Target Authoring

What it does

When your agent uses it

• : diagnosing and fixing custom target authoring anti-patterns
• Reviewing MSBuild target definitions for correctness
• Diagnosing broken SDK target chains across files (e.g.
• Directory.Build.targets silently redefining SDK targets)

Example prompts

• “/target-authoring”

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 7c7d590. 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 xml).

  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

Target Authoring loads about 1.7k tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 237 tokens; SKILL.md has 337 words of instructions outside code blocks.

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

~237

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

~1.7k

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 microsoft/testfx at commit 7c7d590, republished under its MIT licence (© microsoft). 337 words, ~1,695 tokens.

name

target-authoring

description

Canonical patterns for writing custom MSBuild targets. USE FOR: diagnosing and fixing custom target authoring anti-patterns, reviewing MSBuild target definitions for correctness, diagnosing broken SDK target chains across files (e.g., Directory.Build.targets silently redefining SDK targets), fixing targets that replace CompileDependsOn instead of extending it with $(CompileDependsOn), fixing query targets that return stale results due to Outputs vs Returns misuse, fixing missing Inputs/Outputs causing unnecessary rebuilds, fixing missing FileWrites registration. Covers DependsOnTargets vs BeforeTargets vs AfterTargets, the Build→CoreBuild three-level pattern, hooking into the build pipeline, the $(XxxDependsOn) chain-extension pattern. DO NOT USE FOR: incremental build tuning (use incremental-build), parallelization (use build-parallelism), general anti-patterns (use msbuild-antipatterns), non-MSBuild build systems.

license

MIT

<PropertyGroup>
  <BuildDependsOn>
    BeforeBuild;
    CoreBuild;
    AfterBuild
  </BuildDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="Build"
    Condition=" '$(_InvalidConfigurationWarning)' != 'true' "
    DependsOnTargets="$(BuildDependsOn)"
    Returns="@(TargetPathWithTargetPlatformMoniker)" />

<!-- Empty extensibility targets — users override these -->
<Target Name="BeforeBuild" />
<Target Name="AfterBuild" />

<Target Name="CoreBuild" DependsOnTargets="$(CoreBuildDependsOn)">
  <OnError ExecuteTargets="_TimeStampAfterCompile;PostBuildEvent"
      Condition="'$(RunPostBuildEvent)' == 'Always'" />
  <OnError ExecuteTargets="_CleanRecordFileWrites" />
</Target>

<!-- GOOD: Append to existing chain -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <CompileDependsOn>$(CompileDependsOn);MyCodeGenTarget</CompileDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>

<!-- BAD: Overwrites the entire chain, dropping SDK targets -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <CompileDependsOn>MyCodeGenTarget</CompileDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>

<Target Name="_CheckForInvalidConfigurationAndPlatform"
    BeforeTargets="$(BuildDependsOn);Build;$(RebuildDependsOn);Rebuild;$(CleanDependsOn);Clean">
</Target>

<!-- Build returns items for consumption by referencing projects -->
<Target Name="Build"
    DependsOnTargets="$(BuildDependsOn)"
    Returns="@(TargetPathWithTargetPlatformMoniker)" />

<!-- GetTargetPath is a lightweight query target -->
<Target Name="GetTargetPath" Returns="@(TargetPathWithTargetPlatformMoniker)" />

<!-- 1. Define the DependsOn chain for extensibility -->
<PropertyGroup>
  <MyFeatureDependsOn>
    _ValidateMyFeatureInputs;
    BeforeMyFeature;
    CoreMyFeature;
    AfterMyFeature
  </MyFeatureDependsOn>
</PropertyGroup>

<!-- 2. Outer target with Returns for inter-project communication -->
<Target Name="MyFeature"
    DependsOnTargets="$(MyFeatureDependsOn)"
    Returns="@(MyFeatureOutput)" />

<!-- 3. Empty extensibility points -->
<Target Name="BeforeMyFeature" />
<Target Name="AfterMyFeature" />

<!-- 4. Core implementation with Inputs/Outputs for incrementality -->
<Target Name="CoreMyFeature"
    Inputs="$(MSBuildAllProjects);@(MyFeatureInput)"
    Outputs="$(IntermediateOutputPath)myfeature.generated.cs">
  <Exec Command="my-tool.exe -o $(IntermediateOutputPath)myfeature.generated.cs" />
  <!-- 5. Register outputs for clean tracking -->
  <ItemGroup>
    <Compile Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)myfeature.generated.cs" />
    <FileWrites Include="$(IntermediateOutputPath)myfeature.generated.cs" />
  </ItemGroup>
</Target>

<!-- 6. Validation target runs first in the dependency chain -->
<Target Name="_ValidateMyFeatureInputs">
  <Error Text="MyFeatureInput items are required."
         Condition="'@(MyFeatureInput)' == ''" />
</Target>

© 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/target-authoring of microsoft/testfx.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 7c7d590

Used in 2 other repositories

We found 3 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 2 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in microsoft/testfx, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

• dotnet/skillsplugins/dotnet-msbuild/skills/target-authoring
• managedcode/dotnet-skillscatalog/Tools/Official-DotNet-MSBuild/skills/target-authoringexternal-sources/upstreams/dotnet-skills/plugins/dotnet-msbuild/skills/target-authoring