Microsoft .NET
Microsoft .NET is a free, cross-platform, open source developer platform for building many different types of applications. The .NET APIs and developer tools provide programmatic access to .NET runtime services, NuGet package management, project templates, and build tooling across web, mobile, desktop, games, IoT, cloud, and microservices workloads.
APIs
Microsoft .NET API Browser
Comprehensive reference for .NET APIs across all packages, namespaces, and types in the .NET ecosystem including .NET 9, .NET Standard, and .NET Framework.
NuGet Server API
RESTful API for interacting with nuget.org and private NuGet feeds, supporting package search, download, push, delete, and metadata queries for .NET package management.
.NET CLI
Cross-platform command-line interface for developing, building, running, and publishing .NET applications. Provides commands for project creation, package management, testing, a...
ASP.NET Core Web API
Framework for building HTTP-based RESTful APIs and web services with ASP.NET Core, including controllers, minimal APIs, routing, model binding, authentication, and OpenAPI integ...
.NET Aspire
Cloud-ready stack for building observable, production-ready distributed applications in .NET with built-in service discovery, health checks, telemetry, and configuration managem...
Features
Build and run .NET applications on Windows, macOS, and Linux with full platform support.
.NET runtime with JIT compilation, garbage collection, and ahead-of-time compilation for optimal performance.
Access over 350,000 packages through the NuGet package manager for rapid development.
Build lightweight HTTP APIs with minimal code using the minimal API pattern in ASP.NET Core.
Built-in support for containers, Kubernetes, microservices, and cloud deployment through .NET Aspire.
Apply code changes to running applications without restarting for faster development cycles.
Use Cases
Build scalable enterprise web applications using ASP.NET Core with authentication, authorization, and data access.
Design and deploy microservices using .NET with gRPC, message queues, and service discovery.
Develop cloud-native applications with .NET Aspire, containers, and Azure integration.
Create production-ready REST APIs with OpenAPI documentation, versioning, and rate limiting.
Build Windows desktop applications using WPF, WinForms, or .NET MAUI for cross-platform desktop.
Integrations
Deep integration with Microsoft Azure cloud services including App Service, Functions, and Container Apps.
Full IDE support with IntelliSense, debugging, profiling, and project templates in Visual Studio.
Lightweight development with the C# Dev Kit extension for Visual Studio Code.
CI/CD pipeline integration with GitHub Actions for .NET build, test, and deploy workflows.
Container support with official .NET Docker images and multi-stage build templates.
Object-relational mapping for database access with support for SQL Server, PostgreSQL, SQLite, and more.