dotnet-skills

Stop explaining .NET to your AI. Start building.

We've all been there: asking Claude to use Entity Framework, only to get EF6 patterns in a .NET 8 project. Explaining to Copilot that Blazor Server and Blazor WebAssembly aren't the same thing. Watching Codex generate Startup.cs for a Minimal API project.

This catalog fixes that. A growing catalog covering the entire .NET ecosystem—from ASP.NET Core to Orleans, from MAUI to Semantic Kernel. Install them once, and your AI agent actually knows modern .NET.

Why This Matters

• No more outdated patterns. Skills are maintained by the community and track official Microsoft documentation.
• Works everywhere. Same skills for Claude, Copilot, Gemini, Codex, and Junie.
• Community-driven. Missing a skill for your favorite library? Add it and help everyone.

Your favorite .NET library deserves a skill. If you maintain an open-source project or just love a framework that's missing, contribute it. Let's make AI agents actually useful for .NET developers.

Quick Start

dotnet tool install --global dotnet-skills

# choose one dedicated agent launcher
dotnet tool install --global dotnet-agents
dotnet tool install --global agents

dotnet skills                               # open the interactive control center
dotnet skills version                       # show current tool version and latest NuGet version
dotnet skills --version                     # alias for the same version view
dotnet skills list                          # show installed and available skills
dotnet skills bundle list                   # show focused bundles by collection and workflow
dotnet skills list --local                  # only installed skills in the current target
dotnet skills recommend                     # suggest skills from local .csproj files
dotnet skills install --auto                # install skills for NuGet packages detected in local .csproj files
dotnet skills install --auto --prune        # remove stale auto-managed skills that no longer match the project
dotnet skills install bundle quality        # install a focused .NET quality bundle
dotnet skills install bundle mcaf           # install the MCAF governance bundle
dotnet skills install bundle orleans        # install the Orleans workflow bundle
dotnet skills install aspire orleans        # install skills
dotnet skills catalog tokens --catalog-root . # export per-skill token counts as JSON
dotnet skills remove aspire                 # remove one installed skill
dotnet skills remove bundle quality         # remove every skill from a focused bundle
dotnet skills remove collection distributed # remove every skill from a collection
dotnet skills remove --all                  # remove installed catalog skills from the target
dotnet skills update                        # refresh installed catalog skills
dotnet skills install blazor --agent claude # install for a specific agent
dotnet agents list                          # show bundled orchestration agents
dotnet agents install router --auto         # install agents to detected native agent folders
agents list                                 # same agent-only catalog via the plain standalone command
agents install router --auto                # same agent install flow without the dotnet-prefixed launcher

Commands

Use --agent to target a specific agent platform, --scope to choose global or project install. Use dotnet skills list --installed-only or the shorter dotnet skills list --local when you only want the installed inventory, or --available-only when you want the detailed collection-by-collection breakdown of the remaining catalog. The default list view stays compact: it shows the current target inventory, compares project/global scope when that comparison is meaningful, and keeps the remaining catalog as a short collection summary instead of dumping one giant description table. The CLI renders rich terminal tables by default so you can quickly see installed versions, update candidates, install commands, and when a newer dotnet-skills, dotnet-agents, or agents package is available on NuGet. dotnet skills --version, dotnet agents --version, and agents --version are shortcuts for the version view.

dotnet-skills remains the skill-first CLI and still supports dotnet skills agent ... for compatibility. The dedicated agent-only surface is published in both forms: dotnet-agents for dotnet agents ... and agents for agents .... Both top-level list, install, remove, and where commands target orchestration agents directly.

The interactive shell behind bare dotnet skills is the main control center: its primary catalog row now mirrors the public site with Packages, Bundles, Collections, Skills, Agents, and About, then layers CLI-only lifecycle surfaces such as Project, Installed, Analysis, and Workspace underneath. Inside that control center you still get direct individual-skill picking, Collection -> Lane -> Skill browsing, package-entry analysis, token hotspots, a full tree view, and install preview before files are written.

The public site mirrors the same primary surface now: Packages, Bundles, Collections, Skills, Agents, and About. The published GitHub Pages output uses the same shared navigation manifest and collection taxonomy as the CLI instead of the old manifest-category grouping.

dotnet skills bundle list shows the ready-made focused bundles. Bundle installs are bulk shortcuts for related skill sets, so dotnet skills install bundle quality, dotnet skills install bundle frontend-quality, dotnet skills install bundle mcaf, or dotnet skills install bundle orleans install every skill mapped to that focused bundle in one pass.

dotnet skills install --auto inspects local *.csproj files, detects NuGet packages plus strong SDK and project-property signals, and installs the matching skills for that project automatically. Add dotnet skills install --auto --prune when you also want to remove stale auto-managed skills that no longer match the current project. Protected diagnostic skills and graphify-dotnet are not pruned.

dotnet skills recommend is a scan-only command: it inspects local project files, proposes a skill list, and prints the install command you can run if you agree with the recommendations. It does not install anything automatically.

The bare dotnet skills usage view and help path also perform the automatic self-update check, so an outdated tool still tells you to upgrade before it renders the command table.

Use dotnet skills version --no-check, dotnet agents version --no-check, or agents version --no-check when you only want the local installed tool version without calling NuGet. Set DOTNET_SKILLS_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1, DOTNET_AGENTS_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1, or AGENTS_SKIP_UPDATE_CHECK=1 if you want to suppress automatic update notices during normal comma