SDK and CLI Basics

The .NET SDK is the development kit for building .NET applications. The .NET CLI is the command-line interface that comes with that SDK. If you install the SDK, you get the dotnet command.

That command is one of the most important tools in the C# ecosystem because it gives you a consistent, explicit workflow across machines, editors, and operating systems.

How the CLI is structured

Microsoft describes the CLI in a simple pattern:

• the driver: dotnet
• the command: build, run, new, test, and so on
• optional arguments and options

Examples:

dotnet new console -n CliBasics
dotnet build CliBasics
dotnet run --project CliBasics

This is useful because once you understand the shape of one command, most other commands feel familiar.

The small set of commands beginners should know first

You do not need the entire CLI at once. The most useful beginner commands are:

• dotnet new to create a project
• dotnet build to compile it
• dotnet run to build and run it
• dotnet test to run tests later
• dotnet add package to add dependencies later

Those commands already cover most early learning work.

Why the CLI matters even if you use an IDE

Editors and IDEs often call the same SDK and CLI underneath. If you understand the CLI, editor output becomes less mysterious. It also means you can reproduce the same workflow in CI, on another machine, or in a terminal-only environment.

A practical example

dotnet new console -n CliBasics
dotnet build CliBasics
dotnet run --project CliBasics

This sequence creates a console project, compiles it, and runs it. That is the basic edit-build-run loop in its most visible form.

Practice

Create a new console app with dotnet new console, then run it twice: once with dotnet run from the project folder and once with dotnet run --project <path> from outside the folder.