Development

Building Helix from source, running its tests, and what CI checks.

Prerequisites

	Windows	macOS
SDK	.NET 10 SDK	.NET 10 SDK
Workload	.NET MAUI (Visual Studio installer, or `dotnet workload install maui`)	`dotnet workload install maui`
IDE / toolchain	Visual Studio 2022	Xcode

The Mac Catalyst head can only be compiled on a Mac.

Build

git clone https://github.com/HilthonTT/Helix.git
cd Helix
dotnet build Helix.slnx

Helix.App and Helix.Infrastructure choose their target framework from the host OS — net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0 on Windows, net10.0-maccatalyst on a Mac — so no -f switch is needed. On a Mac, build the app project on its own, because the solution also holds Windows-only test projects:

dotnet build src/Helix.App/Helix.App.csproj

Run

On Windows, open Helix.slnx in Visual Studio 2022, set Helix.App as the startup project and press F5. The app is run from the IDE rather than with dotnet run because of its Windows packaging configuration.

Test

dotnet test Helix.slnx
dotnet test tests/Application.UnitTests/Application.UnitTests.csproj
dotnet test tests/Infrastructure.UnitTests/Infrastructure.UnitTests.csproj
dotnet test tests/ArchitectureTests/ArchitectureTests.csproj
 
# a single test
dotnet test tests/Application.UnitTests/Application.UnitTests.csproj --filter "FullyQualifiedName~CreateDriveTests"

Suite	Target	Runs on
`Application.UnitTests`	`net10.0`	anywhere
`Infrastructure.UnitTests`	Windows head	Windows
`ArchitectureTests`	Windows head	Windows

Scripts

scripts/ wraps the common commands for Windows PowerShell 5.1 and PowerShell 7. Each has Get-Help documentation and picks the right projects for the host OS.

./scripts/build.ps1 [-Configuration Release] [-Clean]
./scripts/test.ps1 [-Suite Application,Architecture] [-Filter CreateDriveTests] [-NoBuild] [-Trx]
./scripts/clean.ps1
./scripts/publish.ps1 [-Runtime win-x64,win-arm64] [-Zip] [-Tag v2.2.8]
./scripts/migration.ps1 add <Name> | remove | list

Script	Does
`build.ps1`	builds the solution (Windows) or the app project (macOS); `-Clean` runs `clean.ps1` first
`test.ps1`	runs the suites, continuing past a failing one; on a Mac only Application runs
`clean.ps1`	deletes every `bin` and `obj` under `src` and `tests` — the fix for a build that keeps reporting the old version
`publish.ps1`	the Windows publish the release workflow does — see Releasing
`migration.ps1`	EF Core migrations with the right projects and framework

Database migrations

Migrations live in Helix.Infrastructure, but the EF tooling is referenced from Helix.App, so the app is the startup project, and --framework is required because the projects are multi-targeted:

dotnet ef migrations add <Name> --project src/Helix.Infrastructure --startup-project src/Helix.App --framework net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0

./scripts/migration.ps1 add <Name> does the same and restores dotnet-ef from the local tool manifest first.

Conventions

Central Package Management: every NuGet version is in Directory.Packages.props, and project files reference packages without a Version.
.editorconfig defines the style; run dotnet format Helix.slnx.
File-scoped namespaces, primary constructors, sealed by default, nullable enabled and warning-free.
Log through ILogger<T>, never Debug.WriteLine.
Every user-facing string goes in Resources/Languages/AppResources.resx; adding the English string is enough, translations can follow.

Continuous integration

Every push and pull request to main runs .github/workflows/ci.yml:

Job	Runner	Does
Build & Test (Windows)	`windows-latest`	builds `Helix.slnx` in Release and runs all three suites
Build (macOS)	`macos-latest`	compile-verifies the Mac Catalyst head and runs the Application suite

The macOS jobs install the MAUI workload pinned to 10.0.401, because a newer workload set requires an Xcode the runner image does not have yet. Lift the pin once the image catches up.

CodeQL scans the C# sources and the workflows on every push, every pull request and weekly, and Dependabot opens grouped weekly updates for NuGet packages and GitHub Actions.

Pull requests

Run the build and all three suites before opening one; that is exactly what CI runs. Keep each PR to one logical change, add tests for behaviour changes, and include before-and-after screenshots for UI changes. Never commit credentials, real NAS addresses or .helixvault files.