C# / .NET Project Starter

Before you start

Check the SDK (not just the runtime) is installed:

dotnet --version
dotnet --list-sdks

No SDK? Install the current LTS from dotnet.microsoft.com. VS Code with the C# Dev Kit extension is all the editor you need.

Console app (quickest start)

dotnet new console -o MyApp
cd MyApp
dotnet run

Program.cs uses top-level statements — no Main boilerplate, just start typing code.

Web API

dotnet new webapi -o MyApi
cd MyApi
dotnet run

The terminal prints the URL (e.g. http://localhost:5xxx). Hit /weatherforecast for the sample endpoint. Add --use-controllers to the new command if you want classic controller classes instead of minimal APIs.

Real project? Make a solution

dotnet new sln -o MySolution
cd MySolution
dotnet new webapi -o src/MyApi
dotnet new classlib -o src/MyCore
dotnet new xunit -o tests/MyApi.Tests
dotnet sln add src/MyApi src/MyCore tests/MyApi.Tests
dotnet add src/MyApi reference src/MyCore

The commands you'll forget

dotnet watch          # run with hot reload
dotnet test           # run tests
dotnet add package Serilog.AspNetCore   # add a NuGet package
dotnet new list       # see every available template
dotnet publish -c Release               # deployable build

Common gotchas

• "No project found": you're in the wrong folder — the CLI works relative to where you stand, or pass --project src/MyApi.
• It builds but changes don't show: you ran dotnet run in another terminal earlier; kill it, or use dotnet watch instead.
• HTTPS certificate warnings on first run: dotnet dev-certs https --trust (one time per machine).