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MSBuild Property Patterns · dotnet | DecimalAI

codingby dotnet

MSBuild Property Patterns

dotnet/property-patterns

Source dotnet/skills ↗License MIT

MSBuild property definition patterns: conditional defaults, composition/concatenation, path normalization, trailing-slash handling, TFM detection helpers, and evaluation order. USE FOR: diagnosing and fixing property definition issues and shared-property anti-patterns in .props/.csproj; DefineConstants or NoWarn overwritten instead of appended; unconditional assignments that block project-level overrides; unquoted conditions that fail on empty properties; hardcoded paths that break cross-platfor

SkillScore95Maintained

Automatic

Coding pack

Last verified 8/9/2026

What it changes

Passed 20 of 21 test cases with the skill, and 17 of 21 without it.

Without skill82%

With skill95%

Checks it passed that the model alone missed

Uses [MSBuild]::AreFeaturesEnabled with the argument '17.10' in the condition expression
Uses [MSBuild]::GetTargetFrameworkIdentifier to test if the framework identifier is .NETCoreApp
Defines a guard property in the props file and checks that property in the targets file import condition

3 fixed18 passed either way1 still failing0 broke

Pass-rate lift: +14 pp
Tokens: +50%
Agent turns: 0%
Response time: -42%

Model gemini-3.6-flashMeasured 8/9/2026v121 of 22 cases passed with skill · 21 comparable

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-property-patterns/SKILL.md https://app.decimal.ai/s/dotnet-property-patterns/SKILL.md

Want it pinned and updatable? pip install "decimalai>=0.15", then decimalai skills add dotnet-property-patterns, 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-property-patterns/ and pins it in .decimal/skills.lock

decimalai skills add dotnet-property-patterns

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

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

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

Safety checks: 3 of 3 passed

Code scan CleanIntent PassedContent Clean

See it in action

One of 2 test cases the skill fixed. Same model, same prompt, with and without the skill.

1 of 2

Prompt

I need an MSBuild XML snippet to set custom compiler constants and warning suppressions based on whether the target framework is .NET Core. Please provide a PropertyGroup structure that appends my custom define constant and warning suppressions without inadvertently overwriting existing values.

What was checked, without and with the skill
Checked	Without skill	With skill
Uses [MSBuild]::GetTargetFrameworkIdentifier to test if the framework identifier is .NETCoreApp	Missed	Passed
Appends new values to DefineConstants using semicolon concatenation with $(DefineConstants)	Passed	Passed

case-02 · 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.md161 linessingle file

MSBuild Property Patterns

Canonical property definition and manipulation patterns from the MSBuild repository.

Conditional Defaults — The Foundational Pattern

Set a property only if not already set, allowing callers to override:

<PropertyGroup>
  <Configuration Condition="'$(Configuration)' == ''">Debug</Configuration>
  <Platform Condition="'$(Platform)' == ''">AnyCPU</Platform>
  <BuildInParallel Condition="'$(BuildInParallel)' == ''">true</BuildInParallel>
</PropertyGroup>

Rules

Always quote both sides: '$(Prop)' == ''
In .props: creates overridable defaults. In .targets: creates fallbacks.
Properties without the condition cannot be overridden by earlier imports.

Nested Conditional Groups

Group related properties under a shared condition:

<PropertyGroup Condition="$(TargetFramework.StartsWith('net4'))">
  <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);FEATURE_APARTMENT_STATE</DefineConstants>
  <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);FEATURE_APM</DefineConstants>
  <FeatureAppDomain>true</FeatureAppDomain>
</PropertyGroup>

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$([MSBuild]::GetTargetFrameworkIdentifier('$(TargetFramework)'))' == '.NETCoreApp'">
  <NetCoreBuild>true</NetCoreBuild>
  <DefineConstants>$(DefineConstants);RUNTIME_TYPE_NETCORE</DefineConstants>
</PropertyGroup>

Use the outer Condition on PropertyGroup to avoid repeating the same condition on every property.

Track record

Benchmark

20 / 21

test cases passed, vs 17 / 21 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/property-patterns/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 Property Patterns

Conditional Defaults — The Foundational Pattern

Rules

Nested Conditional Groups

Track record

Benchmark

Adoption

SkillSafety

Source

Related skills