Compiler Pipeline

This page describes the end-to-end path from a XAML file in a project to generated C# and runtime registration artifacts.

Stage 1: input discovery

The compiler host discovers:

XAML additional files
linked files and target paths
configuration documents
transform rules
global include/theme relationships

This work is done before framework-specific semantics are applied so the host can build a stable view of the project graph.

Stage 2: parsing and feature enrichment

Documents are parsed into a framework-agnostic structure and then enriched with higher-level features such as binding, selector, property-element, include, and markup semantics.

Stage 3: framework binding

The selected framework profile applies framework-specific meaning. For Avalonia that includes:

compiled binding semantics
expression/event binding lowering
control themes and selectors
resource/include handling
emitted object-graph construction patterns

Stage 4: generation and registration

The emitter produces generated C# and the related runtime registration data used by hot reload, hot design, and runtime fallback services.

Stage 5: downstream tooling reuse

The same semantic models are also reused by the language service, which is why editor navigation and diagnostics can stay aligned with compiler behavior.

Key assemblies

XamlToCSharpGenerator.Core
XamlToCSharpGenerator.Compiler
XamlToCSharpGenerator.Avalonia
XamlToCSharpGenerator.Generator