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.NET

.NET binding

Status​

Planned. Development will begin after the Python binding stabilizes.

Timeline​

The .NET binding will target .NET 8+ and is expected to follow the JVM binding in priority.

Architecture​

The .NET binding will use the C FFI layer over the core crate, accessed via P/Invoke or the NativeAOT interop model.

C# / F# application code
        |
        v
Aster.Net library             Idiomatic .NET API: attributes,
                              Task/IAsyncEnumerable async model
        |
        | P/Invoke or NativeAOT interop
        v
libaster.so / .dylib / .dll   C FFI shared library built from
                              the ffi/ crate
        |
        v
core crate (Rust)             Same backend as Python binding
        |
        v
iroh crates

Key design decisions​

  • Attributes will replace Python's decorators: [AsterService], [Rpc], [WireType("ns/Type")].
  • Records (C# 9+) are the natural equivalent of Python dataclasses for wire types.
  • Apache Fory .NET (or a compatible Fory implementation) will handle XLANG serialization for wire compatibility.
  • Async model will use Task<T> for unary calls and IAsyncEnumerable<T> for streaming patterns.
  • P/Invoke provides the simplest FFI path. NativeAOT interop may be used for higher performance in AOT-compiled scenarios.

Requirements​

  • .NET 8+ runtime or SDK.
  • The libaster native library for the target platform.

Further reading​