contentstack-management-dotnet-sdk

name	contentstack-management-dotnet-sdk
description	Use when changing or using the CMA client API, authentication, or NuGet package surface for Contentstack.Management.Core.

Contentstack Management .NET SDK (CMA)

When to use

• Adding or changing ContentstackClient behavior, options, or service entry points.
• Documenting how consumers authenticate (management token, authtoken, login).
• Reviewing breaking vs compatible changes for the NuGet package contentstack.management.csharp.

Instructions

Official API reference: Content Management API.

Packages and entry points

Package ID	Project	Role
contentstack.management.csharp	Contentstack.Management.Core/	Main SDK; ContentstackClient, models, services.
contentstack.management.aspnetcore	Contentstack.Management.ASPNETCore/	ASP.NET Core registration helpers; see ../aspnetcore-integration/SKILL.md.

• Primary type: ContentstackClient (IContentstackClient).
• Configuration: ContentstackClientOptions (and related options types).

Authentication (high level)

• Management token: stack-scoped token; typical pattern client.Stack(apiKey, managementToken) per product docs.
• Authtoken: user/session token on the client options.
• Login with credentials: ContentstackClient.Login / LoginAsync with NetworkCredential (see root README.md examples).

OAuth-related code lives under Services/OAuth/, OAuthHandler.cs, and Utils/PkceHelper.cs. Prefer small, testable changes; preserve existing public contracts unless doing a major version bump.

Serialization and models

• JSON serialization and converters are configured in ContentstackClient (e.g. custom JsonConverter types for fields and nodes).
• Domain models live under Models/. Follow existing patterns when adding types.

Errors

• Exceptions and error mapping: Exceptions/. Keep messages and HTTP status handling consistent with existing patterns.

Integration boundaries

• The SDK talks to Contentstack Management HTTP APIs. Do not confuse with Delivery API clients.
• Retries, handlers, and pipeline details: ../http-pipeline/SKILL.md. TFMs and packaging: ../framework/SKILL.md.

Architecture

This describes how requests flow through this SDK. It is not the Content Delivery (CDA) client: there is no HttpWebRequest-only layer or delivery-token query-string-only rule set here.

Entry and configuration

1. ContentstackClient (ContentstackClient.cs) is the public entry point.
2. ContentstackClientOptions (ContentstackClientOptions.cs) holds Host, tokens, proxy, retry settings, and optional custom RetryPolicy.
3. The client builds a ContentstackRuntimePipeline in BuildPipeline(): HttpHandler → RetryHandler (see ../http-pipeline/SKILL.md).

Stack-scoped API

• Stack (Models/Stack.cs) is obtained from the client (e.g. client.Stack(apiKey, managementToken) or overloads). Most management operations are stack-relative.
• Domain types under Models/ (entries, assets, content types, etc.) expose methods that construct or call IContentstackService implementations.

Service interface and invocation

• IContentstackService (Services/IContentstackService.cs) defines one CMA operation: resource path, HTTP method, headers, query/path resources, body (HttpContent), and hooks to build the outbound request and handle the response.
• The client executes services via InvokeSync / InvokeAsync, which run the pipeline and return ContentstackResponse.

Important members on IContentstackService:

• Parameters — ParameterCollection for typed query/body parameters (used by list/query flows).
• QueryResources, PathResources, AddQueryResource, AddPathResource — URL composition.
• UseQueryString — some operations send parameters as query string instead of body.
• CreateHttpRequest / OnResponse — integrate with ContentstackHttpRequest and response parsing.

Concrete services live under Services/ (including nested folders by domain, e.g. stack, organization, OAuth).

OAuth and auth

Implementation details span OAuthHandler, Services/OAuth/, and client token dictionaries on ContentstackClient (high-level behavior is under Authentication above).

Adding a feature (checklist)

1. Confirm the CMA contract (path, method, query vs body) from official API docs.
2. Implement or extend an IContentstackService (or reuse patterns from a sibling service in Services/).
3. Expose a method on the appropriate Stack / model type; keep public API consistent with existing naming.
4. Add unit tests (MSTest + mocks); add integration tests only when live API coverage is required.
5. If behavior touches HTTP retries or status codes, coordinate with ../http-pipeline/SKILL.md.

Query and parameters (fluent list API)

The management SDK exposes a fluent Query type for listing resources (stacks, entries, assets, roles, etc.). It is separate from the Content Delivery SDK’s query DSL.

Types

Type	Location	Role
Query	Queryable/Query.cs	Fluent methods add entries to an internal ParameterCollection, then Find / FindAsync runs QueryService.
ParameterCollection	Queryable/ParameterCollection.cs	SortedDictionary<string, QueryParamValue> with overloads for string, double, bool, List<string>, etc.

Typical usage pattern

Models such as Entry, Asset, Role, Stack expose Query() returning a Query bound to that resource path. Chain parameters, then call Find() or FindAsync():

// Illustrative — see XML examples on Query/Stack/Entry in the codebase.
ContentstackResponse response = client
    .Stack("<API_KEY>", "<MANAGEMENT_TOKEN>")
    .ContentType("<CONTENT_TYPE_UID>")
    .Entry()
    .Query()
    .Limit(10)
    .Skip(0)
    .Find();

Requirements enforced by Query:

• Stack must be logged in where applicable (ThrowIfNotLoggedIn).
• Stack API key must be present for the call (ThrowIfAPIKeyEmpty).

Extra parameters on Find

Find(ParameterCollection collection = null) and FindAsync merge an optional ParameterCollection into the query before building QueryService. Use this when ad-hoc parameters are not exposed as fluent methods.

Implementing new fluent methods

1. Add a method on Query that calls _collection.Add("api_key", value) (or the appropriate ParameterCollection overload).
2. Return this for chaining.
3. Add XML documentation with a short <example> consistent with existing Query members.
4. Add unit tests if serialization or parameter keys are non-trivial.

Relationship to IContentstackService

List operations ultimately construct a QueryService that implements IContentstackService and is executed through ContentstackClient.InvokeSync / InvokeAsync. Path and HTTP details live on the service; the fluent API only shapes ParameterCollection. For the overall request path, see Architecture above.