.NET MAUI Labs

Experimental packages and tooling for .NET MAUI. This repository hosts pre-release projects that are in active development and may ship independently.

⚠️ These packages are experimental. APIs may change between releases. These packages are not covered by the .NET MAUI Support Policy and are provided as-is.

Products

At a glance:

Product	What it is
Cli	maui global tool for environment diagnostics, device management, Apple/Android setup, app automation, and rapid prototyping.
Comet	Experimental MVU UI framework for .NET MAUI with C# fluent UI, signals, and reactive state.
Go	Single-file Comet app server and companion app for rapid prototyping.
DevFlow	Runtime app automation, inspection, debugging, and MCP tooling for .NET MAUI apps — and for plain .NET Android, iOS, Mac Catalyst and macOS apps.
AI Extensions	Source-generated Microsoft.Extensions.AI tool bindings for MAUI and .NET apps.
macOS AppKit Backend	Native AppKit backend for running MAUI apps as macOS apps without Mac Catalyst.
WPF Backend	WPF-based Windows desktop backend for .NET MAUI apps.
Essentials.AI	On-device AI APIs for chat completion, embeddings, and tool calling in MAUI apps.
AppProjectReference	MSBuild package for referencing MAUI app projects and consuming their platform artifacts.
MAUI Testing	MTP-based Android, iOS, and Mac Catalyst test lifecycle and single-project template.

Cli

A command-line tool for .NET MAUI development environment setup, device management, and app automation.

• Environment diagnostics (maui doctor) with auto-fix capabilities
• Android SDK and JDK management (maui android) — install, update, and configure
• Emulator management (maui android emulator) — create, start, stop, and delete Android emulators
• Apple platform management (maui apple) — Xcode, simulator, and runtime management (macOS)
• Device listing (maui device list) across all connected platforms
• DevFlow app automation (maui devflow) — visual tree inspection, element interaction, screenshots, WebView/CDP automation, network monitoring, profiling, storage access, real-time log/sensor streaming, and MCP server for AI agents
• AI-powered development bootstrap (maui ai init) — install MAUI Copilot skills, DevFlow skills, Copilot agents, and MCP configuration for the current project
• MAUI Go (maui go) — create, serve, and upgrade single-file Comet Go projects for rapid prototyping
• Version info (maui version)
• Self-update (maui update --self) with daily interactive update notices
• Global options — --json for CI pipelines, --verbose, --dry-run, --ci

Package	Description
	CLI global tool (maui)

# Microsoft.Maui.Cli is currently released as a pre-release, so make sure to use the --prerelease flag
dotnet tool install -g Microsoft.Maui.Cli --prerelease
maui doctor

Comet

Experimental MVU UI framework for .NET MAUI — C# fluent UI, signals/reactive state, single-file apps via Comet Go.

Package	Description
Comet	Core MVU framework
Comet.SourceGenerator	Roslyn source generators for Comet
Comet.Layout.Yoga	Yoga layout integration

Go

Single-file Comet apps server + companion app for rapid prototyping (alpha; sister to Comet).

Package	Description
Microsoft.Maui.Go.Server	Comet Go server for hosting single-file apps

DevFlow

A comprehensive testing, automation, and debugging toolkit for .NET MAUI apps — and for plain .NET Android, iOS, Mac Catalyst and macOS apps with no MAUI reference at all. The DevFlow CLI is integrated into the maui CLI as maui devflow — see Cli above.

• In-app HTTP agent for visual tree inspection, element interaction, and screenshots
• MAUI DevFlow Inspector in a browser, VS Code, the GitHub Copilot desktop app, or Copilot CLI
• Works without MAUI — the same agent, CLI, and MCP tools drive plain .NET apps via Android views, UIKit, and AppKit backends
• Blazor CDP bridge for Chrome DevTools Protocol on Blazor WebViews
• MCP server for AI agent integration (via maui devflow mcp)
• Platform drivers for iOS, Android, Mac Catalyst, Windows, and Linux/GTK
• Network monitoring and performance profiling
• Real-time streaming — WebSocket channels for logs, network requests, sensor data, profiler samples, and UI events
• Storage access — read/write app preferences and secure storage
• Device introspection — battery, connectivity, geolocation, display info, and permissions

Package	Description
	In-app agent for MAUI automation
	Framework-neutral agent protocol and HTTP server
	MAUI UI backend for the agent
	In-app agent for plain .NET Android, iOS, Mac Catalyst, and macOS apps
	Optional device, storage, and sensor endpoints for native apps
	GTK/Linux agent
	Blazor WebView CDP bridge
	WebKitGTK CDP bridge
	Portable (netstandard2.0) agent protocol client
	Platform driver library
	Buffered JSONL file logger

AI Extensions

AI integration packages for Microsoft.Extensions.AI and .NET MAUI apps.

AI Attributes

Source-generated AI tool discovery — annotate methods or property accessors with [ExportAIFunction] to create AI-callable tools. Composed or auto-generated tool contexts, DI-aware parameter binding, approval gates, AOT-friendly.

Package	Description
	Source-generated AI tool contexts for Microsoft.Extensions.AI

macOS AppKit Backend

A native macOS AppKit backend for .NET MAUI — run MAUI apps as true AppKit apps with NSWindow, NSButton, NSScrollView, native menu bar, sidebar flyout, and more. An alternative to Mac Catalyst.

