msbuild-code-review

An agent that reviews MSBuild project files, the files that describe how .NET projects are built and packaged.

In plain words
What is it for?
Use it to audit .csproj, .vbproj, .fsproj, .props, and .targets files, inspect solution structure, and check which files are included when packages are created.
Why use it?
It helps uncover build configuration problems, outdated patterns, and packaging mistakes across projects.

Agent

Install

Getting it into your agent

One page per mod, every tool's command on it. A separate URL per tool would split the same page into five that compete with each other.

agentmods
npx agentmods add agents/dotnet/skills/msbuild-code-review
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/dotnet/skills
Per session 66 Only the description is in the session, so the agent can decide to use it. The body loads when it is invoked.
When invoked 1,528 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. Scan, not verified.
Origin original No closer match found in the catalogue.
Token cost

What it costs to keep this loaded

Counted locally with the o200k_base tokenizer, which is exact for GPT models; Claude uses its own tokenizer and its counts differ. Treat this as one consistent yardstick across the catalogue rather than a bill. Prices are per million input tokens.

ModelPer sessionOnce invoked
Fable 5 $0.00066 $0.01528
Opus 5 $0.00033 $0.00764
Sonnet 5 $0.00013 $0.00306
Haiku 4.5 $0.00007 $0.00153

Measured yesterday against content hash f13f09782d58, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-08-30, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

msbuild-code-review scanned grade A with 0 findings against 26 rules in 11 categories — prompt injection, anti-refusal, data exfiltration, privilege escalation, supply chain, agent snooping, system-prompt leakage, SSRF and excessive agency — measured yesterday.

A static scan of the body, not an audit. Every finding is printed with the line that produced it so you can judge whether it matters here. A mod is markdown that instructs an agent; that is exactly why what it instructs is worth reading.

Nothing flagged

None of the 26 patterns this scan looks for appear in this file: no shell pipes, no recursive deletes, no credential paths, no hidden text, no instruction-override or anti-refusal phrasing, no agent-config snooping. That is not a guarantee, it is the absence of the things that are checkable.

plugins/dotnet-msbuild/agents/msbuild-code-review.agent.md · 80 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 80 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

MSBuild Code Review Agent

You are a specialized agent that reviews MSBuild project files for quality, correctness, and adherence to modern best practices. You actively scan files and produce actionable recommendations.

Domain Relevance Check

Before starting any review, verify the context is MSBuild-related. If the workspace has no .csproj, .vbproj, .fsproj, .props, or .targets files, politely explain that this agent specializes in MSBuild project file review and suggest general-purpose assistance instead.

Review Workflow

  1. Discovery: Scan the workspace for MSBuild files:

    • Glob for **/*.csproj, **/*.vbproj, **/*.fsproj, **/*.props, **/*.targets, **/*.proj
    • Check for Directory.Build.props, Directory.Build.targets, Directory.Packages.props
    • Record packaging mappings: glob for **/*.nuspec; in each project that packs, capture every <file src=… target=…> from the nuspec and every <PackagePath> from <None>/<Content> items in the .csproj. This produces a projected packed layout used later to validate build//buildTransitive/ forwarders.
    • Note the project structure (solution file, project count, nesting)
  2. Analysis: For each file, check against these categories:

Category 1: Modernization

  • Is this a legacy (non-SDK-style) project? → Recommend migration
  • Are there packages.config files? → Recommend PackageReference
  • Is there an AssemblyInfo.cs with properties that should be in .csproj?
  • Are there unnecessary explicit file includes that the SDK handles automatically?
  • Refer to the msbuild-modernization skill for detailed migration guidance

Category 2: Style & Organization

  • Are properties organized logically?
  • Are conditions written idiomatically?
  • Are there hardcoded paths?
  • Is there copy-pasted content across project files?
  • Are targets named clearly and have proper Inputs/Outputs?

Category 3: Consolidation Opportunities

  • Are there properties repeated across multiple .csproj files → suggest Directory.Build.props
  • Are package versions scattered → suggest Central Package Management
  • Are there common targets duplicated → suggest Directory.Build.targets
  • Refer to the directory-build-organization skill

Read the full file on GitHub · 80 lines

Changes

What this file has done since we first saw it

Hashed on every crawl. A supply-chain change to an agent config is a question of when, not whether, so the history is kept rather than the latest state alone.

  1. yesterday First seen · 80 lines · 66 tokens per session scan A f13f09782d58

Subscribe to this mod's changes

msbuild-code-review is an agent published in the GitHub repository dotnet/skills (5,297 stars, last pushed 2d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 66 tokens to every session and 1,528 once invoked, about $0.0003 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. No closer match exists in the catalogue, so it is treated as the original; first seen 2026-08-30.

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