MAUI.Sherpa

Imported from Redth/MAUI.Sherpa (AGENTS.md). Install upstream with npx skills add Redth/MAUI.Sherpa. Copyright stays with the author.

MauiSherpa - AI Agent Instructions

Project Overview

MauiSherpa is a .NET 10 MAUI Blazor Hybrid desktop application for managing developer tools:

• Android SDK (packages, emulators, devices)
• Android Keystores (creation, signatures, PEPK export, cloud sync)
• Apple Developer Tools (certificates, profiles, devices, bundle IDs)
• .NET MAUI Doctor (dependency checking and workload management)
• .NET SDK management via dotnetup (install/update SDKs & runtimes — see docs/dotnet-sdk-management.md)
• GitHub Copilot integration

Platforms: macOS (AppKit), Windows, Linux (GTK) Bundle Identifier: codes.redth.mauisherpa

Project Structure

MAUI.Sherpa/
├── src/
│   ├── MauiSherpa.Core/          # Business logic, ViewModels, interfaces, services
│   │   ├── Handlers/             # Shiny.Mediator request handlers
│   │   ├── Requests/             # Mediator request records
│   │   ├── Services/             # Service implementations
│   │   ├── ViewModels/           # MVVM ViewModels
│   │   └── Interfaces.cs         # All interface definitions
│   ├── MauiSherpa/               # Shared MAUI app with Blazor UI (Windows head)
│   │   ├── Components/           # Reusable Blazor components
│   │   ├── Pages/                # Blazor page components
│   │   ├── Services/             # Platform-specific service implementations
│   │   ├── Platforms/            # Platform-specific code (Windows)
│   │   └── wwwroot/              # Static assets (CSS, JS, index.html)
│   ├── MauiSherpa.MacOS/         # macOS AppKit app head (net10.0-macos)
│   ├── MauiSherpa.LinuxGtk/      # Linux GTK app head
│   └── MauiSherpa.Workloads/     # .NET SDK workload querying library
│       ├── Models/               # Workload data models
│       ├── Services/             # Workload services
│       └── NuGet/                # NuGet client for package queries
├── tests/
│   ├── MauiSherpa.Core.Tests/    # Unit tests for Core library
│   └── MauiSherpa.Workloads.Tests/ # Unit tests for Workloads library
└── docs/                         # Documentation

Build Commands

# Build for macOS (AppKit head)
dotnet build src/MauiSherpa.MacOS -f net10.0-macos

# Build for Windows (on Windows only)
dotnet build src/MauiSherpa -f net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0

# Build entire solution (uses default TFM for each project)
dotnet build MauiSherpa.sln

# Run all tests
dotnet test MauiSherpa.sln

# Publish macOS app
dotnet publish src/MauiSherpa.MacOS -f net10.0-macos -c Release

# Publish Windows app
dotnet publish src/MauiSherpa -f net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0 -c Release

src/MauiSherpa is the shared UI project and the Windows head. It only builds on Windows — on macOS and Linux its Build/Rebuild/Publish targets are no-ops so solution builds still work.

Launching the App

IMPORTANT: dotnet run does NOT work for .NET MAUI apps (until .NET 11). Use one of:

# Option 1: Build with -t:Run target (keeps process alive until app exits)
dotnet build src/MauiSherpa.MacOS -f net10.0-macos -t:Run

# Option 2: Build then manually open the .app bundle
dotnet build src/MauiSherpa.MacOS -f net10.0-macos
open "src/MauiSherpa.MacOS/bin/Debug/net10.0-macos/osx-arm64/MAUI Sherpa.app"

Always launch from bin/ path, NOT artifacts/. The artifacts/ copy may be stale and missing DLLs.

Architecture Patterns

Clean Architecture

• Core contains no platform dependencies
• Platform implements interfaces defined in Core
• Services are injected via constructor DI

MVVM with Dependency Injection

ViewModels inherit from ViewModelBase → ObservableObject:

public class MyViewModel : ViewModelBase
{
    public MyViewModel(IAlertService alertService, ILoggingService logger)
        : base(alertService, logger) { }
}

Shiny.Mediator for Caching

Request/Handler pattern with automatic caching:

// Request (in Core/Requests/)
[Cache(AbsoluteExpirationSeconds = 300)]
public record GetDataRequest() : IRequest<IReadOnlyList<Data>>;

// Handler (in Core/Handlers/)
public class GetDataHandler : IRequestHandler<GetDataRequest, IReadOnlyList<Data>>
{
    public async Task<IReadOnlyList<Data>> Handle(GetDataRequest request, IMediatorContext context, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        // Implementation
    }
}

Handlers must be registered in MauiProgram.cs:

builder.Services.AddSingletonAsImplementedInterfaces<GetDataHandler>();

IMPORTANT: Mediator.Request() returns a tuple (IMediatorContext Context, TResult Result) — use .Result to get the value.

Service Registration

In MauiProgram.cs:

builder.Services.AddSingleton<IMyService, MyService>();
builder.Services.AddSingleton<MyViewModel>();

Core Interfaces

UI Patterns

Blazor Pages

• Located in src/MauiSherpa/Pages/
• Use @inject for services
• Use mediator for cached data: await Mediator.Request(new GetDataRequest())

Modals

• OperationModal — Single long-running operation with progress
• MultiOperationModal — Batch operations with per-item progress
• ProcessExecutionModal — CLI process with terminal output

OperationModalService.RunAsync signature:

RunAsync(string title, string description, Func<IOperationContext, Task<bool>> operation, bool canCancel = true)

Both title AND description are required. Callback returns Task<bool>.

