Set Up an Editor
You can create an Avalonia application using any code editor, but using an IDE will give you support for authoring Avalonia XAML files with a previewer and code completion.
JetBrains Rider
The JetBrains Rider IDE has built-in support for Avalonia XAML starting in 2020.3 including first-class support for Avalonia-specific XAML features and custom code inspections.
See the JetBrains Rider 2020.3 release announcement for more information.
Rider does not yet provide a visual designer, but this is in development. See the GitHub project for more information and instructions on how to install.
Visual Studio
If you're developing Avalonia with Visual Studio you should install the Avalonia for Visual Studio extension.
The extension provides intellisense support for Avalonia XAML together with a previewer.
To install the Avalonia for Visual Studio extension:
- In Visual Studio click Manage Extensions on the Extensions menu
- In the Search box, type "Avalonia"
- Click Download and follow the instructions (you will need to close Visual Studio to complete the installation)
 (1) (1) (1)-dda78e72d9e5ea4676a7f2c6d9a3b373.png)
Alternatively you can download the extension here.
If you are using VS2019 or VS2017 you will need to download the extension for older versions here.