AppKit

The shared foundation for KofTwentyTwo Windows apps. Everything a desktop app needs that has nothing to do with what the app actually does: identity, per-user data paths, crash-safe logging, settings, secret storage, a branded splash and About screen, a live log viewer, a crash safety net, theming, and Velopack self-update with stable/dev channels. Extracted from gclo, where every piece shipped in a 1.0 release first.

Packages

Package	Target	What it gives you
KofTwentyTwo.AppKit	net10.0	AppInfo identity, AppPaths, BuildVersion, FileActivityLog + LogTail, SettingsStore<T> + ShellSettings, CredentialManagerVault, IUserPrompter
KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.Updates	net10.0	VelopackStartup, VelopackUpdateService (GitHub Releases, stable/dev channel), UpdateCoordinator (the "Check for updates" flow)
KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.WinUI	net10.0-windows10.0.19041.0	SplashOverlay, AboutDialog, LogWindow, DialogGuard, ContentDialogPrompter, WinUIShell (crash net, theme), DPI-aware window helpers
KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.Wpf	net10.0-windows	SplashOverlay, AboutWindow, LogWindow, MessageBoxPrompter, WpfShell (crash net, Fluent theme)

The two framework-free packages are held to 100% line coverage in CI. The UI packages are built in code rather than XAML, so they work identically in packaged (MSIX) and unpackaged (Velopack) apps, and are exercised end-to-end by FlaUI tests that drive the sample apps.

Using it

New apps should start from the app template rather than wiring this by hand; it references these packages and has everything below already in place. To add AppKit to an existing WinUI app:

// One identity, declared once.
static class MyApp
{
    public static AppInfo Info { get; } = new()
    {
        Id = "myapp",                                    // data folder, log prefix, credential prefix
        DisplayName = "My App",
        Tagline = "Does one thing well",
        RepositoryUrl = new Uri("https://github.com/KofTwentyTwo/myapp"), // also the update feed
        Author = "James Maes",
        Copyright = "Copyright (c) 2026 James Maes",
    };
    public static AppPaths Paths { get; } = new(Info);
}

// Program.Main (with DISABLE_XAML_GENERATED_MAIN): Velopack goes first.
VelopackStartup.Run();

// App constructor
WinUIShell.InstallCrashNet(this, () => Log);
WinUIShell.ApplyTheme(this, settings.ThemeKind);

// Main window
SplashOverlay.ShowOver(RootGrid, MyApp.Info, settings);
var updates = new UpdateCoordinator(
    new VelopackUpdateService(MyApp.Info.RepositoryUrl!),
    new ContentDialogPrompter(() => Content.XamlRoot),
    MyApp.Info.DisplayName, Log);
// Help menu
await updates.CheckInteractivelyAsync();
await AboutDialog.ShowAsync(MyApp.Info, Content.XamlRoot);
LogWindow.ShowSingle(Log, MyApp.Info);

Apps reference Microsoft.WindowsAppSDK themselves (the WinUI package does not carry its build targets), and copy their brand assets (Assets/Brand/app-icon.svg, app.ico) to the output directory. See samples/ for complete WinUI and WPF apps.

Repository layout

src/        the four packages
tests/      unit tests (100% gate) and FlaUI end-to-end tests of the samples
samples/    minimal WinUI and WPF apps wired to every service
tools/      BrandTool: generates app-icon.svg and a multi-size app.ico from one definition
build/      scripts CI shares with every app repo (coverage gate)

Building

dotnet build AppKit.slnx -p:Platform=x64 -warnaserror          # zero warnings, always
dotnet test tests/KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.Tests --settings coverage.runsettings --collect:"XPlat Code Coverage" --results-directory TestResults
./build/Assert-Coverage.ps1 -ResultsDirectory TestResults -Packages KofTwentyTwo.AppKit,KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.Updates
dotnet test tests/KofTwentyTwo.AppKit.UiTests                   # drives the samples; needs a desktop
dotnet format AppKit.slnx --verify-no-changes --severity error

See CONTRIBUTING.md for the branch model and PR expectations, and docs/RELEASING.md for how packages are published.

License

MIT © 2026 James Maes