The AI-promptable .NET starter — forged for AI extension, finished by you.
A beautiful-out-of-the-box ASP.NET Core 10 + React 19 starter for line-of-business apps. Free and MIT.
▶ Live demo · ⚙ Build your edition · 📖 Documentation · Community vs Pro
NetForge compresses the first 4–8 weeks of a typical SaaS or internal-tool project into a git clone. It's an opinionated, modern alternative to ABP Framework, Clean-Architecture templates, and the generic Visual Studio templates — and it's built to be a joy to extend: an AI assistant can add a feature from a single prompt, and a developer can reason about the whole codebase without spelunking.
This is the free, MIT-licensed Community edition. It's a complete, production-ready single-team starter on its own — auth, RBAC, theming, i18n/RTL, the DataGrid + form layers, and the whole AI-extensible architecture. When your app grows into the product layer most SaaS eventually needs, NetForge Pro adds it so you don't build it twice.
Don't want to build it by hand? Describe your app in plain language and NetForge's AI builds it for you — with a real senior developer backing every build, free with every plan. AI-built or hand-configured, the result is this same standard ASP.NET Core + React/Angular codebase on the database you choose — yours to download and host anywhere, no lock-in. Start at netforge.ebenmonney.com/ai.
dotnet run --project NetForge.Server # SpaProxy auto-starts the React client too
# → https://localhost:3000 · admin@netforge.local / Admin123!$The screenshots below are the full product (the live demo runs Pro) — light and dark, desktop and mobile. The Community vs Pro table shows what's in this free edition.
 Full dark-mode parity — every screen, both themes |
 ⌘K command palette — global search (Pro) |
 Server-driven DataGrid — sort, filter, columns, export |
 Detail view — comments + audit timeline (Pro) |
 Roles & permissions — grouped, wildcard-capable picker |
 Settings — registry-driven, renders itself |
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This is the differentiator. NetForge's architecture is deliberately uniform, so there's exactly one obvious shape to follow — for an AI assistant extending it and for a developer reading the code alike:
- Backend = vertical slices. Every feature is six files under
Features/{Domain}/, auto-registered by reflection. You never editProgram.csto add a feature. - Frontend = file-system routes. The folder tree under
src/pages/is the URL tree. No route config to maintain. - The conventions are written down — for agents and humans — in
CLAUDE.md/AGENTS.md,RECIPES.md, andCONVENTIONS.md.
The payoff: a prompt like "add a Projects feature with CRUD, permissions, and a list page" lands as idiomatic, reviewable code — because there's a canonical _Template/ slice to copy and a documented recipe to follow. Hand it to your assistant or write it by hand; either way: copy the template, follow the recipe, ship the feature.
Prerequisites: .NET SDK 10.0, Node.js 20+, and a trusted dev HTTPS cert (dotnet dev-certs https --trust, first run only).
By default, development uses a self-creating SQLite file — no database to install. You can scaffold for PostgreSQL or SQL Server instead (recommended for production) at creation time with --database postgres|sqlserver (each ships a docker-compose.yml so local dev is still one command), or switch later via the Database:Provider setting + connection string.
dotnet run --project NetForge.ServerOpen https://localhost:3000 and sign in with the seeded dev admin (admin@netforge.local / Admin123!$). First run creates the DB, applies migrations, and seeds an admin.
| Surface | URL |
|---|---|
| App (use this) | https://localhost:3000 |
| API | https://localhost:7000 |
| Interactive API docs (Scalar) | https://localhost:7000/scalar (dev) |
Full setup + a feature-by-feature tour: the documentation.
- Architecture — vertical-slice backend with reflection-based feature discovery · file-system-routed React frontend · RFC 7807 ProblemDetails everywhere · an
IEndpointFilterpipeline (validation / performance / transaction). - Auth & access — ASP.NET Identity cookie auth (register · login · email confirm · password reset · profile) · roles + fine-grained, wildcard-capable permissions.
