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Official agent skill

Resolve Project References

by microsoft in microsoft/testfx

Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries.

OfficialMITAuto-check passed

Install Resolve Project References

skills CLI
$ npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill resolve-project-references -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install microsoft/testfx resolve-project-references --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/testfx.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.agents/skills/resolve-project-references .claude/skills/resolve-project-references && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
resolve-project-references
GitHub stars
1k
Used in
3 other repos
Token cost
~743 tokens
SKILL.md length
288 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
44
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries.

  • Works in 3 steps: Confirm the misleading symptom → Explain why it is misleading → Redirect to task self-time
  • SKILL.md covers When to Use, When Not to Use, Inputs and Workflow, plus 1 more section
  • Calls dotnet

What it does

Resolve Project References is an agent skill from microsoft/testfx, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries. Activate when ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive target and developers are trying to optimize it directly. Explains that the reported time includes wait time for dependent project builds and is misleading. Guides users to focus on task self-time instead. Do not activate for general build performance -- use build-perf-diagnostics instead.

Its SKILL.md is about 740 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts.

It works with Model Context Protocol. The repository describes itself as: This repository holds the source code of Microsoft.Testing.Platform (MTP), a lightweight alternative to VSTest, as well as MSTest adapter and framework. The licence is MIT.

Example prompts

  • “/resolve-project-references”

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the step headings in SKILL.md.

  1. Confirm the misleading symptom
  2. Explain why it is misleading
  3. Redirect to task self-time

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 44b9dcc. 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

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • dotnet

    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

Resolve Project References loads about 743 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 118 tokens; SKILL.md has 288 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~118
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~743

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

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

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 microsoft/testfx at commit 44b9dcc, republished under its MIT licence (© microsoft). 288 words, ~743 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/resolve-project-references/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
resolve-project-references
description
Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries. Activate when ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive target and developers are trying to optimize it directly. Explains that the reported time includes wait time for dependent project builds and is misleading. Guides users to focus on task self-time instead. Do not activate for general build performance -- use build-perf-diagnostics instead.
license
MIT

Misleading ResolveProjectReferences Time

Prevent misguided optimization of ResolveProjectReferences by explaining that its reported time is wall-clock wait time, not CPU work.

When to Use

  • ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive target in the Target Performance Summary
  • A developer is trying to optimize ResolveProjectReferences directly
  • Build performance analysis shows a single target consuming 50-80% of total build time

When Not to Use

  • General build performance optimization (use build-perf-diagnostics instead)
  • The bottleneck is clearly a different target (e.g., Csc, ResolveAssemblyReference)
  • The user has not yet captured a binlog or performance summary

Inputs

InputRequiredDescription
Build log or binlogYesA diagnostic build log or binlog containing the Target Performance Summary

Workflow

Step 1: Confirm the misleading symptom

Verify that ResolveProjectReferences appears as the top target in the Target Performance Summary. This is the misleading metric.

Step 2: Explain why it is misleading

The reported time includes waiting for dependent projects to build while the MSBuild node is yielded (see dotnet/msbuild#3135). During this wait, the node may be doing useful work on other projects. The target itself does very little work.

Step 3: Redirect to task self-time

Use the Task Performance Summary to identify the real bottleneck.

Primary: binlog MCP (preferred)

Use the binlog MCP server expensive_tasks tool to get task self-time rankings directly from the binlog.

Fallback: text-log replay (when MCP is unavailable)
bash
dotnet msbuild build.binlog -noconlog -fl "-flp:v=diag;logfile=full.log;performancesummary"
grep "Task Performance Summary" -A 50 full.log

Focus on self-time of actual tasks:

  • Csc: see build-perf-diagnostics skill (Section 2: Roslyn Analyzers)
  • ResolveAssemblyReference: see build-perf-diagnostics skill (Section 1: RAR)
  • Copy: see build-perf-diagnostics skill (Section 4: File I/O)
  • Serialization bottlenecks: see build-parallelism skill

Validation

  • Task Performance Summary was used instead of Target Performance Summary
  • ResolveProjectReferences was not set as the optimization target
  • A concrete task (e.g., Csc, Copy, ResolveAssemblyReference) was identified as the true bottleneck

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

Files

Just SKILL.md in .agents/skills/resolve-project-references of microsoft/testfx.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 44b9dcc

Used in 3 other repositories

We found 4 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 3 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in microsoft/testfx, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

Resolve Project References next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Resolve Project References compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Resolve Project References this skillmicrosoft/testfx1k3 repos~743Automated safety check: PassMIT
MCP Server Builderanthropics/skills180k62 repos~2.3kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
MCP Server BuildershareAI-lab/learn-claude-code78k5 repos~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
MCP Integration for Pluginsanthropics/claude-plugins-official37k11 repos~3.1kAutomated safety check: PassApache-2.0
MCP Developmentcoollabsio/coolify63k1 repos~949Automated safety check: PassMIT
Supabase Development and Debuggingsupabase/agent-skills2.7k3 repos~3.6kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Works with

Questions about Resolve Project References

What does Resolve Project References do?

Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries. Resolve Project References is an agent skill from microsoft/testfx, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries.

How do I install Resolve Project References in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill resolve-project-references -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/resolve-project-references in microsoft/testfx) into .claude/skills/resolve-project-references in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Resolve Project References in Codex?

Run `npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill resolve-project-references -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.agents/skills/resolve-project-references in microsoft/testfx) into .agents/skills/resolve-project-references in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Resolve Project References in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add microsoft/testfx --skill resolve-project-references -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/resolve-project-references, .gemini/skills/resolve-project-references, .github/skills/resolve-project-references and .opencode/skills/resolve-project-references in your project.

What does Resolve Project References need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Resolve Project References needs the command-line tools its instructions call (dotnet).

Does Resolve Project References access the network?

SKILL.md contains no URLs. Any network use would come from the scripts or tools the agent runs. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Resolve Project References safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Resolve Project References use?

Resolve Project References is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Resolve Project References use?

About 743 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Resolve Project References?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Resolve Project References: MCP Server Builder (anthropics/skills, 180k stars), MCP Server Builder (shareAI-lab/learn-claude-code, 78k stars), MCP Integration for Plugins (anthropics/claude-plugins-official, 37k stars) and MCP Development (coollabsio/coolify, 63k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Resolve Project References?

microsoft (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in microsoft/testfx, which has 1,047 GitHub stars. The repository holds 44 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 7, 2026.

Source: microsoft/testfx on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.