Solutions, projects, references and naming conventions — .NET Project Architectures & Folder Structures — Layered, Clean, Onion, Vertical Slice

1. Solutions, projects, references and naming conventions

Basic★ Must knowLesson 1 of 8

bash

dotnet new sln -n Shop
dotnet new classlib -n Shop.Domain -o src/Shop.Domain
dotnet new classlib -n Shop.Application -o src/Shop.Application
dotnet new classlib -n Shop.Infrastructure -o src/Shop.Infrastructure
dotnet new webapi  -n Shop.Api -o src/Shop.Api
dotnet new xunit   -n Shop.UnitTests -o tests/Shop.UnitTests
dotnet sln add src/**/*.csproj tests/**/*.csproj
dotnet add src/Shop.Application reference src/Shop.Domain
dotnet add src/Shop.Infrastructure reference src/Shop.Application
dotnet add src/Shop.Api reference src/Shop.Application src/Shop.Infrastructure

Repository layout (common convention):

text

Shop/
├── src/                       production projects
├── tests/                     test projects (mirror src names + .UnitTests / .IntegrationTests)
├── docs/                      architecture decision records (ADRs), diagrams
├── build/ or eng/             build scripts, pipeline templates
├── deploy/                    Dockerfiles, Bicep/Terraform, Helm charts
├── .github/ or .azuredevops/  CI/CD pipelines
├── Directory.Build.props      shared MSBuild settings for all projects
├── Directory.Packages.props   central NuGet package versions
├── global.json                pinned .NET SDK version
├── .editorconfig              code style rules
└── Shop.sln (or Shop.slnx)

Naming: Company.Product.Layer (Divakar.Shop.Domain), namespaces match folders, one public type per file, plural folder names for collections of things (Controllers, Entities), test classes named <ClassUnderTest>Tests.

xml

<!-- Directory.Build.props: applies to every project below this folder -->
<Project>
  <PropertyGroup>
    <TargetFramework>net10.0</TargetFramework>
    <Nullable>enable</Nullable>
    <ImplicitUsings>enable</ImplicitUsings>
    <TreatWarningsAsErrors>true</TreatWarningsAsErrors>
  </PropertyGroup>
</Project>
<!-- Directory.Packages.props: <ManagePackageVersionsCentrally>true</ManagePackageVersionsCentrally> + <PackageVersion Include="Dapper" Version="2.1.66" /> -->