resolve-project-references
GitHub指导开发者正确解读MSBuild中ResolveProjectReferences的性能数据，避免误优化。通过引导使用Task Self-Time定位真实瓶颈，区分等待时间与CPU工作耗时。
Trigger Scenarios
Install
npx skills add dotnet/skills --skill resolve-project-references -g -y
SKILL.md
Frontmatter
{
"name": "resolve-project-references",
"license": "MIT",
"description": "Guide for interpreting ResolveProjectReferences time in MSBuild performance summaries. Activate when ResolveProjectReferences appears as the most expensive target and developers are trying to optimize it directly. Explains that the reported time includes wait time for dependent project builds and is misleading. Guides users to focus on task self-time instead. Do not activate for general build performance -- use build-perf-diagnostics instead."
}
Misleading ResolveProjectReferences Time
Prevent misguided optimization of ResolveProjectReferences by explaining that its reported time is wall-clock wait time, not CPU work.
When to Use
ResolveProjectReferencesappears as the most expensive target in the Target Performance Summary- A developer is trying to optimize
ResolveProjectReferencesdirectly - Build performance analysis shows a single target consuming 50-80% of total build time
When Not to Use
- General build performance optimization (use
build-perf-diagnosticsinstead) - The bottleneck is clearly a different target (e.g.,
Csc,ResolveAssemblyReference) - The user has not yet captured a binlog or performance summary
Inputs
| Input | Required | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Build log or binlog | Yes | A diagnostic build log or binlog containing the Target Performance Summary |
Workflow
Step 1: Confirm the misleading symptom
Verify that ResolveProjectReferences appears as the top target in the Target Performance Summary. This is the misleading metric.
Step 2: Explain why it is misleading
The reported time includes waiting for dependent projects to build while the MSBuild node is yielded (see dotnet/msbuild#3135). During this wait, the node may be doing useful work on other projects. The target itself does very little work.
Step 3: Redirect to task self-time
Use the Task Performance Summary to identify the real bottleneck.
Primary: binlog MCP (preferred)
Use the binlog MCP server expensive_tasks tool to get task self-time rankings directly from the binlog.
Fallback: text-log replay (when MCP is unavailable)
dotnet msbuild build.binlog -noconlog -fl "-flp:v=diag;logfile=full.log;performancesummary"
grep "Task Performance Summary" -A 50 full.log
Focus on self-time of actual tasks:
- Csc: see
build-perf-diagnosticsskill (Section 2: Roslyn Analyzers) - ResolveAssemblyReference: see
build-perf-diagnosticsskill (Section 1: RAR) - Copy: see
build-perf-diagnosticsskill (Section 4: File I/O) - Serialization bottlenecks: see
build-parallelismskill
Validation
- Task Performance Summary was used instead of Target Performance Summary
-
ResolveProjectReferenceswas not set as the optimization target - A concrete task (e.g.,
Csc,Copy,ResolveAssemblyReference) was identified as the true bottleneck
Version History
- ce75c35 Current 2026-07-06 00:32
