Installing the agent skill

An AI coding agent without information about the DotNetBrowser API guesses type and member names from its training data, which may come from older versions. The DotNetBrowser agent skill gives the agent this information. It is a folder in the Agent Skills format that contains:

• instructions on how to write code with DotNetBrowser;
• the API reference;
• an offline copy of the DotNetBrowser documentation, release notes, and migration guides.

Each DotNetBrowser release has its own skill, so the API reference matches the version you build against. The agent reads the skill on its own when a task involves DotNetBrowser.

The skill is installed in the dotnetbrowser subdirectory of the agent’s skills directory:

Agents look for skills in the repository root, and some also in the directory where you start them.

You can install the skill in three ways:

• from NuGet, in an existing project;
• from a ZIP archive, copied into a project or into your home directory;
• with a project template, in a new project.

Installing in an existing project 

From NuGet 

The DotNetBrowser.AgentSkills package installs the skill when you build the project. It adds no assemblies or runtime dependencies to your application.

In the project directory, add the package with the same version as your DotNetBrowser packages:

dotnet add package DotNetBrowser.AgentSkills --version <version>

Replace <version> with the version of your DotNetBrowser packages, for example 4.3.3. The command adds the package with PrivateAssets="all", so it does not flow to projects that reference yours. In Visual Studio, you can add the package with the NuGet Package Manager instead, as described in Installing from NuGet. This also works in .NET Framework projects that use packages.config.

Then set the DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent property to your agent in the project file:

<PropertyGroup>
  <DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent>ClaudeCode</DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent>
</PropertyGroup>

Instead of running dotnet add package, you can add the package reference and the property to the project file in one step. Put the version of your DotNetBrowser packages in place of ...:

<PropertyGroup>
  <DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent>ClaudeCode</DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent>
</PropertyGroup>
<ItemGroup>
  <PackageReference Include="DotNetBrowser.AgentSkills"
                    Version="..."
                    PrivateAssets="all" />
</ItemGroup>

When you build the project, the skill is installed in the agent’s skills directory in the project directory. This normally happens before the code is compiled, so the skill is there even when the code does not compile. The build installs the skill again when the package has a different version of it, or when files are missing from or added to the installed directory.

If the project is not in the repository root, set the skills directory with the DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsDirectory property instead. This is the case for a project created in Visual Studio, which puts the project in a subdirectory of the solution by default. For example, for a project one level below the repository root:

<PropertyGroup>
  <DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsDirectory>..\.claude\skills</DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsDirectory>
</PropertyGroup>

Set the skills directory itself, not its dotnetbrowser subdirectory. A relative path is resolved from the project directory. When both properties are set, the skills directory is used. Also use this property for an agent that is not in the table, with the skills directory from the agent’s documentation.

MSBuild does not expand ~. For a skills directory in your home directory, start the path with $(UserProfile) on Windows or $(HOME) on Linux and macOS.

To install the skill without building the project, run:

dotnet msbuild <project_file> -restore -t:InstallDotNetBrowserAgentSkills

Replace <project_file> with the path to your project file. If the .NET SDK is not installed, run the same command with msbuild instead of dotnet msbuild, for example in the Developer Command Prompt for Visual Studio. If neither property is set, the command installs the skill in .agents/skills/dotnetbrowser/ in the project directory. In a project that uses packages.config, -restore does not restore the package, so restore it in Visual Studio first.

Keep in mind:

• The installation requires MSBuild 16 (Visual Studio 2019) or later.
• When several projects share one skills directory, set the property in one of them only, not in Directory.Build.props. Installations from projects that build at the same time are not synchronized.
• A project with several target frameworks installs the skill only when you build it for all of them. Building one framework, for example with dotnet build -f net8.0, does not install the skill. Neither does a project that sets TargetFramework while it inherits TargetFrameworks, for example from Directory.Build.props. Clear TargetFrameworks in that project or run the command above.
• In a static graph build (-graphBuild), a project with several target frameworks installs the skill after the code is compiled.
• Visual Studio skips building a project that it considers up to date, so it does not check the installed skill either. Run the command above to restore missing files right away.
• The package replaces only a directory that it installed itself. If the skills directory already has a dotnetbrowser folder copied from the ZIP, delete it before the first build, or the build fails.

From ZIP 

Download the DotNetBrowser 4.3.3 agent skill and unpack it. The archive contains the dotnetbrowser folder.

Copy this folder, as is, into the agent’s skills directory in the repository root. To use the skill in all projects, copy it into the skills directory in your home directory instead: ~/.claude/skills/ for Claude Code, ~/.agents/skills/ for Codex, or ~/.cursor/skills/ for Cursor.

For an agent that does not read the Agent Skills format, keep the folder anywhere in the repository and reference dotnetbrowser/SKILL.md from the agent’s rules or instructions file.

Creating a project with the skill 

The DotNetBrowser project templates add the skill with the --agent option:

dotnet new dotnetbrowser.console.app -o Example.Console --agent ClaudeCode

The option accepts ClaudeCode, Codex, Cursor, or Copilot. In Visual Studio, choose the agent in the AI coding agent field when you create the project. The template adds the DotNetBrowser.AgentSkills package and the DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsAgent property to the project, so the skill is installed when you build it, as described above.

Visual Studio creates the project in a subdirectory of the solution by default, so the skill is installed there, not in the solution directory. If you start the agent in the solution directory, set the DotNetBrowserAgentSkillsDirectory property to the skills directory in the solution directory, for example ..\.claude\skills.

A project created this way uses the package, so the NuGet instructions below for updating, version control, and removing apply to it.

See the quick start guides for creating a project from a template.

Updating 

If you installed the skill from NuGet, update the DotNetBrowser.AgentSkills package together with the DotNetBrowser packages and build the project. Each installation replaces the whole dotnetbrowser directory, so do not keep your own files there. If you changed a file in the installed skill by mistake, the build does not notice. Run the install command to restore the skill.

If you installed the skill from ZIP, replace the whole dotnetbrowser folder with the one from the new archive.

Version control 

If you installed the skill from NuGet, add the installed dotnetbrowser directory to .gitignore, because the package installs it again on build. Keep the hidden .dotnetbrowser-agent-skill file in that directory: without it, the package does not replace the directory.

Removing 

To remove a skill installed from NuGet, remove the package reference and the property from the project, then delete the installed dotnetbrowser directory. To remove a skill installed from ZIP, delete the dotnetbrowser folder.