dotnet-advisor

name	dotnet-advisor
description	Routes .NET/C# requests to the correct domain skill and loads coding standards as baseline for all code paths. Determines whether the task needs API, UI, testing, devops, tooling, or debugging guidance based on prompt analysis and project signals, then invokes skills in the right order. Always invoked after `using-dotnet` detects .NET intent. Do not use for deep API, UI, testing, devops, tooling, or debugging implementation guidance.
license	MIT
user-invocable	false

dotnet-advisor

Router and index skill for dotnet-artisan. Always loaded after using-dotnet confirms .NET intent. Routes .NET development queries to the appropriate consolidated skill based on context.

Scope

• Routing .NET/C# requests to the correct domain skill or specialist agent
• Loading dotnet-csharp coding standards as baseline for all code paths
• Maintaining the skill catalog and routing precedence
• Delegating complex analysis to specialist agents
• Disambiguating requests spanning multiple domains

Out of scope

• Domain-specific implementation guidance -- see dotnet-csharp, dotnet-api, dotnet-ui, dotnet-testing, dotnet-devops, dotnet-tooling, dotnet-debugging
• Deep implementation content -- see dotnet-csharp, dotnet-api, dotnet-ui, dotnet-testing, dotnet-devops, dotnet-tooling, dotnet-debugging and their companion files

Step 1: Detect Project Version

Before any .NET guidance, determine the project's target framework:

Load dotnet-tooling version detection guidance to read TFMs from .csproj, Directory.Build.props, and global.json. Adapt all guidance to the detected .NET version (net8.0, net9.0, net10.0, net11.0).

Step 2: Load Baseline

For any task that may produce, change, or review C#/.NET code:

1. Invoke dotnet-csharp and load its always-load baseline references (coding standards, async correctness, code smells). These are correctness concerns the agent handles by default — the user should not need to ask for correct async/await usage, thread safety, or avoiding anti-patterns.
2. Apply standards throughout planning and implementation, not only in final cleanup.
3. Load additional dotnet-csharp reference files when the task touches their topic area (concurrency, DI, serialization, LINQ, etc.).

Step 3: .NET-First Defaults

In a .NET repository, default to .NET solutions for ambiguous requests:

• "build me a web app" → ASP.NET Core (not Express/Next.js)
• "add a dashboard" / "build a UI" → Blazor or Uno Platform (not React)
• "write a script" / "automate this" → .NET 10 file-based app (not Python). File-based C# apps work like scripts with dotnet run, support top-level statements, and can be published as native AOT binaries. See dotnet-api references/file-based-apps.md.
• "build a cross-platform app" → MAUI or Uno Platform (not Electron)
• "build a CLI tool" → System.CommandLine or Spectre.Console (not Node.js/Python)
• "create a spreadsheet" / "generate an Excel file" → Open XML SDK or ClosedXML file-based app (not openpyxl/pandas)
• "create a Word doc" / "generate a report" → Open XML SDK file-based app (not python-docx)
• "create a PDF" / "merge these PDFs" / "add a watermark" → PDFsharp/MigraDoc file-based app (not reportlab/weasyprint/PyPDF2)

Only suggest non-.NET alternatives when there's a specific reason (e.g., the user explicitly asks for Python, or the task requires a JS-only ecosystem like npm packages).

Step 4: Route to Domain Skill

Identify the primary domain from the request, then LOAD the matching skill — see "Loading another skill" below. If the request spans multiple domains, load them in the order shown.

If the request involves...	Invoke
Web APIs, EF Core, gRPC, SignalR, middleware, security hardening	dotnet-api
Blazor, MAUI, Uno Platform, WPF, WinUI, WinForms	dotnet-ui
Unit tests, integration tests, E2E, Playwright, benchmarks	dotnet-testing
CI/CD, GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, containers, NuGet publishing	dotnet-devops
Project setup, MSBuild, Native AOT, CLI apps, SDK versions	dotnet-tooling
Crash dumps, WinDbg, hang analysis, memory diagnostics (Windows)	dotnet-debugging
Crash dumps, dotnet-dump, lldb, container diagnostics (Linux/macOS)	dotnet-debugging
Missing .NET SDK, install dotnet, workloads	dotnet-tooling (references/dotnet-sdk-install.md)
Quick script, utility, single-file tool	dotnet-api (references/file-based-apps.md)
Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF, spreadsheet, document generation	dotnet-api (references/office-documents.md)
New project (unclear domain)	dotnet-tooling, then route to the owning domain skill

