MSBuild .NET Skills

Analyze MSBuild binary logs to diagnose build failures.

Generate MSBuild binary logs (binlogs) for build diagnostics and analysis.

Diagnose and fix under-parallelized MSBuild builds.

Establish build performance baselines and apply systematic optimization techniques.

Diagnose MSBuild build performance bottlenecks using binary log analysis.

Detects MSBuild projects with conflicting OutputPath or IntermediateOutputPath.

Choosing an MSBuild CopyToOutputDirectory / CopyToPublishDirectory mode: Never, PreserveNewest, Always, and IfDifferent (MSBuild 17.13+), plus $(SkipUnchangedFilesOnCopyAlways).

Guide for organizing MSBuild infrastructure with Directory.Build.props, Directory.Build.targets, Directory.Packages.props, and Directory.Build.rsp.

Guide for diagnosing and improving MSBuild project evaluation performance.

Guide for MSBuild extensibility: CustomBefore/CustomAfter hooks, wildcard imports with alphabetic ordering, import gating with control properties, NuGet package build extension…

Fix MSBuild targets that generate files during the build but those files are missing from compilation or output.

Guide for optimizing MSBuild incremental builds.

Patterns for managing MSBuild item groups: Include/Remove/Update semantics, item metadata, batching with %(Metadata), transforms, per-item filtering, and cross-product batching…

Detect and fix MSBuild anti-patterns in project and build files.

Guide for modernizing and migrating MSBuild project files to SDK-style format.

Guide for using MSBuild Server to improve CLI build performance.

MSBuild property definition patterns: conditional defaults, composition/concatenation, path normalization, trailing-slash handling, TFM detection helpers, and evaluation order.

Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries.

Canonical patterns for writing custom MSBuild targets.