build-perf-diagnostics

build-perf-diagnostics is a skill for Claude Code, Codex from managedcode/dotnet-skills. It costs 160 tokens per session (2,429 once invoked), scanned A, a copy of build-perf-diagnostics, MIT.

A diagnostic guide for finding which parts of an MSBuild build make it slow, using a binary log recorded during the build.

In plain words
What is it for?
It is for examining build performance summaries, expensive targets and tasks, code-analyzer time, and how well parallel build workers are being used in .NET projects.
Why use it?
A build can spend most of its time in one target, task, code analyzer, or dependency step even when the console output does not make that clear. It helps identify the main time-consuming work and scheduling problems.

Skill for Claude CodeCodex

Written for no agent in particular: nothing here depends on one.

Good fit It is for examining build performance summaries, expensive targets and tasks, code-analyzer time, and how well parallel build workers are being used in .NET projects.

Compare 6 skills from other repositories ↓
Install with agentmods
npx agentmods add skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics
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.

Any agent
npx skills add managedcode/dotnet-skills --skill build-perf-diagnostics
Clone the repo
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/managedcode/dotnet-skills

Made for: Claude Code, Codex.

Wrote this? Show the measurements

A badge with what this costs and how it scanned, read live from this page, so it follows the numbers instead of freezing them. Markdown for a README, HTML for a documentation site or a project page.

agentmods badge for build-perf-diagnostics

README.md
[![agentmods](https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics/github.svg)](https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics)
Your own site
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics/github.svg" alt="Measured on agentmods" height="20"></a>

Or the 80×15 button, for a site that already has a row of RSS and ATOM ones. Only the verdict fits; the numbers stay here.

agentmods 80×15 button for build-perf-diagnostics

Your own site · 80×15
<a href="https://agentmods.dev/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics"><img src="https://agentmods.dev/badge/skills/managedcode/dotnet-skills/build-perf-diagnostics.svg" alt="Reviewed on agentmods" width="80" height="20"></a>
Per session 160 Skills are progressive disclosure: only the name and description are preloaded; the body loads when the skill is used.
When invoked 2,429 The whole file, excluding the scripts and references it only reads on demand.
Security scan A 0 findings. A grade says what 26 rules found in the file — not that it is safe.
Origin 100% copy Near-identical to another mod 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 5.1 $0.00160 $0.02429
Opus 5 $0.00080 $0.01215
Sonnet 5 $0.00032 $0.00486
Haiku 4.5 $0.00016 $0.00243

Measured 5d ago against content hash 8575541b9b13, method: parsed. Prices are Anthropic first-party input rates as of 2026-09-09, from the pricing page.

Security

Grade A, and why

build-perf-diagnostics 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 5d ago.

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.

Origin

This is a copy

100% identical to build-perf-diagnostics — 0 lines differ, which has more behind it and is treated as the original. This page carries a canonical link to it rather than competing with it.

catalog/Tools/Official-DotNet-MSBuild/skills/build-perf-diagnostics/SKILL.md · 151 lines

How it starts

The opening of the file, as written. The whole thing — 151 lines — stays where its author put it; the contents beside it link to each section on GitHub.

Performance Analysis Methodology

  1. Generate a binlog: dotnet build /bl:{} -m
  2. Use the binlog MCP server (Microsoft.AITools.BinlogMcp, exposed under the binlog MCP namespace) which is bundled with this plugin

Alternate flow when MCP is unavailable: binlog replay to text logs

  1. Generate a binlog: dotnet build /bl:{} -m
  2. Replay to diagnostic log with performance summary:
    dotnet msbuild build.binlog -noconlog -fl -flp:v=diag;logfile=full.log;performancesummary
    
  3. Read the performance summary (at the end of full.log):
    grep "Target Performance Summary\|Task Performance Summary" -A 50 full.log
    
  4. Find expensive targets and tasks: The PerformanceSummary section lists all targets/tasks sorted by cumulative time
  5. Check for node utilization: grep for scheduling and node messages
    grep -i "node.*assigned\|building with\|scheduler" full.log | head -30
    
  6. Check analyzers: grep for analyzer timing
    grep -i "analyzer.*elapsed\|Total analyzer execution time\|CompilerAnalyzerDriver" full.log
    

Key Metrics and Thresholds

  • Build duration: what's "normal" — small project <10s, medium <60s, large <5min
  • Node utilization: ideal is >80% active time across nodes. Low utilization = serialization bottleneck
  • Single target domination: if one target is >50% of build time, investigate
  • Analyzer time vs compile time: analyzers should be <30% of Csc task time. If higher, consider removing expensive analyzers
  • RAR time: ResolveAssemblyReference >5s is concerning. >15s is pathological

Common Bottlenecks

1. ResolveAssemblyReference (RAR) Slowness

  • Symptoms: RAR taking >5s per project
  • Root causes: too many assembly references, network-based reference paths, large assembly search paths
  • Fixes: reduce reference count, use <DesignTimeBuild>false</DesignTimeBuild> for RAR-heavy analysis, set <ResolveAssemblyReferencesSilent>true</ResolveAssemblyReferencesSilent> for diagnostic
  • Advanced: <DesignTimeBuild> and <ResolveAssemblyWarnOrErrorOnTargetArchitectureMismatch>
  • Key insight: RAR runs unconditionally even on incremental builds because users may have installed targeting packs or GACed assemblies (see dotnet/msbuild#2015). With .NET Core micro-assemblies, the reference count is often very high.
  • Reduce transitive references: Set <DisableTransitiveProjectReferences>true</DisableTransitiveProjectReferences> to avoid pulling in the full transitive closure (note: projects may need to add direct references for any types they consume). Use ReferenceOutputAssembly="false" on ProjectReferences that are only needed at build time (not API surface). Trim unused PackageReferences.

Read the full file on GitHub · 151 lines

Files

What ships with it

1 file beside SKILL.md in the same directory: the scripts, references and assets a skill reads on demand. Not counted in the per-session cost; read them before you install if any of them is executable.

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. 5d ago First seen · 151 lines · 160 tokens per session scan A 8575541b9b13

Subscribe to this mod's changes

build-perf-diagnostics is a skill published in the GitHub repository managedcode/dotnet-skills (477 stars, last pushed 4d ago), licensed MIT. It adds 160 tokens to every session and 2,429 once invoked, about $0.0008 per session on Opus 5. A static security scan graded it A with 0 findings. It is 100% identical to build-perf-diagnostics, differing in 0 lines, and is treated as a copy.

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