Maui App Lifecycle

What it does

When your agent uses it

• : app lifecycle
• Window lifecycle events
• Save state on background
• Deactivated event

Example prompts

• “app lifecycle”
• “window lifecycle events”
• “save state on background”
• “/maui-app-lifecycle”

Workflow steps

5 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

1. 1Identify transient state — draft text, scroll position, form inputs, timer values.
2. 2Save in OnStopped — use Preferences for small values or file serialization for larger state.
3. 3Restore in OnResumed — read back saved values and apply to your view model.
4. 4Also save in OnDestroying on Android — the back button can skip Stopped entirely.
5. 5Keep handlers fast — complete within 1–2 seconds to avoid ANR on Android or watchdog kills on iOS.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 8d670fa. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

• Tool permissions

  Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

  From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

• Runs code

  No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md (its code samples are csharp).

  From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

• Network

  No URLs in SKILL.md.

  From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

• Credentials

  Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

  From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Maui App Lifecycle loads about 2.3k tokens when it runs, and up to ~3.7k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 174 tokens; SKILL.md has 655 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it

~174

When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches

~2.3k

With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them

~3.7k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from dotnet/skills at commit 8d670fa, republished under its MIT licence (© dotnet). 655 words, ~2,299 tokens.

name

maui-app-lifecycle

description

.NET MAUI app lifecycle guidance — the four app states, cross-platform Window lifecycle events (Created, Activated, Deactivated, Stopped, Resumed, Destroying), platform-specific lifecycle mapping, backgrounding and resume behavior, and state-preservation patterns. USE FOR: "app lifecycle", "window lifecycle events", "save state on background", "resume app", "OnStopped", "OnResumed", "backgrounding", "deactivated event", "ConfigureLifecycleEvents", "platform lifecycle hooks". DO NOT USE FOR: navigation events (use maui-shell-navigation), dependency injection setup (use maui-dependency-injection), platform API invocation (use conditional compilation and partial classes).

license

MIT

public partial class App : Application
{
    protected override Window CreateWindow(IActivationState? activationState)
    {
        var window = base.CreateWindow(activationState);

        window.Created += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Created");
        window.Activated += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Activated");
        window.Deactivated += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Deactivated");
        window.Stopped += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Stopped");
        window.Resumed += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Resumed");
        window.Destroying += (s, e) => Debug.WriteLine("Destroying");

        return window;
    }
}

public class AppWindow : Window
{
    public AppWindow(Page page) : base(page) { }

    protected override void OnActivated() { /* refresh UI */ }
    protected override void OnStopped() { /* save state */ }
    protected override void OnResumed() { /* restore state */ }
    protected override void OnDestroying() { /* cleanup */ }
}

protected override Window CreateWindow(IActivationState? activationState)
    => new AppWindow(new AppShell());

protected override void OnStopped()
{
    base.OnStopped();
    Preferences.Set("draft_text", _viewModel.DraftText);
    Preferences.Set("scroll_y", _viewModel.ScrollY);
}

protected override void OnResumed()
{
    base.OnResumed();
    _viewModel.DraftText = Preferences.Get("draft_text", string.Empty);
    _viewModel.ScrollY = Preferences.Get("scroll_y", 0.0);
}

protected override void OnDestroying()
{
    base.OnDestroying();
    // Android back-button can skip Stopped
    Preferences.Set("draft_text", _viewModel.DraftText);
}

builder.ConfigureLifecycleEvents(events =>
{
#if ANDROID
    events.AddAndroid(android => android
        .OnCreate((activity, bundle) => Debug.WriteLine("Android OnCreate"))
        .OnResume(activity => Debug.WriteLine("Android OnResume"))
        .OnPause(activity => Debug.WriteLine("Android OnPause"))
        .OnStop(activity => Debug.WriteLine("Android OnStop"))
        .OnDestroy(activity => Debug.WriteLine("Android OnDestroy")));
#elif IOS || MACCATALYST
    events.AddiOS(ios => ios
        .OnActivated(app => Debug.WriteLine("iOS OnActivated"))
        .OnResignActivation(app => Debug.WriteLine("iOS OnResignActivation"))
        .DidEnterBackground(app => Debug.WriteLine("iOS DidEnterBackground"))
        .WillEnterForeground(app => Debug.WriteLine("iOS WillEnterForeground")));
#elif WINDOWS
    events.AddWindows(windows => windows
        .OnLaunched((app, args) => Debug.WriteLine("Windows OnLaunched"))
        .OnActivated((window, args) => Debug.WriteLine("Windows Activated"))
        .OnClosed((window, args) => Debug.WriteLine("Windows Closed")));
#endif
});

© dotnet, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 1 other file (references) in plugins/dotnet-maui/skills/maui-app-lifecycle of dotnet/skills.

• SKILL.md
• references/lifecycle-api.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 8d670fa

Used in 1 other repository

We found 2 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 1 other GitHub owner. This page covers the copy in dotnet/skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• managedcode/dotnet-skillscatalog/Frameworks/Official-DotNet-MAUI/skills/maui-app-lifecycleexternal-sources/upstreams/dotnet-skills/plugins/dotnet-maui/skills/maui-app-lifecycle