.NET Custom Agents: More efficient workflows with C# Expert and WinForms Expert

GitHub has announced the release of .NET Custom Agents, designed to help developers significantly accelerate their daily workflows. These specialized agents extend the capabilities of GitHub Copilot by acting as intelligent accelerators. They can perform in-depth codebase analysis, schedule tasks, and execute commands autonomously. Two experimental agents are now available to the .NET community: C# Expert and WinForms Expert.

The C# Expert Agent for modern software development

The C# Expert Agent was developed to teach developers best practices for modern software development. It focuses on:

  • Core development: Adherence to modern syntax and performance standards while taking existing project structures into account.
  • Code integrity: Creation of efficient asynchronous patterns (async/await) including correct exception handling.
  • testing: Support for TDD (Test-Driven Development) workflows, integration tests and behavior-driven unit tests.

A key advantage: The agent reduces technical overhead by avoiding the creation of unused interfaces or parameters – a common criticism of standard AI proposals.

WinForms Expert Agent: UI Design and Code Security

The WinForms Expert Agent offers targeted support specifically for working with Windows Forms applications. Protecting visual designer files has often been difficult in AI-powered programming. This agent solves that problem.

Design integrity: The agent protects the designer.cs files from corruption. This ensures that Visual Studio Designer remains fully functional even after AI-generated changes.

UI Patterns: Implementation of MVVM and MVP patterns for scalable user interfaces.

Event management: Handling complex event wiring and status management.

Use in Visual Studio 2026 and VS Code

The integration of .NET Custom Agents into the development process is already possible in various environments:

GitHub Copilot CLI: Soon it will be possible to delegate tasks directly to the C# or WinForms expert via /agent.

Visual Studio 2026 & VS 2022 (v17.14.21): In the Insider versions, suitable agents are automatically added for the respective codebase (behind a feature flag).

Visual Studio Code: Custom agents can be selected directly via the agent dropdown menu in the Insiders builds.

Conclusion

The introduction of specialized .NET Custom Agents marks an important step towards more precise AI support. By separating them into specific areas of expertise such as C# and WinForms, .NET developers gain access to solutions that require less rework and maintain the integrity of complex project files.

.Net custom agents