mcpbeat

Building Winforms Applications

microsoft/building-winforms-applications

> Structures WinForms applications with Designer-compatible patterns, proper code organization, and build/runtime compatibility. Use when creating or maintaining WinForms projects, working with Form or UserControl classes, organizing InitializeComponent vs application logic, implementing Application.Run patterns, handling Program.cs and ApplicationConfiguration, managing Application.SetHighDpiMode, working with .resx resource files, or troubleshooting Designer serialization issues. Also triggers for "WinForms project structure", "Form class organization", "Designer compatibility", "Application.Run", "Program.cs setup", and "WinForms best practices". Enhancement features (dark mode, async APIs, MVVM) are in separate skills for opt-in adoption only.

6k tokens
context cost
the whole folder, loaded on every use
4
files
instructions only
0
copies elsewhere
how many repositories repackaged it
17
stars on the repo
on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository 
npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/upgrade-agent-plugins --skill building-winforms-applications

What comes with it

22 977 bytes besides the instruction
ref/async-apis.md
ref/dark-mode.md
ref/detailed-guide.md

The instruction itself

5 sections, as written by the author

WinForms Development Guide

Modern .NET WinForms development for Designer-compatible applications with proper separation of concerns between Designer-generated code and application logic.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when:

  • Creating new or maintaining existing WinForms projects or WinForms control libraries
  • Developing Forms or UserControls to be compatible with the WinForms Designer
  • Modernizing legacy WinForms applications or even legacy VB6 applications
  • Setting up solution structures and configuration with enough evidence for using the WinForms projects as the UI stack.

Related Skills

For specialized topics, see:

  • WinForms Designer Code
  • WinForms Data Binding
  • WinForms MVVM
  • WinForms Rendering
  • WinForms High-DPI Fluent Layout

Detailed Guidance

Read Detailed guide for comprehensive patterns, examples, and troubleshooting.

For opt-in enhancement features (dark mode, async APIs), see the focused guides dark mode and async APIs - these are only applied when explicitly requested or invoked by the winforms-feature-adoption scenario.

Workflow

  • Confirm the scenario matches the triggers in this skill.
  • Apply the baseline pattern from this file.
  • Read Detailed guide for advanced or edge-case handling.
  • Validate changes with an actual build and runtime check.

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take microsoft/building-winforms-applications from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

The agent identifies a skill by the name field in its header. Two skills with the same name cannot sit side by side — one of them will be ignored.