AI in .NET: The Complete Landscape for Developers
Map the 2026 AI in .NET ecosystem: Microsoft.Extensions.AI, Agent Framework, Semantic Kernel, vector data, MCP, ML.NET, ONNX and Foundry, and when to use each.
19 articles about Model Context Protocol: in-depth .NET and AI guides, senior interview questions and AI news on DotNet AI Hub.
Map the 2026 AI in .NET ecosystem: Microsoft.Extensions.AI, Agent Framework, Semantic Kernel, vector data, MCP, ML.NET, ONNX and Foundry, and when to use each.
Build Model Context Protocol servers and clients in C# with the official SDK 2.x: tools, resources, Streamable HTTP, OAuth, security and VS Code setup.
Build AI agents in C# with Microsoft Agent Framework 1.x: ChatClientAgent, sessions, tools, MCP, workflows, human approval, hosting and migration.
Architect-level interview questions on AI agents and MCP: the agent loop, tool design, orchestration, memory, human-in-the-loop and failure modes in .NET.
The MCP 2026-07-28 specification, released July 28, 2026, drops protocol sessions for a stateless core and adds Multi Round-Trip Requests and extensions.
Microsoft Agent Framework reached 1.0 on April 2, 2026, with stable .NET and Python packages for agents and workflows while key integrations stayed in preview.
Aspire 13.2, released March 23, 2026, turned aspire mcp into aspire agent with skills for AI coding agents and previewed TypeScript AppHosts.
OpenAI released GPT-5.4 on March 5, 2026, with native computer use, tool search and a 1M-token API context, priced at $2.50 and $15 per million tokens.
The official Model Context Protocol C# SDK shipped 1.0.0 on February 25, 2026, giving .NET teams stable APIs, a SemVer promise and MCP 2025-11-25 support.
Apple announced Xcode 26.3 on February 3, 2026, with built-in agentic coding through Anthropic's Claude Agent and OpenAI's Codex, plus MCP support.
MCP Apps, launched on January 26, 2026 as the first official MCP extension, lets tools return interactive UIs that render in Claude, ChatGPT, VS Code and goose.
On December 9, 2025, the Linux Foundation formed the Agentic AI Foundation, with Anthropic's MCP, Block's goose and OpenAI's AGENTS.md as founding projects.
Anthropic says a state-sponsored group used Claude Code to automate most of an espionage campaign against 30 targets. What happened and what to do.
Microsoft released .NET 10 and C# 14 on November 11, 2025, as a three-year LTS with a faster runtime, post-quantum crypto and SDK tools for MCP servers.
The MCP project launched the MCP Registry in preview on September 8, 2025, an open catalog and API for public MCP servers, with NuGet among its package types.
Google released Gemini CLI on June 25, 2025, an Apache 2.0 terminal agent with a free tier, MCP support and a 1M-token context window. Here is what it offers.
Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 and Sonnet 4 (May 22, 2025) led coding benchmarks, added tool use during extended thinking and made Claude Code generally available.
Microsoft and Anthropic released an official C# SDK for the Model Context Protocol in April 2025, giving .NET teams a supported way to build MCP servers.
On March 26, 2025, OpenAI said it would support Anthropic's Model Context Protocol across its products, starting with the Agents SDK. What it means for devs.