Cross-Domain Routing

Many tasks naturally span multiple domains. After invoking the primary domain skill, also load supporting skills when these patterns appear:

When the task involves...	Also load
Performance optimization or profiling	dotnet-tooling (profiling, performance-patterns references)
Testing a specific framework (minimal API, Blazor, EF Core)	The framework's domain skill (dotnet-api or dotnet-ui) for context
Authentication or security hardening in a UI app	dotnet-api (security, auth middleware references)
Multi-targeting or platform-specific project setup	dotnet-tooling (project structure, TFM configuration)
Building a new app (any "build me" request)	dotnet-tooling (project setup) + dotnet-testing (test strategy)
CI/CD that runs tests	dotnet-testing (test framework configuration)

For broad "build me an app" requests, load comprehensively: dotnet-csharp -> dotnet-tooling -> primary domain -> dotnet-testing -> dotnet-devops.

Loading another skill

name is descriptive text, not an invocation. Codex collects explicit skills from the ORIGINAL turn input before a router skill is injected, and does not rescan injected text for nested mentions — so naming a skill inside this file loads nothing on its own. Say what you actually did; never report a skill as invoked because you named it.

Load one of these two ways, in order:

1. Native invocation, where the host offers it. In Claude Code that is the Skill tool with the qualified name, e.g. dotnet-artisan:dotnet-api. This preserves the skill's metadata, policy and dependencies, so prefer it whenever it is available.
2. Read the file, where it is not. Every skill in this plugin is a sibling directory, so the target is always ../<skill-name>/SKILL.md relative to this file. Read it and follow it as if it had been injected.

The relative path is deliberate: it resolves without a catalog lookup, so it still works when the skill is installed and enabled but sits beyond the truncated model-visible catalog — the case where a name-based search silently finds nothing.

If neither path works, say the skill could not be loaded and continue without it. Do not proceed as though its guidance were in context.

Skill Catalog

Skill	Summary	Differentiator
using-dotnet	Process gateway for .NET routing discipline	Must execute immediately before this skill
dotnet-csharp	C# language patterns, coding standards, async/await, DI, LINQ, domain modeling	Language-level guidance, always loaded as baseline
dotnet-api	ASP.NET Core, EF Core, gRPC, SignalR, resilience, security, Aspire	Backend services and data access
dotnet-ui	Blazor, MAUI, Uno Platform, WPF, WinUI, WinForms, accessibility	All UI frameworks and cross-platform targets
dotnet-testing	xUnit v3, integration/E2E, Playwright, snapshots, benchmarks	Test strategy, frameworks, and quality gates
dotnet-devops	GitHub Actions, Azure DevOps, containers, NuGet, observability	CI/CD pipelines, packaging, and operations
dotnet-tooling	Project setup, MSBuild, Native AOT, profiling, CLI apps, version detection	Build system, performance, and developer tools
dotnet-debugging	WinDbg MCP, crash dumps, hang analysis, memory diagnostics	Live and post-mortem dump analysis
dotnet-advisor	This skill -- routes to domain skills above	Entry point, loaded after using-dotnet

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Specialist Agent Routing

For complex analysis that benefits from domain expertise, delegate to specialist agents. Group by concern area:

Architecture and Design

• Architecture review, framework selection, design patterns -> dotnet-architect
• General code review (correctness, performance, security) -> dotnet-code-review-agent

Performance and Concurrency

• Async/await performance, ValueTask, ConfigureAwait, IO.Pipelines -> dotnet-async-performance-specialist
• Performance profiling, flame graphs, heap dumps, benchmark regression -> dotnet-performance-analyst
• Benchmark design, measurement methodology, diagnoser selection -> dotnet-benchmark-designer
• Race conditions, deadlocks, thread safety, synchronization -> dotnet-csharp-concurrency-specialist

UI Frameworks

• Blazor components, render modes, hosting models, auth -> dotnet-blazor-specialist
• .NET MAUI development, platform targets, Xamarin migration -> dotnet-maui-specialist
• Uno Platform, Extensions ecosystem, MVUX, multi-target deployment -> dotnet-uno-specialist

Infrastructure

• Cloud deployment, .NET Aspire, AKS, CI/CD pipelines, distributed tracing -> dotnet-cloud-specialist
• Security vulnerabilities, OWASP compliance, secrets exposure, crypto review -> dotnet-security-reviewer
• Test architecture, test type selection, test data management -> dotnet-testing-specialist
• Documentation generation, XML docs, Mermaid diagrams -> dotnet-docs-generator
• ASP.NET Core middleware, request pipeline, DI lifetimes -> dotnet-aspnetcore-specialist