.NEXT (dotNext) is a set of powerful libraries designed for high-performance scenarios when your application expects near zero memory allocation and high flexibility. It is aimed to high-load microservices, database engines, actors, and various types of distributed applications. The feature list includes a rich set of efficient tools with low overhead:
- Buffer manipulations
- String building
- Monadic types
- Advanced GC notifications
- Low-level API to work with memory: alignment detection, type-safe unmanaged allocators, Span<T> manipulations
- Base64 streaming encoder/decoder
- Async-friendly SIEVE cache
- Async locks
- Extended LINQ Expression Trees and dynamic code generation tools with async lambdas for metaprogramming
- Raft Consensus Algorithm with extensions such as the failure detection
- Fast general-purpose Write Ahead Log
- TCP multiplexing protocol
- HyParView protocol implementation
All these things are implemented in 100% managed code on top of existing .NET API.
.NEXT provides Agent Skills that teach AI coding agents (Claude Code, Codex, GitHub Copilot, Cursor and others) how to use the libraries efficiently:
dotnext-core- Optional and Result monads, timestamps, type maps, console app lifetime, etc.dotnext-threading- asynchronous programming, async locks, etc.dotnext-concurrency- concurrent data structuresdotnext-memory- allocation-free memory routines, buffer writers, memory pooling
To install:
Claude Code:
/plugin marketplace add dotnet/dotNext
/plugin install dotnext-skills@dotnextCodex:
codex plugin marketplace add dotnet/dotNext
codex plugin add dotnext-skills@dotnextAny agent supporting Agent Skills, via skills CLI:
npx skills add dotnet/dotNextAlternatively, copy the skill folders from ai/plugins/dotnext-skills/skills to the skills directory of your agent, e.g. .claude/skills/ for Claude Code, or .agents/skills/ for Codex and GitHub Copilot.
Release Date: 10-13-2026
A set of skills for AI agents has been released: skills explain how to use .NEXT libraries in a new project or migration scenarios.
- Added conversion from TypedReference to
Variantdata type - Interpolation string handlers do not box enum values anymore
Optional<T>and other monadic types don't box the underlying value onToStringcall- Fixed 303
- Added static extension method for on-stack string interpolation without converting the result to string. Instead, it can be consumed as ReadOnlySpan<char>
- Added CompositeFormat interning:
IsInternedorOfstatic extensions can return parsed template
DotNext.Metaprogramming 6.10.0
- Updated dependencies
- Added
ExecutionStackwith extension properties and methods for execution stack inspection
PersistentChannelnow uses system page size as default buffer size- Improved performance of
CancellationTokenMultiplexerclass
FileBufferingWriterandPoolingBufferedStreamnow use system page size as default buffer size- Introduced
ModernTextReaderandModernTextWriterclasses with all necessary overloads to implement text readers/writer
- Improved performance of
MessagingClientandMessageHandlermessage dispatching
DotNext.AspNetCore.Cluster 6.10.0
- Updated dependencies
DotNext.MaintenanceServices 1.10.0
- Updated dependencies
Changelog for previous versions located here.
The libraries are versioned according to Semantic Versioning 2.0.
| Version | .NET compatibility | Support Level |
|---|---|---|
| 0.x | .NET Standard 2.0 | ❌ |
| 1.x | .NET Standard 2.0 | ❌ |
| 2.x | .NET Standard 2.1 | ❌ |
| 3.x | .NET Standard 2.1, .NET 5 | ❌ |
| 4.x | .NET 6 | ❌ |
| 5.x | .NET 8 | ✅ |
| 6.x | .NET 10 | ✔️ |
❌ - unsupported, ✅ - bug and security fixes only, ✔️ - active development
Philosophy of development process:
- All libraries in .NEXT family are available for various .NET form factors: Mono, WASM, NativeAOT
- Minimal set of dependencies
- Provide high-quality documentation
- Stay cross-platform
- Provide benchmarks
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.microsoft.com.
When you submit a pull request, a CLA-bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., label, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.
This project has adopted the .NET Foundation Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact conduct@dotnetfoundation.org with any additional questions or comments.