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MSBuild Item Management Patterns · dotnet | DecimalAI

codingby dotnet

MSBuild Item Management Patterns

dotnet/item-management

Source dotnet/skills ↗License MIT

Patterns for managing MSBuild item groups: Include/Remove/Update semantics, item metadata, batching with %(Metadata), transforms, per-item filtering, and cross-product batching pitfalls. USE FOR: diagnosing and fixing item group anti-patterns in .csproj files, reviewing item management for correctness, fixing CS2002 duplicate file warnings from SDK globbing, fixing targets that run more times than expected due to cross-product batching, fixing Include vs Update misuse on SDK-globbed items, fixin

SkillScore100Maintained

Automatic

Coding pack

Last verified 8/9/2026

What it changes

Passed 22 of 22 test cases with the skill, and 21 of 22 without it.

Without skill95%

With skill100%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Explains that the Exclude attribute is supported only on Include operations

1 fixed21 passed either way0 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +5 pp
Tokens: +32%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -58%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/9/2026v122 of 22 cases passed with skill

Tokens, turns and time describe resource use, not a dollar price.

Use this skill

Save it into your project's skills folder. Claude Code picks it up in its next session.

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/dotnet-item-management/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/dotnet-item-management/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add dotnet-item-management, and start Claude Code with claude --plugin-dir "$(git rev-parse --show-toplevel)/.agents"

1 · One-time — install the CLI (docs ↗)

pip install "decimalai>=0.15"

2 · Get the skill — writes .agents/skills/dotnet-item-management/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add dotnet-item-management

No CLI? Get the same file — curl · raw file

curl -fsSL --create-dirs -o .claude/skills/dotnet-item-management/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/dotnet-item-management/SKILL.md

Raw file: /s/dotnet-item-management/SKILL.md ↗ · machine-readable summary at /s/dotnet-item-management.json ↗

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

A test case the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

Prompt

A developer wrote `<EmbeddedResource Update="@(EmbeddedResource)" Exclude="*.resx" />` expecting MSBuild to skip updating `.resx` files. Why does this fail or fail to exclude items in MSBuild?

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Explains that the Exclude attribute is supported only on Include operations	Missed	Passed

case-18 · gemini-3.6-flash · 8/9/2026 · answers are capped and redacted

What's inside

The instructions your model reads when the skill loads.

SKILL.md157 linessingle file

MSBuild Item Management Patterns

Canonical patterns for working with item groups, from Microsoft.Common.CurrentVersion.targets.

Include / Remove / Update — Three Operations

Operation	Purpose	When to use
`Include`	Add new items to the group	Creating items with identity + metadata
`Remove`	Remove items matching a pattern	Excluding files or clearing a group
`Update`	Modify metadata on existing items	Adding/changing metadata without re-adding

Include — Add Items

<ItemGroup>
  <Compile Include="Generated\*.cs">
    <AutoGen>true</AutoGen>
  </Compile>
</ItemGroup>

Remove — Subtract Items

<ItemGroup>
  <!-- Remove specific items -->
  <Reference Remove="$(AdditionalExplicitAssemblyReferences)" />

  <!-- Set subtraction: prior minus current -->
  <_CleanOrphanFileWrites Include="@(_CleanPriorFileWrites)"
      Exclude="@(_CleanCurrentFileWrites)" />

  <!-- Clear an entire group -->
  <_Temporary Remove="@(_Temporary)" />
</ItemGroup>

Update — Modify Existing Items

Track record

Benchmark

22 / 22

test cases passed, vs 21 / 22 without

Adoption

Users: 0
Times used: 0

Safety and source details

SkillSafety

✓ 3 of 3 passed

Code scan15 of 15 checks clean

0 critical · 0 warning · 0 info — scanner v4 — 8/3/2026

View 15 scanner checks

live_secretremote_code_executionreverse_shelldata_exfiltrationssrf_metadataagent_snoopinganti_refusaldestructive_commandsobfuscated_unicodeunicode_homoglyphopaque_blobsuspicious_urltool_overreachtrigger_abuseprompt_injection_phrasing

IntentSafe

LLM judge · does the skill do what it claims

ContentClean

LLM judge · policy & harmful-content review

Source

Imported

dotnet / skills

plugins/dotnet-msbuild/skills/item-management/SKILL.md

View on GitHub ↗

License MITImported 8/3/2026Version v1

More skills from the same source and nearby in the registry, with their headline benchmark lift.

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See it in action

What's inside

MSBuild Item Management Patterns

Include / Remove / Update — Three Operations

Include — Add Items

Remove — Subtract Items

Update — Modify Existing Items

Track record

Benchmark

Adoption

SkillSafety

Source

Related skills