About the dotnet-skills catalog
A structured .NET catalog, not a marketplace. The site is organized around categories, skill pages, agent pages, and project credits.
What this catalog is for
dotnet-skills packages modern .NET knowledge into installable skills and routing agents that can be consumed by Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, Gemini, Codex, and Junie. The public site mirrors that structure with dedicated pages that are easier to browse, share, and revisit.
How updates land
The catalog is published through a unified release workflow that produces GitHub releases, NuGet bundles, and GitHub Pages output together. Upstream-watch automation monitors official releases, docs, and vendir-managed upstream repositories so the catalog can be refreshed when major guidance changes land elsewhere.
How catalog packages are structured
The human-maintained source of truth is the scanned catalog/<type>/<package>/ tree. Each package owns one package-level manifest.json, optional package assets such as icons, one or more skills under skills/<skill>/SKILL.md with required sibling manifest.json files, and optional repo-owned agents under agents/<agent>/AGENT.md with their own sibling manifests when needed. Some packages are repo-authored, while official upstream packages are vendir-managed under external-sources/upstreams/ and normalized into the same shape through overrides-only configs in external-sources/imports/; the importer auto-discovers upstream plugins from their vendored plugin.json files.
What belongs in manifest.json
Package manifests carry package-level metadata such as links.repository, links.docs, and links.nuget. Skill-specific metadata such as version, category, packages, and package_prefix belongs in the nearest sibling manifest next to that SKILL.md. SKILL.md should stay focused on routing, workflow, deliverables, and validation instead of duplicating catalog metadata.
Why there are multiple page types now
Home still carries the full catalog and quick-view modal. Package pages provide one-command bundle installs, category pages group related work, skill pages expose real content from SKILL.md, agent pages explain routing behavior, and this about page captures the project context and credits.
Inspiration & Standards
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| Project | Authors | Description |
| MCAF | Managed Code | Framework for building real software with AI coding agents through repo-native context, verification, `AGENTS.md`, and skills |
| dotnet/skills | Microsoft, .NET team | Official .NET skills repository vendir-imported into this catalog for upstream task-specific skills and agents |
| Agent Skills Standard | Anthropic | Open specification for portable agent skill packages |
| Claude Code | Anthropic | Subagent architecture that shaped our orchestration agent design |
Test Frameworks
Code Coverage & Mutation Testing
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| Coverlet | Toni Solarin-Sodara, Marco Rossignoli | MIT |
| ReportGenerator | Daniel Palme | Apache-2.0 |
| Stryker.NET | Stryker Mutator team | Apache-2.0 |
Analyzers & Formatters
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| Roslynator | Josef Pihrt, .NET Foundation | Apache-2.0 |
| StyleCop.Analyzers | .NET Analyzers team | MIT |
| Meziantou.Analyzer | Gérald Barré | MIT |
| CSharpier | Bela VanderVoort | MIT |
| ReSharper CLT | JetBrains | Proprietary (free) |
Architecture Testing
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| NetArchTest | Ben Morris | MIT |
| ArchUnitNET | TNG Technology Consulting | Apache-2.0 |
Metrics & Analysis
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| cloc | Al Danial | GPL-2.0 |
| CodeQL | GitHub, Semmle | MIT (queries) |
| QuickDup | Roger Johansson, Asynkron | MIT |
| Asynkron.Profiler | Roger Johansson, Asynkron | MIT |
Frameworks & Libraries
| Project | Authors | License |
|---|---|---|
| CommunityToolkit.Mvvm | Microsoft, .NET Foundation | MIT |
| Microsoft Agent Framework | Microsoft | MIT |
| Microsoft.Extensions.AI | Microsoft, .NET Foundation | MIT |
| MCP C# SDK | Anthropic, Microsoft | Apache-2.0 |
| Uno Platform | nventive, Uno Platform | Apache-2.0 |
| Orleans | Microsoft | MIT |
| Semantic Kernel | Microsoft | MIT |
| Entity Framework Core | Microsoft, .NET Foundation | MIT |
| ML.NET | Microsoft, .NET Foundation | MIT |
| LibVLCSharp | VideoLAN | LGPL-2.1 |