---
name: avalonia-zafiro-development
description: "Mandatory skills, conventions, and behavioral rules for Avalonia UI development using the Zafiro toolkit."
risk: unknown
source: community
---
# Avalonia Zafiro Development
This skill defines the mandatory conventions and behavioral rules for developing cross-platform applications with Avalonia UI and the Zafiro toolkit. These rules prioritize maintainability, correctness, and a functional-reactive approach.
## Core Pillars
1. **Functional-Reactive MVVM**: Pure MVVM logic using DynamicData and ReactiveUI.
2. **Safety & Predictability**: Explicit error handling with `Result` types and avoidance of exceptions for flow control.
3. **Cross-Platform Excellence**: Strictly Avalonia-independent ViewModels and composition-over-inheritance.
4. **Zafiro First**: Leverage existing Zafiro abstractions and helpers to avoid redundancy.
## Guides
- [Core Technical Skills & Architecture](core-technical-skills.md): Fundamental skills and architectural principles.
- [Naming & Coding Standards](naming-standards.md): Rules for naming, fields, and error handling.
- [Avalonia, Zafiro & Reactive Rules](avalonia-reactive-rules.md): Specific guidelines for UI, Zafiro integration, and DynamicData pipelines.
- [Zafiro Shortcuts](zafiro-shortcuts.md): Concise mappings for common Rx/Zafiro operations.
- [Common Patterns](patterns.md): Advanced patterns like `RefreshableCollection` and Validation.
## Procedure Before Writing Code
1. **Search First**: Search the codebase for similar implementations or existing Zafiro helpers.
2. **Reusable Extensions**: If a helper is missing, propose a new reusable extension method instead of inlining complex logic.
3. **Reactive Pipelines**: Ensure DynamicData operators are used instead of plain Rx where applicable.
## When to Use
This skill is applicable to execute the workflow or actions described in the overview.