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AGENTS.md

Instructions for AI coding agents working in the .NET codebase.

Build, Test, and Lint Commands

See ./.github/skills/build-and-test/SKILL.md for detailed instructions on building, testing, and linting projects.

Project Structure

See ./.github/skills/project-structure/SKILL.md for an overview of the project structure.

Core types

  • AIAgent: The abstract base class that all agents derive from, providing common methods for interacting with an agent.
  • AgentSession: The abstract base class that all agent sessions derive from, representing a conversation with an agent.
  • ChatClientAgent: An AIAgent implementation that uses an IChatClient to send messages to an AI provider and receive responses.
  • IChatClient: Interface for sending messages to an AI provider and receiving responses. Used by ChatClientAgent and implemented by provider-specific packages.
  • FunctionInvokingChatClient: Decorator for IChatClient that adds function invocation capabilities.
  • AITool: Represents a tool that an agent/AI provider can use, with metadata and an execution delegate.
  • AIFunction: A specific type of AITool that represents a local function the agent/AI provider can call, with parameters and return types defined.
  • ChatMessage: Represents a message in a conversation.
  • AIContent: Represents content in a message, which can be text, a function call, tool output and more.

External Dependencies

The framework integrates with Microsoft.Extensions.AI and Microsoft.Extensions.AI.Abstractions (external NuGet packages) using types like IChatClient, FunctionInvokingChatClient, AITool, AIFunction, ChatMessage, and AIContent.

Key Conventions

  • Command output capture: When running dotnet build, dotnet test, dotnet format, or similar commands, redirect output to a temp file first (e.g., dotnet build --tl:off 2>&1 | Out-File $env:TEMP\build.log), then analyze the file as needed. This avoids re-running expensive commands when the initial analysis misses something.
  • Encoding: All new files must be saved with UTF-8 encoding with BOM (Byte Order Mark). This is required for dotnet format to work correctly. When using PowerShell Set-Content, always pass -Encoding UTF8BOM to preserve the BOM (e.g., Set-Content $file $content -NoNewline -Encoding UTF8BOM).
  • Copyright header: // Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved. at top of all .cs files
  • XML docs: Required for all public methods and classes
  • Async: Use Async suffix for methods returning Task/ValueTask
  • Private classes: Should be sealed unless subclassed
  • Config: Read from environment variables with UPPER_SNAKE_CASE naming
  • Tests: Add Arrange/Act/Assert comments; use Moq for mocking; test methods returning Task/ValueTask must use the Async suffix.

Key Design Principles

When developing or reviewing code, verify adherence to these key design principles:

  • DRY: Avoid code duplication by moving common logic into helper methods or helper classes.
  • Single Responsibility: Each class should have one clear responsibility.
  • Encapsulation: Keep implementation details private and expose only necessary public APIs.
  • Strong Typing: Use strong typing to ensure that code is self-documenting and to catch errors at compile time.

Sample Structure

Samples (in ./samples/ folder) should follow this structure:

  1. Copyright header: // Copyright (c) Microsoft. All rights reserved.
  2. Description comment explaining what the sample demonstrates
  3. Using statements
  4. Main code logic
  5. Helper methods at bottom

Configuration via environment variables (never hardcode secrets). Keep samples simple and focused.

When adding a new sample:

  • Create a standalone project in samples/ with matching directory and project names
  • Include a README.md explaining what the sample does and how to run it
  • Add the project to the solution file
  • Reference the sample in the parent directory's README.md