Architectural tests in .NET

Architectural tests in .NET
9 minutes by Marek Sirkovský

Architectural tests in .NET help keep a codebase consistent over time by enforcing design rules automatically. Unlike unit or integration tests, they focus on structure, such as dependencies and layering. Tools like ArchUnitNET, NetArchTest, and Roslyn analyzers allow developers to define and check these rules. By turning architecture into executable tests, teams can maintain long-term code quality even under pressure.

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Configuring contextual options
11 minutes by Andrew Lock

Microsoft.Extensions.Options.Contextual is a preview .NET package that lets you configure options objects dynamically based on a context object, such as a user's country. It uses a source generator and a receiver pattern to loosely connect context values to options. The setup is complex and the decoupling it provides feels superficial. With no stable release and fewer than 1000 downloads per version, it is hard to recommend over simpler alternatives like Microsoft.FeatureManagement or OpenFeature.

Ten months with Copilot Coding Agent in dotnet/runtime
about 1 hour by Stephen Toub

GitHub's Copilot Coding Agent has contributed 878 pull requests to the .NET runtime repository over ten months, with 535 merged. Success rates climbed from 42% to around 70% after the team added build instructions and configured the agent's environment properly. The agent works best on well-scoped tasks like cleanup, bug fixes, and test writing, but struggles with platform-specific code and performance analysis.

Managing long-running tasks inside Akka.NET actors
11 minutes by Aaron Stannard

Aaron explains how to run long tasks inside Akka.NET actors without blocking them. He presents a pattern using a detached task, CancellationTokenSource, and PipeTo. The actor stays responsive, manages start/stop and errors, and cancels work safely. Aaron also highlights pitfalls like misreading timeouts as cancellations and stresses proper cleanup during actor shutdown.

Health checks in ASP.NET Core
4 minutes by Adrian Bailador

Basic health endpoints just say "I'm alive" but don't explain why something is broken. A proper health check tests real dependencies like databases, external APIs, and disk space, then reports each one separately. This helps you spot the exact failure point instead of guessing. Kubernetes liveness and readiness probes can also use these detailed checks to make smarter decisions about your service.

And the most popular article from the last issue was:

• Microsoft hasn’t had a coherent GUI strategy since Petzold