Create .NET Core / VS Code Solution

Create a folder.

$ mkdir SampleDotNet
$ cd SampleDotNet

Create a solution file.

$ dotnet new sln

Create a web api, mvc or other type of project. See the list of available project templates for the dotnet new command.

$ dotnet new webapi -n SampleDotNet.Api

Add the project to the solution.

# Add API to solution
$ dotnet sln add SampleDotNet.Api/SampleDotNet.Api.csproj

(Optional) Add and Reference a Class Library

Create a class library project.

$ dotnet new classlib -n SampleDotNet.Services

Reference the library project from the web api project.

# Add class library to solution
$ dotnet sln add SampleDotNet.Services/SampleDotNet.Services.csproj

# Reference class library from API project
$ dotnet add SampleDotNet.Api/SampleDotNet.Api.csproj reference SampleDotNet.Services/SampleDotNet.Services.csproj

Linting and Coding Standards

Create an .editorconfig file containing styling and coding standards.

# Create a default .editorconfig file
$ dotnet new editorconfig

Enforce the code style on build by adding the following line to your .csproj file.

   <PropertyGroup>
     <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
     <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
     <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
     <Version>1.0.0</Version>
+    <EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>true</EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>
   </PropertyGroup>

Now you'll see all the relevant warnings on build. You can also escalate those warnings to errors so that your build fails if proper coding conventions aren't followed. See ESLint your C# in VS Code with Roslyn Analyzers for more info.

Finally, you can format your code on build to ensure formatting conventions are followed. Add this to your .csproj.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>true</EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>
  </PropertyGroup>

+  <Target Name="Format" BeforeTargets="Build">
+    <Message Importance="High" Text="Formatting code: dotnet format"></Message>
+    <Exec Command="dotnet format" />
+  </Target>
</Project>

(Optional) Tailwind CSS Integration

Setup

Important: Complete the following in your project folder (same folder as .csproj file), not solution folder.

Install tailwind postcss and autoprefixer.

$ pnpm install tailwindcss @tailwindcss/vite postcss

Create a postcss.config.js file.

export default {
  '@tailwindcss/postcss': {}
}

Add Tailwind directive to your primary css file (probably wwwroot/css/site.css).

+ @import "tailwindcss";

Add two npm scripts - one to build tailwind for production and a second to watch for changes and recompile in development.

package.json

{
...

  "scripts": {
     "test": "echo \"Error: no test specified\" && exit 1",
+    "css:build": "pnpm dlx @tailwindcss/cli --minify -i ./wwwroot/css/site.css -o ./wwwroot/css/site.min.css",
+    "css:dev": "pnpm dlx @tailwindcss/cli --minify -i ./wwwroot/css/site.css -o ./wwwroot/css/site.min.css --watch"
   },
  
 ...
}

Update your Views\Shared\_Layout.cshtml to reference the compiled and minified css that Tailwind will create.

 <head>
     <meta charset="utf-8" />
     <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1.0" />
     <title>@ViewData["Title"]</title>
-    <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/css/site.css" asp-append-version="true" />
+    <link rel="stylesheet" href="~/css/site.min.css" asp-append-version="true" />
 </head>

Finally, update your .csproj file to build your CSS.

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk.Web">

  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net8.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <Version>1.0.0</Version>
    <EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>true</EnforceCodeStyleInBuild>
  </PropertyGroup>
  
...

+  <!-- Consider these css-related files when building -->
+  <ItemGroup>
+    <UpToDateCheckBuilt Include="wwwroot/css/site.css" Set="Css" />
+    <UpToDateCheckBuilt Include="postcss.config.js" Set="Css" />
+  </ItemGroup>

+  <!-- Build CSS on project build -->
+  <Target Name="Tailwind" BeforeTargets="Build">
+    <Message Importance="High" Text="Building CSS"></Message>
+    <Exec Command="pnpm run css:build" />
+  </Target>
  
</Project>

Development

When developing, tell Tailwind to watch and build CSS anytime there's a change.

$ pnpm run css:dev

Taken from Install Tailwind CSS using PostCSS.

jpolete/New .NET Core Solution.md