eval-performance

MSBuild Evaluation Phases

For a comprehensive overview of MSBuild's evaluation and execution model, see Build process overview.

1. Initial properties: environment variables, global properties, reserved properties
2. Imports and property evaluation: process <Import>, evaluate <PropertyGroup> top-to-bottom
3. Item definition evaluation: <ItemDefinitionGroup> metadata defaults
4. Item evaluation: <ItemGroup> with Include, Remove, Update, glob expansion
5. UsingTask evaluation: register custom tasks

Key insight: evaluation happens BEFORE any targets run. Slow evaluation = slow build start even when nothing needs compiling.

Diagnosing Evaluation Performance

Primary: binlog MCP (preferred)

Use the binlog MCP server (Microsoft.AITools.BinlogMcp, exposed under the binlog MCP namespace) to analyze evaluation performance: