Microsoft launches .NET 11 with AI agents and faster builds

Microsoft has officially released .NET 11, the latest version of its popular development framework. This Standard Term Support release introduces C# 15 with union types and closed hierarchies, improved ASP.NET Core features including OpenAPI 3.2 support, and significant performance optimizations across the runtime and SDK tooling. The update also brings .NET MAUI to CoreCLR and adds built-in Zstandard compression.

For developers, .NET 11 promises faster build times with a warm MSBuild server, richer application state handling through compiler-checked patterns, and new tools for building AI-powered agentic applications using frameworks like Microsoft.Extensions.AI and the Microsoft Agent Framework. While .NET 10 remains the Long Term Support option, this release shows Microsoft's continued investment in making .NET a competitive platform for modern web, cross-platform, and AI-driven development.