ConsoleMVC.Framework 1.1.0

ConsoleMVC

An MVC framework for console applications, inspired by ASP.NET Core MVC.

ConsoleMVC brings the familiar Controller-ViewModel pattern to console apps — with convention-based routing, reflection-based auto-discovery, and Razor-like .cvw view templates powered by a C# source generator.

Quick Start

# Install the template
dotnet new install ConsoleMVC.Template

# Create a new project
dotnet new consolemvc -n MyApp
cd MyApp
dotnet run

How It Works

Program.cs — familiar ASP.NET-style builder:

var builder = MvcApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder.Build();
app.Run();

Controllers — inherit from Controller, return ActionResult:

public class HomeController : Controller
{
    public ActionResult Index()
    {
        var model = new HomeViewModel { Title = "Hello!" };
        return View(model);
    }
}

Views — .cvw files with @model directive, no class boilerplate:

@model MyApp.Models.HomeViewModel

Console.WriteLine(Model.Title);
Console.Write("Press any key...");
Console.ReadKey();

return NavigationResult.To("Home", "Index");

Models — simple DTOs:

public class HomeViewModel
{
    public string Title { get; set; } = "";
}

Features

• Convention-based routing — Controllers and Views are auto-discovered via reflection and namespace conventions
• Razor-like view engine — .cvw files are compiled into ConsoleView<TModel> classes at build time by a source generator
• No boilerplate — Views are plain C# code with an @model directive, no class inheritance required
• Familiar API — View(), RedirectToAction(), ViewData — all the patterns you know from ASP.NET Core MVC
• Navigation — Views return NavigationResult to control app flow (NavigationResult.To(), NavigationResult.Quit())
• Form data posting — Views collect user input via Console.ReadLine() and post it to controller actions using NavigationResult.To("Controller", "Action", formData). The framework automatically binds the data to action method parameters — either as individual simple types (int, string, etc.) or as a complex model class with matching property names

IDE Support

For .cvw file recognition, syntax highlighting, and icon support in JetBrains Rider, install the ConsoleMVC CVWSupport plugin:

• JetBrains Marketplace
• Plugin Source Code

Documentation

For full documentation and source code, visit the GitHub repository.