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Turning off PR CI: local gate with gh-signoff and a required status

Milan Jovanović describes turning off cloud CI for pull requests, running the build and tests locally, and posting a signoff commit status with the gh-signoff GitHub CLI extension. A git pre-push hook runs the gate, a GitHub ruleset requires the status before merging, and one cloud run stays on merges to main. It is a practical option for .NET teams that want to cut Actions costs and waiting time.

Using AI agents to clean up dead code, stale packages and feature flags

A NimblePros Halloween post walks through removing the accumulated cruft of long-lived .NET codebases: unused private members, unreferenced public types, unused or vulnerable NuGet packages and stale feature flags. The method pairs compiler analyzers and dotnet CLI checks with an AI agent that investigates edge cases, guided by a reusable skill file. It is a practical playbook for teams who never find time to clean up.

Tracking GitHub release download counts in a single-file WinForms app

A developer shared a small WinForms utility that totals GitHub release download counts across all their projects and keeps history over time. It compiles from a single C# 5 file with the csc.exe bundled in Windows, without Visual Studio. The write-up is useful for anyone tracking download trends or hitting GitHub API rate limits and TLS issues on .NET Framework 4.

Writing executable specifications with Bobcat in C#

Critter Stack's new Bobcat 1.0 turns ordinary C# tests into readable executable specifications. The author starts from an existing xUnit test, adds step helpers, then covers decision tables and set verification for collections. It is a practical walkthrough for .NET teams who want reviewable tests without a Gherkin layer.

Publish Visual Studio Marketplace extensions securely with Trusted Publishing

Visual Studio Marketplace now offers Trusted Publishing, which lets VS Code and Visual Studio extensions be published from GitHub Actions or Azure Pipelines without a long-lived personal access token. Publishing uses federated identity instead, so there is no secret to store or rotate. Extension authors who automate releases should review the setup and migration steps.

PostSharp 2027.0 gives AI coding agents the real API and build facts

PostSharp 2027.0 adds tooling that helps AI coding agents work correctly in PostSharp projects, including a plugin for Claude Code and Codex. The release also brings CLI commands that show which aspects were applied to a declaration after a build, per-message error documentation, and an aspect test framework. These are useful for .NET developers who write or maintain aspects.

Visual Studio 2026 v18.11 adds fail-fast builds and agentic debugging

Visual Studio 2026 v18.11 and its 18.11.1 servicing update add an opt-in setting that stops a solution build as soon as one project fails. Copilot Chat, the Debugger Agent and the Profiler Agent also received major changes. These updates touch everyday .NET 10 and C# 14 work, from compile loops to profiling and Git.

Running AWS Transform from GitHub Copilot through MCP

AWS has documented how to connect its AWS Transform MCP server to GitHub Copilot agent mode, so migrations can be driven from the chat box in Visual Studio or VS Code. The walkthrough ports an Azure Functions .NET app to AWS Lambda using the Lambda Annotations Framework. It is worth a read if your team is weighing an Azure-to-AWS move or wants a repeatable agent-driven migration workflow.

Bobcat 1.0 is out: readable C# specifications projected from your tests

JasperFx has released Bobcat 1.0, an MIT-licensed tool that projects human-readable specifications from the test frameworks you already use, including xUnit.net, TUnit, MSTest and NUnit. No Gherkin or wiki files are needed, only C# or F#. It also brings Supervisor for more reliable integration suites and telemetry output aimed at AI agents debugging failing tests.

Visual Studio October update: compare commits to your working tree and bulk-resolve conflicts

The October Visual Studio 2026 update lets you compare an earlier commit with your current working tree, including unsaved edits in progress, and resolve merge conflicts across many files at once. It also adds a new Copilot Chat experience, Hot Exit, and keyboard tab reordering. These changes speed up everyday Git work.

How the Intune team moved a .NET Framework service to .NET 8 with Copilot

The Microsoft Intune team used the GitHub Copilot modernization agent to move an enrollment service from .NET Framework 4.7.2 to .NET 8 while hosting it on AKS. The author reports cutting one library's migration from about six weeks to one and a half. The most useful part is the working method: an editable migration plan and progress file kept in the repository, and a clear account of where the agent failed on internal libraries.

PostSharp 2027.0 lets aspects receive services through constructor injection

PostSharp 2027.0 lets aspects request services from the dependency injection container. The build adds those services as constructor parameters of the enhanced class, so aspects no longer need a global service locator. Legacy code can migrate gradually, and PostSharp Caching can take its backend from the container too.