avaloniaui/live.avalonia

Live.Avalonia brings hot reloading to Avalonia applications, meaning you can see your UI changes instantly as you edit your code, without needing to manually rebuild or restart the app every time. It is an experimental tool designed to save developers the repetitive cycle of clicking "Build & Run" in their IDE or typing a run command in the console. At a high level, the tool works by listening for any changes you make to your source files. When you save a file, it uses a built-in .NET feature called "dotnet watch build" to automatically recompile your project. Once the project is rebuilt, the tool takes your newly updated interface controls and seamlessly embeds them back into the running application window. A notable benefit is that it does not require a specific IDE, you can edit your code in any text editor, even Vim, and the app will refresh itself. This tool is for developers building desktop applications with the Avalonia framework. It is useful for anyone who wants to speed up their design and development workflow. For example, if you are tweaking the layout of a window, adjusting colors, or moving buttons around, you can save your file and immediately see the result on your screen. It also supports both C# and F# projects, including the Avalonia.FuncUI framework, making it flexible for different coding styles. Developers can even retain their app's current state during a refresh by keeping data in their ViewModels. There are a few caveats to keep in mind. The README notes that the project is experimental and was not extensively tested, so it might not work with every project setup, especially those with unusual build configurations. Additionally, by default, the watcher only listens for changes to C# or F# code files, to get live reloading working for XAML layout files as well, you need to manually add a specific line to your project configuration.