/avalonia-zafiro-development

name: avalonia-zafiro-development
description: "Mandatory skills, conventions, and behavioral rules for Avalonia UI development using the Zafiro toolkit."
risk: safe
source: community
date_added: "2026-02-27"

Avalonia Zafiro Development

This skill defines the mandatory conventions and behavioral rules for developing cross-platform applications with Avalonia UI and the Zafiro toolkit. These rules prioritize maintainability, correctness, and a functional-reactive approach.

Core Pillars

1. **Functional-Reactive MVVM**: Pure MVVM logic using DynamicData and ReactiveUI. 2. **Safety & Predictability**: Explicit error handling with `Result` types and avoidance of exceptions for flow control. 3. **Cross-Platform Excellence**: Strictly Avalonia-independent ViewModels and composition-over-inheritance. 4. **Zafiro First**: Leverage existing Zafiro abstractions and helpers to avoid redundancy.

Guides

• [Core Technical Skills & Architecture](core-technical-skills.md): Fundamental skills and architectural principles.
• [Naming & Coding Standards](naming-standards.md): Rules for naming, fields, and error handling.
• [Avalonia, Zafiro & Reactive Rules](avalonia-reactive-rules.md): Specific guidelines for UI, Zafiro integration, and DynamicData pipelines.
• [Zafiro Shortcuts](zafiro-shortcuts.md): Concise mappings for common Rx/Zafiro operations.
• [Common Patterns](patterns.md): Advanced patterns like `RefreshableCollection` and Validation.

Procedure Before Writing Code

1. **Search First**: Search the codebase for similar implementations or existing Zafiro helpers. 2. **Reusable Extensions**: If a helper is missing, propose a new reusable extension method instead of inlining complex logic. 3. **Reactive Pipelines**: Ensure DynamicData operators are used instead of plain Rx where applicable.

When to Use

This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.

Limitations

• Use this skill only when the task clearly matches the scope described above.
• Do not treat the output as a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review.
• Stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.