At Microsoft Build, Microsoft unveiled updates across the .NET ecosystem, including AI innovations, new features for cloud-native development, general availability of .NET Aspire, and more capabilities in the upcoming .NET 9.

Microsoft and OpenAI’s ongoing partnership has resulted in the creation of an official OpenAI .NET library, which will be available in a few weeks. The library provides parity with .NET and other programming languages, provides a unified experience across OpenAI and Azure OpenAI, and gives access to OpenAI features and models, including GPT-4o and Assistants v2.

Microsoft is also working on a partnership with Weavite to provide .NET vector database options. Additionally, several of its internal teams (Semantic Kernel, Azure SQL, and Azure AI Search) have been working behind-the-scenes to build a seamless developer experience for working with AI. 

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The company also added new quick-start samples that give developers ideas for working with LLM frameworks, such as Microsoft’s own Semantic Kernel.

Microsoft is also working on several new features across .NET Aspire, Semantic Kernel, and Azure that will help developers monitor their LLM apps, now in preview. For instance, .NET Aspire can be used to collect metrics and traces from Semantic Kernel. 

“Large language model (LLM) applications require reliable, performant, and high-quality outcomes. Developers need to measure and track the results and behaviors of their LLM applications in both development and production environments and identify and resolve any issues,” the .NET team wrote in a blog post. 

On a related note, .NET Aspire, which brings together tools, templates, and NuGet packages to enable the development of distributed apps, is now generally available.

“Whether you’re building a new application, adding cloud-native capabilities to an existing one, or are already deploying .NET apps to production in the cloud today, .NET Aspire can help you get there faster,” the .NET team wrote. 

The company also invested further in cloud-native development. New improvements there include smaller .NET container images, faster app startup times, and new features and libraries in ASP.NET Core for streamlining cloud-native scenarios.

And finally, Microsoft revealed the fourth preview of .NET 9, which is expected later this year. New features include support for generic parameters in “UnsafeProcessorAttribute,” a new server garbage collector mode, feature switches with trimming support, and more. 

A full list of Microsoft’s announcements around .NET at Microsoft Build can be found in Microsoft’s official blog post.