reader: someone installing or running meow-csharp on Pi answers: what meow-csharp provides, what it adds to a session and how to install it kind: reference describes: [@meowshed/[email protected]]

@meowshed/meow-csharp

Detects a .NET solution or project from what git tracks, compares the SDK global.json pins with the ones installed, prints a stages table that restores explicitly and keeps every build's output outside the working tree, reports Nullable, TreatWarningsAsErrors and AnalysisLevel left unset, writing no file, and carries what a reviewer of C# checks that no command reports. Distributed as a Pi package.

Install it

pi install npm:@meowshed/meow-csharp

The paw executable ships with @meowshed/meow-core alone (REQ-4612): this package's launchers run their subcommands through it, so install the core package beside this one for the binary-backed checks. Without it, every check reports unrun and lets the command through.

pi install npm:@meowshed/meow-core   # carries the binary the launchers run

Installing from this repository's checkout is the development install: it loads the package in place and runs no lifecycle script.

Bind your stages

meow-csharp bind prints a [stages] table for you to paste into .meowpaw/profile.toml, and never writes the profile itself. For a solution Shop.slnx with CSharpier, TreatWarningsAsErrors and a test project configured, it prints:

[stages]
format = "dotnet csharpier check ."
lint = 'dotnet restore Shop.slnx --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root" && dotnet build Shop.slnx --no-restore --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root"'
check = 'dotnet restore Shop.slnx --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root" && dotnet build Shop.slnx --no-restore --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root"'
test = 'dotnet restore Shop.slnx --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root" && dotnet test Shop.slnx --no-restore --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root" --logger trx --results-directory "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root/test"'
build = 'dotnet restore Shop.slnx --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root" && dotnet build Shop.slnx --no-restore -c Release --artifacts-path "${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/shop/root"'
# lint and check run at AnalysisLevel latest-recommended

Every command that builds restores first and passes --no-restore after, so a clean checkout fails on the restore and not halfway through a build. Every dotnet command passes one --artifacts-path under your temporary directory, so bin and obj never land beside your projects.

| Stage | Bound to | When | | -------- | ---------------------------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | | format | dotnet csharpier check . | A .csharpierrc* or csharpier.yaml, or csharpier in .config/dotnet-tools.json | | lint | restore, then dotnet build --no-restore | TreatWarningsAsErrors is true in Directory.Build.props or a project | | check | restore, then dotnet build --no-restore | Always | | test | restore, then dotnet test --no-restore with a TRX report | A project references Microsoft.NET.Test.Sdk, xunit, NUnit or MSTest, or sets IsTestProject | | build | restore, then dotnet build --no-restore -c Release | Always |

A stage with no binding is a comment giving the reason. format stays unbound without CSharpier, because dotnet format restores into obj/ beside each project and takes no artifacts path. lint stays unbound without TreatWarningsAsErrors, because the compiler then fails on no analyser finding, and the pack turns on no strictness you didn't ask for. Where global.json selects Microsoft.Testing.Platform, test names its target with --solution or --project and asks for --report-trx after --, which needs .NET 11 for the artifacts path and the Microsoft.Testing.Extensions.TrxReport package. A directory holding two solutions binds no stage that needs a target, and each names both files, because the pack never picks one. bind prints nothing for a stage your profile already declares.

Check your settings

meow-csharp check reads Directory.Build.props in each directory and the ones above it, and every project under it, and prints a finding for each setting none of them sets:

| Line | When | | ----------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------ | | <dir>: Nullable isn't enabled | No file sets <Nullable>enable</Nullable> | | <dir>: TreatWarningsAsErrors isn't set | No file sets it to true | | <dir>: AnalysisLevel isn't set, the SDK's default applies | No file sets <AnalysisLevel> |

It exits 1 on any finding, and prints no findings and exits 0 when there is none.

What it reports instead of a table

| Line | Means | | -------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------ | | unresolved: not a C# repository | Git tracks no solution or project file | | unresolved: dotnet <pin> pinned, <installed> installed | No installed SDK meets the pin under its rollForward | | unresolved: no profile at .meowpaw/profile.toml | check found no profile | | unresolved: the profile doesn't parse: ... | check found a profile that isn't valid TOML |

Each exits 3. bind still prints its table where the pin isn't met, because dotnet applies the pin itself and the commands stand once the SDK is installed.

Generated files

Commit your solution and project files, global.json, Directory.Build.props and .config/dotnet-tools.json, because they're the project state every binding reads. Ignore bin/ and obj/, which dotnet build and dotnet restore write beside each project when no artifacts path is passed. The stages bind prints send that output and the TRX test results under ${TMPDIR:-/tmp}/meow-csharp/, outside your working tree, so a run through them leaves neither directory behind.

Review C# code

When Pi reviews C#, the skill has it run status first and then load reviewing.md, which holds what no command reports: nullable warnings left as suggestions, async and ConfigureAwait at a library boundary, the scope of a using, what == means on a record, where package versions live, the test framework's conventions, a preview opt-in, and a solution not yet migrated to .slnx. The skill never runs the formatter you didn't configure, never turns on a warning as an error, never reports NU1900 or NU1905 as a vulnerability, and never reports a vulnerable-package list without --include-transitive.

What it costs you

The skill's description stays in context on every turn, and reviewing.md costs context only when C# is reviewed. The program is a native binary shipped inside meow-core, and needs git on the machine. On a machine the unit carries no binary for, it reports the repository as unresolved and exits 3.

Read a subcommand's help

meow-csharp --help lists the subcommands, and meow-csharp <subcommand> --help names what it determines, what you read to reach the same answer without the tool, and the first word of each kind of line it prints.