wcf
This skill provides guidance for building, maintaining, and migrating Windows Communication Foundation (WCF) services on .NET Framework. Use it when working directly with WCF service contracts, bindings, or clients; evaluating whether to modernize legacy SOAP services to gRPC or ASP.NET Core; or reviewing transport and security configurations. The skill enforces explicit configuration practices, realistic migration planning by endpoint, and validation against actual client ecosystems rather than assumptions.
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/managedcode/dotnet-skills /tmp/wcf && cp -r /tmp/wcf/catalog/Frameworks/WCF/skills/wcf ~/.claude/skills/wcfSKILL.md
# Windows Communication Foundation ## Trigger On - working on WCF services, bindings, or clients - deciding whether a service should stay WCF or move to modern HTTP APIs - reviewing transport, security, or interoperability settings ## Workflow 1. Use WCF where SOAP, WS-* features, or multi-transport service requirements are real; do not rewrite those needs into HTTP-only guidance by accident. 2. Keep contracts, bindings, behaviors, and hosting configuration explicit because WCF complexity compounds through configuration indirection. 3. For new REST-style services, prefer modern ASP.NET Core APIs instead of extending WCF into a shape it is no longer best suited for. 4. Plan migrations per endpoint and capability: transport, security model, transaction requirements, metadata, and client compatibility. 5. Validate interoperability and deployment assumptions with the actual client ecosystem, not only local service startup. 6. When WCF coexists with ASP.NET, be explicit about which runtime behaviors are shared and which are not. ## Deliver - stable WCF service or client configuration - realistic migration guidance to newer stacks where appropriate - clear contract and binding ownership ## Validate - WCF is used for a reason the modern stack does not replace directly - binding and security behavior are explicit - interop is verified with real consumers ## References - [migration.md](references/migration.md) - WCF to gRPC/REST/CoreWCF migration paths, decision framework, and endpoint-by-endpoint migration strategy - [patterns.md](references/patterns.md) - WCF maintenance patterns for configuration, contracts, hosting, security, diagnostics, and client proxy management
Build, debug, modernize, or review ASP.NET Core applications with correct hosting, middleware, security, configuration, logging, and deployment patterns on current .NET. USE FOR: working on ASP.NET Core apps, services, or middleware; changing auth, routing, configuration, hosting, or deployment behavior; deciding between ASP.NET Core sub-stacks. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Build, upgrade, and operate .NET Aspire 13.3.x application hosts with current CLI, AppHost, ServiceDefaults, integrations, dashboard, testing, and Azure deployment patterns for distributed apps. USE FOR: Aspire.AppHost.Sdk, Aspire.Hosting.*, DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder, WithReference, WaitFor, AddProject, AddRedis, AddPostgres, aspire run, aspire init, aspire. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Build, review, or migrate Azure Functions in .NET with correct execution model, isolated worker setup, bindings, DI, and Durable Functions patterns. USE FOR: working on Azure Functions in .NET; migrating from the in-process model to the isolated worker model; adding Durable Functions, bindings, or host configuration. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Build and review Blazor applications across server, WebAssembly, web app, and hybrid scenarios with correct component design, state flow, rendering, and hosting choices. USE FOR: building interactive web UIs with C# instead of JavaScript; choosing between Server, WebAssembly, or Auto render modes; designing component hierarchies and state. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Maintain or migrate EF6-based applications with realistic guidance on what to keep, what to modernize, and when EF Core is or is not the right next step. USE FOR: EF6 codebases; runtime versus ORM migration decisions; EDMX, code-first, ObjectContext, and legacy data-access review. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Design, tune, or review EF Core data access with proper modeling, migrations, query translation, performance, and lifetime management for modern .NET applications. USE FOR: DbContext, migrations, model configuration, EF queries, tracking, loading, performance, transactions, and EF6 migration decisions. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Build, review, or migrate .NET MAUI applications across Android, iOS, macOS, and Windows with correct cross-platform UI, platform integration, and native packaging assumptions. USE FOR: working on cross-platform mobile or desktop UI in .NET MAUI; integrating device capabilities, navigation, or platform-specific code; migrating Xamarin.Forms or aligning. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.
Use ML.NET to train, evaluate, or integrate machine-learning models into .NET applications with realistic data preparation, inference, and deployment expectations. USE FOR: ML.NET integration; local model training or retraining; inference pipelines, model loading, evaluation, and deployment review. DO NOT USE FOR: unrelated stacks; generic tasks that do not need this specific guidance. INVOKES: inspect the repository context, edit targeted files, and run relevant build, test, lint, or validation commands when changes are made.