.NET AI
Add AI to real applications without locking your codebase to one vendor. Build a provider-agnostic chat gateway on IChatClient, then fuse keyword and vector retrieval with EF Core and pgvector.
Your Practical Guide to .NET
Clear, hands-on tutorials across the modern .NET stack — C#, ASP.NET Core, Entity Framework Core, Blazor, .NET AI, Aspire, distributed systems and architecture. Independent and free, continuously updated for today's developers.
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Welcome to dotnet-guide.com
dotnet-guide.com has been helping developers learn and master .NET programming. The site has evolved alongside the ecosystem — from the early days of .NET Framework through .NET Core to today's modern .NET, cloud-native services, and AI-enabled applications.
Whether you're starting out or deepening expertise in a specific area, you'll find practical,
hands-on tutorials that get straight to the point. Coverage spans the full stack: C# language
features, ASP.NET Core web development, Blazor for interactive UIs, Entity Framework Core for data
access, .NET AI with Microsoft.Extensions.AI, Aspire orchestration, distributed-systems
patterns such as the transactional outbox, and architecture testing that keeps a codebase honest.
Every tutorial is a complete build with runnable code, and most are paired with a shorter companion article covering the common mistakes or trade-offs around the same topic. Content is verified against current framework versions and carries the edition it was last reviewed against, so you can tell at a glance whether a page still reflects the release you're on. A large archive of classic .NET Framework-era material is also kept online for anyone maintaining or migrating legacy applications.
Explore .NET Topics
Nine topic areas, from language fundamentals to AI, orchestration and architecture. All content is practical, verified against current framework versions, and ready to implement.
C# Language
Master C# 12 features like primary constructors, collection expressions, and improved pattern matching. From basics to advanced concepts including async/await, LINQ, and records.
ASP.NET Core
Build high-performance web applications with ASP.NET Core 8. Learn MVC patterns, Razor Pages, authentication, authorization, and middleware configuration.
Entity Framework Core
Master data access with EF Core 8 — migrations, relationships, performance optimisation, owned types, JSON columns, multitenancy, soft delete, and production SaaS patterns.
Blazor
Build interactive web UIs with C# instead of JavaScript. From component architecture and render modes to SSR, Interactive Islands, forms, validation, and state management.
.NET Essentials
Get up to speed with modern .NET — runtime features, configuration and secrets management, background jobs and queues, and observability with OpenTelemetry that prevents deployment problems before they happen.
Cloud-Native & Aspire
Run a whole distributed system from one Aspire AppHost, then ship it: Polly v8 retry and circuit-breaker pipelines, health probes, graceful shutdown, clean container images, and zero-downtime rolling deployments.
Distributed Systems
Once a system spans more than one process, correctness moves into the gaps between services. Fix the dual-write problem with a transactional outbox, a safe relay, and idempotent consumers.
Software Architecture
Documentation does not stop architectural drift — a failing build does. Turn dependency rules, naming conventions and module boundaries into executable tests that run in CI.
Ready to Level Up Your .NET Skills?
Browse the complete tutorial library, dig into the article archive, or start at step one of the learning journey. All content is free, practical, and designed to help you build real applications.