• Native AppKit controls — NSTextField, NSButton, NSSwitch, NSSlider, NSImageView, and more
• Navigation — Shell, NavigationPage, TabbedPage, FlyoutPage with sidebar
• Blazor WebView — via WKWebView
• MapKit — native MapView integration
• Essentials — AppInfo, Battery, Clipboard, Geolocation, Preferences, SecureStorage, Sensors

Package	Description
	Core AppKit backend — handlers, hosting, MapKit
	Essentials APIs for macOS
	Blazor Hybrid via WKWebView

WPF Backend

A WPF-based alternative to the official WinUI backend for .NET MAUI. Run MAUI apps on Windows desktops using native WPF controls with 22+ fully implemented controls, Shell navigation, Blazor WebView, and 14 Essentials APIs.

• 22+ controls — Label, Button, Entry, Editor, Image, CheckBox, Switch, Slider, Picker, DatePicker, and more
• Navigation — Shell (flyout + tabs + URI routing), NavigationPage, TabbedPage, FlyoutPage, modal pages
• Blazor WebView — via WebView2 and AspNetCore.Components.WebView.Wpf
• Essentials — AppInfo, DeviceInfo, Connectivity, Preferences, SecureStorage, Clipboard, Screenshot, and more

Package	Description
	Core WPF backend — handlers, hosting, Blazor WebView
	Essentials APIs for WPF

Essentials.AI

On-device chat and embeddings through Microsoft.Extensions.AI, backed by Apple Intelligence, Apple NaturalLanguage, Windows AI, and Gemini Nano on supported systems.

• Chat: iOS, Mac Catalyst, and macOS 26+ support text, streaming, structured responses, and tool calling. OS 27+ adds image input and token usage metadata.
• Windows AI: Windows 11 24H2+ on supported Copilot+ hardware supports text, streaming, and structured JSON.
• Embeddings: Apple NaturalLanguage generates text vectors on supported systems.
• Android: Gemini Nano text/image chat, streaming, and input-token usage on supported AICore devices; model download is explicit and observable.

See Essentials.AI for documentation and samples.

Package	Description
	On-device AI APIs for MAUI

AppProjectReference

An MSBuild package that lets test projects, packaging projects, or CI tools declare a MAUI app as a build-time dependency and consume its platform artifacts (.apk, .ipa, .app, .msix) as MSBuild items with rich metadata.

<MauiAppProjectReference Include="..\MyApp\MyApp.csproj" />

Built artifacts are exposed as @(MauiAppArtifact) items with ArtifactType, ApplicationId, Installable, Launchable, and other metadata — no manual path hunting required.

Package	Description
	Build-time app project reference with artifact discovery

MAUI Testing

Framework-neutral Microsoft.Testing.Platform lifecycle support for device tests, with a mauitest single-project template modeled after dotnet new maui.

• Shared MauiProgram.CreateMauiTestApp() and dependency-injection builder
• Android instrumentation and native Apple status UI
• MSTest by default, with an NUnit configuration path and framework-neutral builder
• Requires .NET 11

Package	Description
	Runtime builder and platform lifecycle
	dotnet new mauitest template pack

See src/Testing/README.md for installation, execution, and framework conversion instructions.

Agent Skills

This repository is also a marketplace for distributable agent skills for .NET MAUI development. The recommended one-stop setup is maui ai init, which installs the relevant MAUI skills, bundled DevFlow skills, Copilot agent definitions, and MCP configuration for detected agent environments.

Plugin	Description
dotnet-maui	MAUI development: DevFlow automation, profiling, accessibility, platform bindings, diagnostics, session review

# Preview recommended setup and exact scopes for VS Code
maui ai init --env VsCode --dry-run

# Bootstrap this project for AI-powered MAUI development
maui ai init --env VsCode --yes

# Discover skills, agents, and MCP registrations, then inspect local inventory
maui ai list
maui ai status

# Refresh existing managed assets only; never add missing recommendations
maui ai update

# Or add exactly one typed asset, without implicit companion installations
maui ai add skill maui-devflow-debug --env Claude --yes
maui ai add mcp maui-devflow --env Claude --yes

--yes/-y accepts prompts; --force separately authorizes replacement. Copilot CLI MCP registration is user-wide; other supported MCP destinations are project-scoped. See the CLI guide for targeting, provenance, and safety semantics.

Direct plugin installation remains available for agent runtimes that support plugin marketplaces:

/plugin marketplace add dotnet/maui-labs
/plugin install dotnet-maui@dotnet-maui-labs

See plugins/ for the full catalog and plugins/CONTRIBUTING.md for how to add skills.

Nightly Builds

Preview packages from main are published automatically to the dotnet10 feed:

https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet10/nuget/v3/index.json

Add this feed to your NuGet.config:

<packageSources>
  <add key="dotnet10" value="https://pkgs.dev.azure.com/dnceng/public/_packaging/dotnet10/nuget/v3/index.json" />
</packageSources>

These are CI builds from main only — PR builds are not published. Use wildcard versions (e.g., 0.1.0-preview.*) to get the latest.

Getting Started

See CONTRIBUTING.md for build instructions and development setup.

For the formal DevFlow HTTP and WebSocket contract, see docs/DevFlow/spec.

For live app inspection and host setup, see the MAUI DevFlow Inspector guide.

For AI Extensions usage and samples, see src/AIExtensions/README.md, the IChatClient playground for live requests, portable recording/replay, and archived-chat search, and the Garden sample.

Support

See SUPPORT.md for how to file issues, get help, and the support policy for this repository.