.NET MAUI — Platform APIs Skill

Purpose

This skill provides agents with best practices, patterns, and cross-platform abstractions for using device capabilities in .NET MAUI applications. It covers permissions, sensors, file pickers, geolocation, camera access, notifications, and platform-specific APIs.

The goal is to ensure that all platform API usage is safe, consistent, and aligned with MAUI’s cross-platform architecture.

Core Principles

1. Permission-first design Always request and check permissions before accessing device capabilities.
2. Cross-platform abstractions Use MAUI Essentials APIs whenever possible.
3. Graceful degradation If a capability is unavailable on a platform, handle it cleanly.
4. Separation of concerns Wrap platform API calls in services and interfaces.
5. User transparency Provide clear explanations when requesting permissions.

Supported Platform Capabilities

• Geolocation
• Camera & Media Picker
• File Picker
• Clipboard
• Vibration
• Flashlight
• Connectivity
• Sensors (accelerometer, compass, gyroscope)
• Notifications (local)
• Permissions

Recommended Folder Structure

Services
└─ Platform
   ├─ Implementations
   └─ Interfaces

Agent Usage Guidelines

• When generating code that uses device capabilities:
  • Always check permissions first.
  • Use Permissions.RequestAsync<T>().
  • Use MAUI Essentials APIs (e.g., Geolocation, MediaPicker).
  • Wrap logic in a service (e.g., IGeolocationService).
• When asked to “access the camera,” generate:
  • A service abstraction
  • A platform-safe implementation
  • Permission checks
• When asked to “get the user’s location,” apply:
  • Permission checks
  • Fallback handling
  • Cancellation tokens

Out of Scope

• Authentication (covered in maui-authentication)
• UI layout (covered in maui-ui-best-practices)
• Database storage (covered in maui-data-storage)