The art of simplicity

GitHub Copilot is a powerful AI coding assistant and I couldn't miss it anymore. But there are times when you need to prevent it from accessing certain files or directories. Whether it's sensitive configuration files, proprietary code, or files that would add unnecessary noise to suggestions, exclusions help you maintain control over what Copilot sees. Why exclude content? You might want to exclude content from Copilot for several reasons: Security and privacy : Keep API keys, passwords, and other secrets away from AI processing Proprietary code : Protect sensitive business logic or algorithms Noise reduction : Exclude generated files, dependencies, or build artifacts that don't help with suggestions Performance : Reduce the context window size for faster suggestions Reasons enough to spend some time configuring your content exclusions. GitHub Copilot content exclusion settings Content exclusion is a Copilot Business or Enterprise feature and can...

I don’t do it on purpose but sometimes it can be so much fun to dive into an exception you’ve never seen before. You always come out with some new acquired wisdom. It all started with the following exception during the execution of our unit tests: System.InvalidOperationException : Operations that change non-concurrent collections must have exclusive access. A concurrent update was performed on this collection and corrupted its state. The collection's state is no longer correct. A look at the stacktrace brought us to the initialization system of our application where multiple modules are configured and initialized: at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.TryInsert(TKey key, TValue value, InsertionBehavior behavior) at System.Collections.Generic.Dictionary`2.set_Item(TKey key, TValue value) at SOFACore.EntityFramework.EntityFrameworkModule.Initialize(IServiceCollection services) in /_/SOFACore/SOFACore.EntityFramework/EntityFrameworkModule.cs:line 30 Inside this mo...

We stopped a long time signing our code of our backend applications however we still do it for the applications that are running on a local machine(desktop applications, console apps,...). This is because we whitelist what can be installed and executed on a local machine. Code signing remains a valuable security practice that validates the authenticity and integrity of your .NET Core applications. When you sign your code, you're essentially providing a digital certificate that proves the software comes from you and hasn't been tampered with since it was signed. Why sign your code? Before diving into the how, let's understand why code signing matters: Trust and Authenticity : Users can verify that your application comes from a legitimate source Integrity Verification : The signature ensures the code hasn't been modified after signing Windows SmartScreen : Signed applications are less likely to trigger security warnings Enterprise Requirements : Man...

This is a follow-up on an earlier post where I demonstrated how to build your own MCP server in C# and expose one or more MCP resources. Today we dive a little bit deeper and look at some more advanced features you can add to your MCP server implementation. Working with complex return types Resources can return various types. Here are some advanced examples: Return values from resource methods can be strings (for simple text), ReadResourceResult (for full control), or other types that the SDK automatically marshals into the appropriate format. Dependency injection Resources can use dependency injection to access services: We changed our implementation to use instance methods (not static). Now we need to register the class in Program.cs: Progress reporting For long-running operations, you can report progress: IProgress parameters accepting ProgressNotificationValue values enable progress reporting from resources to clients, with progress notifications propaga...

NET 10 introduces a new feature for developers: one-shot tool execution. If you've ever needed to quickly run a .NET tool for a CI/CD pipeline, a one-off script, or just to try something out without cluttering your system with globally installed tools, this feature is for you. What is one-shot tool execution? One-shot tool execution allows you to run .NET tools directly without installing them globally or locally on your machine. Instead of the traditional two-step process of installing and then running a tool, you can now execute it in a single command. Some use case where I think you could use this feature : CI/CD pipelines where you want clean, reproducible builds Ephemeral environments like containers or temporary build agents Quick experimentation with tools before committing to installation Scripts and automation that need specific tools without side effects The traditional way vs. one-shot execution Previously, to use a .NET tool, you'd ne...

After the introduction of Plan mode in Visual Studio , it now also found its way into VS Code. Planning mode, or as I like to call it 'Hannibal mode', extends GitHub Copilot's Agent Mode capabilities to handle larger, multi-step coding tasks with a structured approach. Instead of jumping straight into code generation, Planning mode creates a detailed execution plan. If you want more details, have a look at my previous post . Putting plan mode into action VS Code takes a different approach compared to Visual Studio when using plan mode. Instead of a configuration setting that you can activate but have limited control over, planning is available as a separate chat mode/agent: I like this approach better than how Visual Studio does it as you have explicit control when plan mode is activated. Instead of immediately diving into execution, the plan agent creates a plan and asks some follow up questions: You can further edit the plan by clicking on ‘Open in Editor’: ...