.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

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
MAUI Go (maui go) — create, serve, and upgrade single-file Comet Go projects for rapid prototyping
Version info (maui version)
Global options — --json for CI pipelines, --verbose, --dry-run, --ci

Package	Description
`Microsoft.Maui.Cli`	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 MAUI testing, automation, and debugging toolkit. 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
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
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent`	In-app agent for MAUI automation
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent.Core`	Platform-agnostic agent core
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent.Gtk`	GTK/Linux agent
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Blazor`	Blazor WebView CDP bridge
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Blazor.Gtk`	WebKitGTK CDP bridge
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Driver`	Platform driver library
`Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Logging`	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
`Microsoft.Maui.AI.Attributes`	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
`Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS`	Core AppKit backend — handlers, hosting, MapKit
`Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS.Essentials`	Essentials APIs for macOS
`Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.MacOS.BlazorWebView`	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
`Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Windows.WPF`	Core WPF backend — handlers, hosting, Blazor WebView
`Microsoft.Maui.Platforms.Windows.WPF.Essentials`	Essentials APIs for WPF

Essentials.AI

On-device AI capabilities for .NET MAUI via Microsoft.Extensions.AI abstractions. On Apple platforms, wraps Apple Intelligence (Foundation Models) for chat completion with streaming and tool calling, and Apple NaturalLanguage APIs for on-device embeddings.

IChatClient backed by Apple Intelligence on iOS, macOS, and Mac Catalyst
Streaming infrastructure — progressive JSON deserialization of LLM responses
NL embeddings — on-device semantic search via Apple's NaturalLanguage framework (NLEmbeddingGenerator)
Tool calling — function-calling support for on-device models

Package	Description
`Microsoft.Maui.Essentials.AI`	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
`Microsoft.Maui.Build.AppProjectReference`	Build-time app project reference with artifact discovery

Agent Skills

This repository is also a marketplace for distributable agent skills for .NET MAUI development. Skills are organized as plugins compatible with Copilot CLI, Claude Code, and VS Code.

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

# Install via Copilot CLI
/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 AI Extensions usage and samples, see src/AIExtensions/README.md and samples/AIExtensions.Sample.Garden.

Support

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