Develop Cross-Platform Apps with Avalonia & Zafiro

Avalonia Zafiro Development defines mandatory conventions for building cross-platform applications with Avalonia UI and the Zafiro toolkit, organized around four pillars: functional-reactive MVVM built on DynamicData and ReactiveUI, explicit error handling via Result types instead of exceptions for flow control, strictly Avalonia-independent ViewModels using composition over inheritance, and preferring existing Zafiro abstractions and helpers over redundant custom code. The rules themselves live across five linked guide files - core technical skills and architecture, naming and coding standards, Avalonia/Zafiro/reactive-specific rules, a Zafiro Rx shortcuts reference, and common patterns like RefreshableCollection and validation.

Use this skill when writing or reviewing Avalonia and Zafiro application code, following its mandated procedure before writing anything: search the codebase first for a similar existing implementation or Zafiro helper, propose a new reusable extension method rather than inlining complex logic if one is missing, and prefer DynamicData operators over plain Rx wherever applicable. It is not a substitute for environment-specific validation, testing, or expert review, and it explicitly says to stop and ask for clarification if required inputs, permissions, safety boundaries, or success criteria are missing.

Input is a UI or ViewModel implementation task within an Avalonia/Zafiro codebase; output is code that conforms to the four core pillars and defers to the linked guides for naming standards, reactive-pipeline rules, and common patterns, rather than inventing conventions ad hoc.

Developers building cross-platform desktop applications with Avalonia UI and the Zafiro toolkit who need a consistent functional-reactive MVVM approach with explicit error handling and DynamicData-first pipelines, enforced through a documented set of naming, architecture, and pattern guides.