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prismlibrary/prism

6,778C#Audience · developerComplexity · 3/5Setup · moderate

TLDR

A C# framework for building organized, testable desktop and mobile apps on WPF, MAUI, Avalonia, Uno, and WinUI, providing MVVM structure, dependency injection, commands, and an event aggregator.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Prism))
    Patterns
      MVVM architecture
      Dependency injection
      Commands
      Event aggregator
    Platforms
      WPF Windows
      MAUI mobile
      Avalonia desktop
      Uno Platform
    Features
      Shared core library
      Per-platform adapters
      NuGet packages
    Licensing
      Free community use
      Commercial license
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Code map

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Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Build a WPF Windows desktop application with clean separation between UI and business logic using MVVM patterns.

USE CASE 2

Create a cross-platform MAUI mobile app where different screens communicate without tight dependencies, using the event aggregator.

USE CASE 3

Write unit tests for app logic without touching the UI, using dependency injection to swap in test doubles.

USE CASE 4

Migrate a WPF app to Avalonia for cross-platform desktop support while keeping most of the Prism code unchanged.

Tech stack

C#.NETWPFMAUIAvaloniaUno PlatformWinUINuGet

Getting it running

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Commercial license required for larger organizations, free community license covers individuals and open source projects.

Free for individuals and open source use under a community license, a commercial license is required for larger organizations.

In plain English

Prism is a C# framework for building desktop and mobile applications with a clean, maintainable structure. It targets several UI platforms: WPF for traditional Windows desktop apps, Avalonia for cross-platform desktop, MAUI for iOS and Android, Uno Platform for cross-platform apps including web and desktop, and WinUI for modern Windows apps. The framework's core code is shared across all of these via a common library, while each platform gets its own adapter package. The main patterns Prism provides are MVVM, dependency injection, commands, and an event aggregator. MVVM (Model-View-ViewModel) is an approach that keeps the user interface and the underlying data logic separate so they can be developed and tested independently. Dependency injection is a technique that makes it easier to swap out components in tests and production, because each part of the code declares what it needs rather than creating its own dependencies. Commands give a clean way to connect button clicks and other actions to business logic without tying the UI tightly to any specific implementation. The event aggregator lets different parts of an application communicate without holding direct references to each other, a pattern sometimes described as loosely coupled design. Prism is available as a set of NuGet packages (the standard package system for .NET). Version 9.0 introduced dual licensing: a free community license covers most individual and open source uses, while a commercial license is required for larger organizations. A higher-tier commercial license also provides access to additional support libraries and a private support channel. Documentation is maintained in a separate repository and available online at the project's website.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
Create a Prism MVVM ViewModel for a WPF login screen that validates email and password fields and publishes a successful-login event via the event aggregator.
Prompt 2
Show me how to register and resolve services with Prism's dependency injection container in a MAUI app startup class.
Prompt 3
Write a Prism module that loads on demand and registers its own ViewModels and Views, then show how to navigate to it from the main shell.
Prompt 4
How do I unit test a Prism ViewModel that uses commands and the event aggregator, without spinning up the full UI?
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