Per-page modal CSS: Each Blazor page defines its own .modal-overlay, .modal, .modal-header, .modal-body, .modal-footer CSS in a <style> block. These are NOT global styles. New pages MUST include modal CSS or modals will render inline without overlay/positioning.

Modal Keyboard Navigation

All modals use modalInterop.js (wwwroot/js/modalInterop.js) for focus trapping:

• Tab/Shift+Tab cycles through focusable elements within the modal
• Escape closes the modal
• Auto-focuses .btn-primary:not([disabled]) on open

CRITICAL: In Blazor WebView (macOS), browser default Tab navigation does NOT work. All Tab keypresses must be intercepted with preventDefault() and explicit .focus() calls via JS interop.

Text Selection Prevention

Global user-select: none is applied on * to prevent accidental text selection in the hybrid app. Selectively re-enabled on: input, textarea, select, code, pre, .mono, .terminal-output, .log-entry, .error-message, .chat-message, and .text-selectable.

Icons

Using Font Awesome. Example:

<i class="fa-solid fa-check text-success"></i>

Theming

• CSS variables defined in app.css with .theme-light and .theme-dark overrides
• Always validate UI changes in BOTH light and dark mode
• Use var(--text-primary), var(--bg-tertiary), var(--card-bg), etc. — never hardcode colors
• Service-specific tags (Google, Firebase, Facebook) need explicit dark mode overrides with rgba() backgrounds

UI Quality Checklist

When making or reviewing UI changes, always verify:

• Padding around elements is consistent and looks polished
• Button alignment is consistent across the app
• Icon usage is appropriate (correct icon, right size)
• Text and button sizes are proportional and readable
• Both light AND dark mode look good

Code Conventions

• No XAML — All UI is Blazor (.razor) or C# code
• Nullable enabled — All projects use <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
• Property notification — Use SetProperty(ref field, value) in ViewModels
• Async naming — Suffix async methods with Async
• Records for DTOs — Use record types for data transfer objects
• NuGet packages for APIs — Use official NuGet packages (Octokit, AppStoreConnectClient, etc.) instead of raw HttpClient for external API integrations

Platform-Specific Notes

macOS

App data path: Use AppDataPath.GetAppDataDirectory() which returns ~/Library/Application Support/MauiSherpa/. Do NOT use SpecialFolder.ApplicationData (resolves to ~/Documents/.config/ which is TCC-protected).

Secure storage in Debug: Ad-hoc Debug builds have different code signatures each rebuild, making macOS Keychain entries inaccessible. Debug builds always use fallback file storage (#if DEBUG _usesFallback = true; in SecureStorageService).

File save dialogs: PickSaveFileAsync (native NSSavePanel) creates an empty file at the chosen path. Tools like keytool that refuse to overwrite existing files need the empty file deleted first.

Duplicate native libraries: The app heads reference both MauiSherpa.AppInspector and MauiSherpa.Core, and AppInspector also references Core, so GitHub.Copilot.SDK stages libcopilot_runtime.dylib several times over. The Apple SDK's InstallNameTool task runs its items in parallel against a shared .tmp path and crashes on duplicates, so build/DedupeNativeReferences.targets collapses each destination to one entry. Import it from any new Apple app head.

Logging: Logs saved to ~/Library/Application Support/MauiSherpa/logs/maui-sherpa-{yyyy-MM-dd}.log.

Blazor WebView Gotchas

@bind vs JS DOM manipulation: Setting element.value = 'x' via JS does NOT update Blazor two-way binding. Must use the native value setter pattern:

Object.getOwnPropertyDescriptor(window.HTMLInputElement.prototype, 'value').set.call(input, value);
input.dispatchEvent(new Event('input', { bubbles: true }));

Use @bind:event="oninput" on inputs for this to work (requires input events, not change).

MAUI DevFlow (AI Debugging)

The project uses MAUI DevFlow from the unified Microsoft.Maui.Cli tool for AI-assisted debugging. Broker discovery is preferred; no .mauidevflow file is committed in this repo.

# Always run CLI commands from src/MauiSherpa/ for auto port detection
cd src/MauiSherpa

# Check agent connectivity
dotnet maui devflow ui status

# Take screenshots
dotnet maui devflow ui screenshot --output screen.png

# Blazor DOM snapshot (best for AI)
dotnet maui devflow webview snapshot

# Inject dark/light mode for testing (avoids navigating to Settings)
dotnet maui devflow webview Runtime evaluate "document.body.classList.remove('theme-light'); document.body.classList.add('theme-dark'); document.querySelector('.main-layout').classList.remove('theme-light'); document.querySelector('.main-layout').classList.add('theme-dark');"

CI/CD

• GitHub Actions runner: macos-26 (NOT macos-26-arm64)
• Xcode: Select Xcode_26.2.app (NOT Xcode_26.2.0.app — the .0 variant has broken SDK lookups)
• Workflow file: .github/workflows/build.yml

Key Dependencies

Testing

• xUnit for test framework
• Moq for mocking
• FluentAssertions for assertions

Test projects target net10.0 (not platform-specific) for portability.

Debugging Workflow

When debugging UI issues:

1. Launch the app, then ask the user to navigate/reproduce the issue before inspecting — the app may require user interaction to reach the desired state
2. When using logs for debugging, wait for the user to confirm they've performed the action before checking log files
3. Use screenshots (screencapture for macOS, xcrun simctl io screenshot for iOS simulators) to visually verify the app
4. Always back up modified files before git branching/splitting operations to enable restoration if changes are lost