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C# Source Generators Tutorial — Automate Code at Compile Time

Learn C# source generators to automate code generation at compile time. Step-by-step tutorial with examples, best practices, and real-world use cases. What Are C# Source Generators? C# source generators let you inspect your code during compilation and automatically produce new C# files that become part of your project — no manual coding, no runtime reflection, no post-build scripts. Introduced with .NET 5 and Roslyn, they run inside the compiler itself, giving you a compile-time hook to eliminate boilerplate at the source. If you have ever written the same property-changed notification, the same mapping method, or the same serialization logic across dozens of classes, source generators in C# solve that problem permanently. The compiler writes the code for you, every time you build. In this tutorial you will build a working source generator from scratch, understand the API surface, learn the patterns that scale, and avoid the mistakes that waste hours of debugging. Why Us...