Msbuild Modernization

microsoft/testfx/.agents/skills/msbuild-modernization

codingOfficial

Official Provider SkillView repo

Guide for modernizing and migrating MSBuild project files to SDK-style format. USE FOR: converting legacy .csproj/.vbproj with verbose XML to SDK-style, migrating packages.config to PackageReference, removing Properties/AssemblyInfo.cs in favor of auto-generation, eliminating explicit <Compile Include> lists via implicit globbing, consolidating shared settings into Directory.Build.props. Indicators of legacy projects: ToolsVersion attribute, <Import Project="$(MSBuildToolsPath)">, .csproj files

Files1 files

SKILL.md502 lines

Loading editor…

Install

Recommended

One command — your agent picks it up automatically.

Select AI agent

Select an AI agent above to see the install command.

Manual Install

More steps

Download the file and paste it into your agent's system prompt.

Skill details

Versionv1.0.0

AuthorMicrosoft

Categorycoding

Skill IDmicrosoft/testfx/.agents/skills/msbuild-modernization

Related skills

Agentic WorkflowsRoute gh-aw workflow design/create/debug/upgrade requests and check runtime execution contracts.Assertion QualityAnalyze assertion quality, depth, variety, and false confidence in existing tests. ALWAYS USE when asked about weak, shallow, trivial, always-true, self-referential, assertion-free, presence/truthiness-only, or insufficiently diverse assertions, including MSTest, Jest, pytest, and Go. DO NOT USE for direct fixes: writing-mstest-tests owns supplied MSTest assertions; code-testing owns new cases. Use test-gap-analysis when asked whether tests would catch a production change, and test-anti-patterns Behavior Preserving RefactorPreserve observable behavior when splitting files, moving members, consolidating helpers, or simplifying TestFx code. Use for structural refactors and file-diet implementation; inventory baseline semantics and consumers, then run focused equivalence checks.Binlog Failure AnalysisAnalyze MSBuild binary logs to diagnose build failures. USE FOR: build errors that are unclear from console output, diagnosing cascading failures across multi-project builds, tracing MSBuild target execution order, and generally any MSBuild build issues. Requires an existing .binlog file. DO NOT USE FOR: generating binlogs (use binlog-generation), non-MSBuild build systems.Binlog GenerationGenerate MSBuild binary logs (binlogs) for build diagnostics and analysis. USE FOR: adding /bl:{} to any dotnet build, test, pack, publish, or restore command to capture a full build execution trace, prerequisite for binlog-failure-analysis and build-perf-diagnostics skills, enabling post-build investigation of errors or performance. Requires MSBuild 17.8+ / .NET 8 SDK+ for {} placeholder; PowerShell needs -bl:{{}}. DO NOT USE FOR: non-MSBuild build systems (npm, Maven, CMake), analyzing an exis Build ParallelismGuide for optimizing MSBuild build parallelism and multi-project scheduling. USE FOR: builds not utilizing all CPU cores, speeding up multi-project solutions, evaluating graph build mode (/graph), build time not improving with -m flag, understanding project dependency topology. Note: /maxcpucount default is 1 (sequential) — always use -m for parallel builds. Covers /maxcpucount, graph build for better scheduling and isolation, BuildInParallel on MSBuild task, reducing unnecessary ProjectReferenc