detailed side-by-side comparison of templates (use template-comparison), authoring custom templates (use template-authoring), deciding cross-parameter defaults such as which framework to pair with native AOT or whether to keep HTTPS when auth is enabled (use template-smart-defaults), modifying existing projects or adding NuGet packages to existing projects.

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Establish MSBuild/.NET build performance baselines before optimizing. USE FOR: unranked slow builds; cold, warm, incremental or no-op measurements; before/after comparisons; CI output caching; static graph, artifacts output and dependency graph trimming. Start here before build-perf-diagnostics, incremental-build or build-parallelism. DO NOT USE FOR: known repeated-restore fixes (use eliminate-redundant-restores), non-MSBuild builds. For measured target/task/analyzer bottlenecks, use build-perf-diagnostics.

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Own MSBuild import and hook discovery. USE FOR: CustomBefore/CustomAfter hooks, ordered wildcard and NuGet auto-imports, control properties, build/buildTransitive packed layout, package ID and file-name matching, per-TFM forwarders, and tracing why assets or hooks are missing, broken, or replaced. An import guard remains in scope when it is one defect in a broader hook/import flow. DO NOT USE for a focused safety verdict on whether one specific Import needs Exists or is an intentionally unguarded package contract; use msbuild-antipatterns. NEVER INVOKE when imports and hook placement already work and the request is only target Inputs/Outputs, incremental skipping, or FileWrites clean tracking; use incremental-build or target-authoring. Exclude props-versus-targets placement and non-MSBuild systems.

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Analyze MSBuild binary logs to diagnose build failures. USE FOR: build errors that are unclear from console output, diagnosing cascading failures across multi-project builds, tracing MSBuild target execution order, and generally any MSBuild build issues. Requires an existing .binlog file. DO NOT USE FOR: generating binlogs (use binlog-generation), non-MSBuild build systems.

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Diagnoses and fixes skills in the dotnet/skills repository that lose to their own baseline, fail to activate, time out, or return "no credible improvement". Use when an evaluation verdict is a regression or underpowered, when a skill regressed after a change, when /evaluate reports no results, or when deciding whether a weak skill should be strengthened or retired. Do not use for scaffolding a brand-new skill (use create-skill) or a brand-new eval (use create-skill-test).

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Detects MSBuild projects with conflicting OutputPath or IntermediateOutputPath. USE FOR: builds failing with 'Cannot create a file when that file already exists', 'The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process', intermittent build failures that succeed on retry, or missing/overwritten outputs in multi-project or multi-targeting builds where bin/obj (or project.assets.json) collide. Common causes: shared OutputPath, missing AppendTargetFrameworkToOutputPath, extra global properties (e.g. PublishReadyToRun), or SetTargetFramework on a ProjectReference to a single-targeting project. DO NOT USE FOR: file access errors unrelated to MSBuild (OS-level locking), single-project single-TFM builds, non-MSBuild build systems.

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Use the free official .NET diagnostics CLI tools for profiling and runtime investigation in .NET repositories. USE FOR: the repo needs performance or runtime profiling for a .NET application; the user asks about slow code, high CPU, GC pressure, allocation growth, exception storms, lock. DO NOT USE FOR: replacing realistic performance tests or load tests with ad-hoc tracing alone; production heap collection when the pause risk has not been. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.

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USE ONLY for (1) two or more projects with repeated MSBuild policy, targets, or package versions, or (2) an existing Directory.Build.props/targets/rsp hierarchy with an import, placement, or layering defect. A one-project repo without an existing Directory.Build file is outside scope; do not load this skill. Covers centralizing shared policy and targets, Directory.Packages.props across projects, parent hierarchy/import structure, props-versus-targets placement, and folder/project exceptions. An existing hierarchy defect remains in scope when only one project is affected. For property value or condition semantics use property-patterns. Exclude legacy-to-SDK migration and non-MSBuild systems.

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Choosing an MSBuild CopyToOutputDirectory / CopyToPublishDirectory mode: Never, PreserveNewest, Always, and IfDifferent (MSBuild 17.13+), plus $(SkipUnchangedFilesOnCopyAlways). USE FOR: removing the per-build Always copy perf hit; resetting output files mutated between builds. DO NOT USE FOR: general incremental-build diagnosis (use incremental-build); non-MSBuild build systems.

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Use the open-source free `StyleCop.Analyzers` package for naming, layout, documentation, and style rules in .NET projects. Use when a repo wants stricter style conventions than the SDK analyzers alone provide. USE FOR: the repo wants StyleCop.Analyzers; naming, layout, or documentation style needs stronger enforcement; the team needs stylecop.json guidance. DO NOT USE FOR: repos that intentionally rely only on SDK analyzers; repos where StyleCop overlaps too heavily with an existing style package and no. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.

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Own concrete MSBuild ItemGroup and item-expression questions. USE FOR: Include, Remove, Update, item identity and metadata, transforms, filtering, batching, duplicate or overlapping items, and reviews that verify whether those operations are correct. Generated items stay in scope when the central defect is item identity, metadata, batching, duplicate declarations, or glob/Remove/Update semantics. For a generated artifact missing from compilation or output, wrong target timing/path, or FileWrites clean tracking without a broader item-semantics defect, use including-generated-files. The item operation may be broken, suspected, or already correct. Exclude property-only issues, general incrementality with no item question, broad reviews with no concrete item concern, and non-MSBuild systems.

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