Skip to content

Document multi-repo ownership boundaries #55432

New issue

Have a question about this project? Sign up for a free GitHub account to open an issue and contact its maintainers and the community.

Sign up for GitHub

By clicking “Sign up for GitHub”, you agree to our terms of service and privacy statement. We’ll occasionally send you account related emails.

Already on GitHub? Sign in to your account

Merged
mthalman merged 6 commits into from
Jul 23, 2026
Merged

Document multi-repo ownership boundaries #55432

Changes from all commits
Commits
Show all changes
6 commits
Select commit Hold shift + click to select a range
a1b3569
Document multi-repo ownership boundaries
mthalman Jul 14, 2026
a2d2623
Merge branch 'main' of https://github.com/dotnet/sdk into mthalman-do…
mthalman Jul 16, 2026
3f840ec
Refine multi-repo ownership guidance
mthalman Jul 16, 2026
1d6c94b
Merge origin/main into mthalman-document-vmr-context
mthalman Jul 23, 2026
ad7d358
Trim multi-repo ownership guidance
mthalman Jul 23, 2026
07e0aaf
Document FSharp ownership separately
mthalman Jul 23, 2026
File filter

Filter by extension

Filter by extension
Conversations
Failed to load comments.
Loading
Jump to
Jump to file
Failed to load files.
Loading
Diff view
Diff view
29 changes: 20 additions & 9 deletions .github/copilot-instructions.md
View file
Open in desktop
Original file line number Diff line number Diff line change
Expand Up @@ -45,15 +45,26 @@ root-cause analyses, and AI-facing documentation:
[layout targets](../src/Layout/redist/targets/Directory.Build.targets); in-box project
and item template sources live in [`template_feed`](../template_feed/).

Do not assume a product change belongs in this repo. The
[runtime](https://github.com/dotnet/runtime),
[C# and Visual Basic compilers](https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn),
[F# compiler](https://github.com/dotnet/fsharp),
[MSBuild](https://github.com/dotnet/msbuild), [NuGet](https://github.com/NuGet/NuGet.Client), and
[Visual Studio project system](https://github.com/dotnet/project-system) are owned in
their linked repositories. The
[dotnet/dotnet VMR](https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet/blob/main/README.md) brings component
source together to build the full .NET SDK.
### Repository boundaries and the VMR

An SDK command or build can expose behavior implemented by another .NET repository. Find
the component that defines the behavior before making a change; do not add an SDK
workaround merely because the symptom appears through `dotnet`.

| Repository | Ownership boundary |
| --- | --- |
| [`dotnet/runtime`](https://github.com/dotnet/runtime) | CLR and Mono, the base class libraries, the native `dotnet` host/muxer and apphost, runtime and reference packs, and runtime-owned deployment tooling such as NativeAOT and ILLink. SDK publish targets integrate with these artifacts but do not own their implementation. |
| [`dotnet/roslyn`](https://github.com/dotnet/roslyn) | The C# and Visual Basic compilers, compiler server, compiler APIs, and C#/VB compiler behavior such as language diagnostics and code generation. The SDK supplies inputs and ships Roslyn artifacts; SDK-generated defaults and command wiring remain SDK-owned. |
| [`dotnet/fsharp`](https://github.com/dotnet/fsharp) | The F# compiler and F#-specific tooling. |
| [`dotnet/msbuild`](https://github.com/dotnet/msbuild) | The MSBuild engine, evaluation and execution semantics, logging, and core tasks and targets. SDK-specific `Microsoft.NET.*` tasks and targets remain in this repo. |
| [`NuGet/NuGet.Client`](https://github.com/NuGet/NuGet.Client) | NuGet restore, package resolution, protocols, and related MSBuild tasks. SDK CLI wrappers and SDK-specific integration remain in this repo. |
| [`dotnet/project-system`](https://github.com/dotnet/project-system) | Visual Studio-specific project-system behavior. |
| [`dotnet/dotnet`](https://github.com/dotnet/dotnet) | The Virtual Monolithic Repository (VMR): a synchronized mirror of product repositories plus the infrastructure for building and servicing the integrated .NET product. Product source is mirrored under `src/<repo>`; normal component development still belongs in the owning product repository. |

Do not infer ownership from a diagnostic ID or generated code alone. C# and Visual Basic
compiler diagnostics and compiler-emitted code belong to Roslyn, but analyzers and source
generators belong to the repository that implements them, such as `dotnet/runtime` for
runtime-library generators or `dotnet/sdk` for SDK analyzers.

### Architecture and major components

Expand Down
Loading