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DevFlow overview

DevFlow is a comprehensive testing, automation, and debugging toolkit for .NET MAUI applications. It provides an in-app HTTP agent for visual tree inspection and element interaction, a CLI with 50+ commands, a Blazor WebView CDP bridge, and an MCP server for AI agent integration.

Important

DevFlow is experimental and will change between releases.

Architecture

DevFlow consists of three components that work together:

  • Agent: In-app HTTP server that exposes the visual tree, element interactions, screenshots, and profiling. Runs inside the MAUI app process.
  • CLI: Command-line interface (maui devflow) that communicates with the agent. Integrated into the .NET MAUI CLI.
  • Broker: Lightweight background daemon that coordinates port assignment and agent discovery when multiple apps run simultaneously. See Broker architecture.

Get started

Step 1: Install the NuGet packages

Add the DevFlow agent package to your .NET MAUI project. If your app uses Blazor Hybrid, also add the Blazor package:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent" />
<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Blazor" />  <!-- If using Blazor Hybrid -->

Step 2: Register the agent in MauiProgram.cs

Register the DevFlow agent in your app's startup code:

using Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent;

public static MauiApp CreateMauiApp()
{
    var builder = MauiApp.CreateBuilder();
    builder.UseMauiApp<App>();

    #if DEBUG
    builder.AddMauiDevFlowAgent();
    #endif

    return builder.Build();
}

Note

Wrap the AddMauiDevFlowAgent call in #if DEBUG to ensure the agent isn't included in release builds.

Step 3: Install the CLI tool

Install the DevFlow CLI as a global .NET tool:

dotnet tool install -g Microsoft.Maui.Cli --prerelease

Step 4: Run your app and interact

With your app running, use the CLI to inspect and interact with it:

# View the visual tree
maui devflow MAUI tree

# Take a screenshot
maui devflow MAUI screenshot -o screenshot.png

# Tap an element
maui devflow agent interact tap --automationid "MyButton"

# Start MCP server for AI agents
maui devflow mcp

Features

Packages

Package Description
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent In-app agent for .NET MAUI apps. Exposes visual tree, element interactions, screenshots, and profiling via HTTP/JSON API.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent.Core Platform-agnostic core: HTTP server, visual tree walker, CSS selector engine, network capture, profiling.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Agent.Gtk GTK/Linux agent for Maui.Gtk apps.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Blazor Blazor WebView CDP bridge. Enables Chrome DevTools Protocol access for Blazor Hybrid content.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Blazor.Gtk Blazor CDP bridge for WebKitGTK on Linux.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Driver Platform-aware app driver for iOS, Android, Mac Catalyst, Windows, and Linux.
Microsoft.Maui.DevFlow.Logging Buffered rotating JSONL file logger. No MAUI dependency.

Platform support

Platform Agent status Notes
Mac Catalyst ✅ Supported Direct localhost connectivity
iOS Simulator ✅ Supported Shares host network
Linux/GTK ✅ Supported Direct localhost connectivity
Android 🔄 In progress Requires adb reverse for port forwarding
Windows 🔄 In progress —

Platform setup

See also

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