From Prompt to Production: Auto-Generating .NET Web APIs with AKS CodeNavAI

Source: Dev.to

What I Built

AKS CodeNavAI is a Visual Studio extension that helps developers create complete, ready‑to‑run .NET Web API projects in minutes — using a simple natural language prompt.

Instead of manually setting up controllers, services, dependencies, and configurations, developers can describe what they want to build, and AKS CodeNavAI generates a fully structured project automatically. It’s designed to accelerate development for small APIs and microservices while eliminating repetitive boilerplate work.

My Pitch Video

Submission for the DEV’s Worldwide Show and Tell Challenge Presented by Mux.

Demo

• Visual Studio Marketplace: https://marketplace.visualstudio.com/items?itemName=akscodeworks7186.AksCodeNavAITool
• 💻 Works directly inside Visual Studio
• 🛠️ No external setup required — generate and build projects instantly

The Story Behind It

As a backend developer, I often found myself repeating the same setup steps every time I started a new .NET Web API project — creating folders, configuring dependencies, fixing build issues, and ensuring consistency. This repetitive work slowed down productivity and increased the chance of configuration mistakes.

I built AKS CodeNavAI to solve this problem by turning project setup into a simple conversation. The goal was to let developers focus on business logic instead of boilerplate.

Technical Highlights

• Visual Studio extension built for .NET developers
• AI‑powered project generation using OpenAI (GPT‑3.5 Turbo)
• Generates complete project structures including controllers, models, and services
• Automatically installs required dependencies

Smart Build & Error Handling

• Auto‑build after generation
• Compilation error detection and reporting
• Intelligent error correction for faster readiness
• Can also fix build issues in existing generated projects

AKS CodeNavAI is optimized for cost‑efficiency while delivering accurate and usable code for small APIs and microservices.

Use of Mux

Mux is used to host and deliver the pitch video with a clean, reliable playback experience. The embedding workflow was simple and worked seamlessly with DEV’s challenge requirements.

❗ By submitting this project, I confirm that my video adheres to Mux’s terms of service: https://www.mux.com/terms