Maui Labs

.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](#cli) | maui global tool for environment diagnostics, device management, Apple/Android setup, app automation, and rapid prototyping. | | [Comet](#comet) | Experimental MVU UI framework for .NET MAUI with C# fluent UI, signals, and reactive state. | | [Go](#go) | Single-file Comet app server and companion app for rapid prototyping. | | [DevFlow](#devflow) | Runtime app automation, inspection, debugging, and MCP tooling for .NET MAUI apps. | | [AI Extensions](#ai-extensions) | Source-generated Microsoft.Extensions.AI tool bindings for MAUI and .NET apps. | | [macOS AppKit Backend](#macos-appkit-backend) | Native AppKit backend for running MAUI apps as macOS apps without Mac Catalyst. | | [WPF Backend](#wpf-backend) | WPF-based Windows desktop backend for .NET MAUI apps. | | [Essentials.AI](#essentialsai) | On-device AI APIs for chat completion, embeddings, and tool calling in MAUI apps. | | [AppProjectReference](#appprojectreference) | MSBuild package for referencing MAUI app projects and consuming their platform artifacts. |

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](#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.

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](plugins/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/](plugins/) for the full catalog and [plugins/CONTRIBUTING.md](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:

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](CONTRIBUTING.md) for build instructions and development setup.

For the formal DevFlow HTTP and WebSocket contract, see [docs/DevFlow/spec](docs/DevFlow/spec/README.md).

For AI Extensions usage and samples, see [src/AIExtensions/README.md](src/AIExtensions/README.md) and [samples/AIExtensions.Sample.Garden](samples/AIExtensions.Sample.Garden/README.md).

Support

See [SUPPORT.md](.github/SUPPORT.md) for how to file issues, get help, and the support policy for this repository.

Source & license

This open-source MCP server is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: dotnet
• Source: dotnet/maui-labs
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://dot.net/maui

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.