Agent-ready Avalonia inspection
Inspector
Inspect, understand, and reshape a running Avalonia interface from the terminal or an agent.
Overview
A .NET CLI and runtime infrastructure for inspecting and manipulating live Avalonia visual and logical trees through host, process, and deterministic automation workflows.
Inspector makes a running Avalonia interface available as a stable, session-based engineering surface. Its contracts, transport, host runtime, Avalonia adapter, and CLI expose visual and logical trees, property metadata, live edits, structural mutations, diagnostics, and deterministic JSON for both developers and coding agents.
Visual and logical tree inspection
Live properties and structural mutation
Host, process, and deterministic stub modes
Stable JSON for tools and coding agents
Built for
Where it fits.
- Avalonia developers debugging live tree and property state
- Tool authors building inspection or preview workflows
- Coding agents that need deterministic, scriptable UI feedback
Compatibility & status
10.0
Host and adapter
Connection modes
Deterministic JSON
In the work
Real output,
not a mockup.
Architecture
Clear layers.
Replaceable seams.
Contracts
Shared DTOs describe capabilities, sessions, visual and logical trees, properties, mutations, errors, and diagnostics.
Host + transport
An in-process runtime exposes authorized, session-based inspection through a local endpoint.
Avalonia adapter
Tree traversal, property normalization, and mutation services translate runtime controls into portable contracts.
CLI
Human-readable and deterministic JSON commands connect, inspect, edit, validate, and report stable exit codes.
Inside Inspector
One repository.
Multiple serious systems.
Explore the focused capabilities, their package boundaries, architecture, installation, and smallest useful example.
Inspector enumerates both visual and logical Avalonia trees with stable node identities, hierarchy, type, name, classes, bounds, visibility, and schema-aware metadata.
2 modules→02 · Explain live control stateProperties & Value SourcesProperty inspection reports names, owners, types, values, writability, and value sources for a selected Avalonia node, then exposes focused property changes through the same session.
1 module→03 · Edit the running interfaceLive Tree MutationProperty and structural mutations can set values, insert controls, remove nodes, move siblings, reparent branches, or batch several changes, with dry-run validation available before applying edits.
2 modules→04 · Deterministic UI feedback loopsCLI & Agent AutomationThe global .NET tool provides stub, host, and process connection modes, persistent sessions, deterministic JSON, explicit diagnostics, and stable exit codes for terminals, scripts, tests, and coding agents.
2 modules→05 · Choose the right attachment modelHost & Process SessionsHost mode targets an instrumented local runtime; process mode resolves an existing application by PID or name and consumes published live snapshots; stub mode supplies deterministic fixtures for workflow validation.
2 modules→Quick start
From package
to first frame.
Choose the package workflow used by your repository, then start from the smallest working example. Replace VERSION with the current stable or prerelease version shown on NuGet.
dotnet tool install --global Inspector.Cli.Tool<PackageReference Include="Inspector.Cli.Tool" Version="VERSION" /><PackageVersion Include="Inspector.Cli.Tool" Version="VERSION" />inspector connect --mode process --name MyAvaloniaApp --jsoninspector tree get --session-id <session-id> --kind visual --jsoninspector node get-properties --session-id <session-id> --node-id <node-id> --jsonPackage surface
Start focused.
Compose as needed.
Global .NET tool with deterministic text and JSON commands.
↗02Inspector.AvaloniaAdapterVisual and logical tree, property, and mutation adapters for Avalonia.
↗03Inspector.HostIn-process host runtime and mutation services.
↗04Inspector.TransportLocal transport, sessions, and authorization models.
↗05Inspector.ContractsShared tree, property, mutation, schema, and diagnostic contracts.
↗Source, docs, samples, and releases
The repository is the source of truth.
Use the current documentation and samples, inspect changes, report issues, or support continued open-source maintenance.