- UX building blocks —
<DataGrid>+useDataGrid(server sort/filter/search/paging, saved views, mobile cards, bulk actions) · a<Field>/<FormGrid>form layer · standardized designed loading / empty / error states. - App shell — light/dark theming · i18n + RTL (6 languages) · a settings system that renders its own UI.
- Production-readiness — rate limiting · health checks (liveness/readiness) · API versioning · Serilog · seeded admin.
- SQLite · PostgreSQL · SQL Server — pick at scaffold time.
- The
dotnet newtemplate machinery +_Templateslices — the copy-me pattern, ready for your first feature.
Community is a complete starter on its own. Pro adds the product layer most line-of-business apps eventually need — already built, tested, and held to the same quality bar.
| Community · MIT | Pro | |
|---|---|---|
| Vertical-slice architecture · DataGrid · forms · ProblemDetails | ✅ | ✅ |
| Cookie auth · RBAC with wildcard permissions | ✅ | ✅ |
| Theming (light/dark) · i18n + RTL · settings | ✅ | ✅ |
| Rate limiting · health checks · API versioning | ✅ | ✅ |
| SQLite · PostgreSQL · SQL Server | ✅ | ✅ |
| Global ⌘K search | — | ✅ |
| Audit log + per-entity activity timeline | — | ✅ |
| Widget dashboard — drag/resize, saved layouts | — | ✅ |
| Webhooks — HMAC-signed, retried delivery | — | ✅ |
| Real-time notifications (SignalR) | — | ✅ |
| Multi-tenancy — per-tenant RBAC, branding, invitations | — | ✅ |
| 2FA · OAuth (Google/Microsoft/GitHub) · sessions · Bearer mode | — | ✅ |
| File uploads + image processing | — | ✅ |
| CSV / Excel / PDF export + import | — | ✅ |
| Runtime appearance customizer | — | ✅ |
| PWA · onboarding tour · in-app changelog | — | ✅ |
| Entity comments + @mentions | — | ✅ |
| Sales demo domain — a full vertical reference slice | — | ✅ |
| The configurator — toggle every feature at scaffold time | — | ✅ |
Try the full app live → | Build & download your exact edition →
The configurator lets you choose precisely the features you want — turn any Pro subsystem on or off and get a ready-to-run project.
- Backend vertical slices under
Features/{Domain}/— six files each, auto-registered by reflection. Never editProgram.csto add a feature. - Frontend file-system routes under
src/pages/— the path tree is the URL tree._-prefixed = ignored by the router. - Errors = RFC 7807 ProblemDetails, always. Throw a
DomainExceptionsubclass — never a rawException. - Lists =
PagedRequest/PagedResult<T>with operator-suffix query syntax (?price=gte:10&sort=name:asc). - Cross-cutting concerns = the
IEndpointFilterpipeline, not per-handler wiring.
Copy Features/_Template/ (backend) or src/pages/_template/ (frontend) to start anything — the scaffolding is the canonical shape.
A feature isn't done until all six are true: a designed loading state (skeleton, not a spinner) · designed empty state · designed error state (plain language + Retry + traceId) · mobile layout verified · dark-mode parity verified · keyboard navigation verified. Fewer features at higher quality, not the reverse.
Everything lives at docs.netforge.ebenmonney.com — the user guide, copy-pasteable recipes (add a feature / widget / webhook), the conventions cheat-sheet, and the editions breakdown. The same guides ship in this repo under docs/, and the AI-agent guidance is in CLAUDE.md / AGENTS.md.
- Backend: .NET 10 · Minimal APIs · EF Core 10 · ASP.NET Identity · FluentValidation · Serilog · Scalar (API docs) · MailKit
- Frontend: React 19 · Vite 8 · TypeScript 6 · Tailwind v4 · shadcn/ui · React Router 7 (file-system routes) · TanStack Query · Zustand · React Hook Form + Zod
- DB: SQLite (dev default) · PostgreSQL · SQL Server
- Tests: xUnit v3 · Shouldly · NSubstitute ·
WebApplicationFactory
NetForge Community is released under the MIT License — use it freely, including in commercial and closed-source products. NetForge Pro is a separate commercial edition; see Community vs Pro and netforge.ebenmonney.com.