Editor's note
I curated a pretty varied mix today, with AI observability, reliability, and data access all getting some attention. The GoPenAI piece on agent observability and the Polly resilience article stood out because they focus on production behavior, not just patterns. I also liked the EF Core test interceptor write-up for its practical way to force failures when you actually need to prove your handling works.
AI observability and .NET resilience
Jasen Fici
February 02, 2026
Enjoying the newsletter? Your feedback helps us grow and reach more developers.
Today's Articles
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Jasen's take on today's picks
Enabling Observability for AI Agents in .NET
A practical look at tracing AI agents so you can see tool calls, invocation flow, and what your system is actually doing.
From Try-Catch Chaos to Structured Resilience: How Polly Transforms .NET Apps
A solid Polly v8 refresher that moves beyond try-catch and into resilient pipelines you can reason about in production.
Force DbContext SaveChanges to throw exception during test
A handy EF Core testing technique for forcing SaveChanges failures so your integration tests can verify real error handling.
Stop Faking Distributed Transactions
A production-minded saga and outbox article that pushes back on pretending distributed transactions are simple.
Wolverine Idioms for MediatR Users
Useful guidance for MediatR users evaluating Wolverine without treating it like a drop-in clone.
Building Intelligent Search with Azure Cosmos DB: Full-Text, Vector, and Hybrid Search
A search article that combines full-text, vector, and hybrid approaches in Cosmos DB for more relevant retrieval.
Code That Breathes: Async/Await and Cooperative Flow in ASP.NET Core
A clear explanation of async/await and cooperative waiting, which is still essential for writing responsive ASP.NET Core code.
Stop Rebuilding API Plumbing: A Clean Architecture .NET 10 Web API Starter
A clean architecture Web API starter aimed at reducing the early-project plumbing that tends to accumulate fast.
C# Random: The Definitive Guide to Reliable Random Numbers in .NET
A reliable randomness guide that revisits a deceptively simple API and where developers can get tripped up.
Turning .NET MAUI Upgrades into a Repeatable, Low‑Risk Process
A MAUI upgrade process piece focused on making app updates repeatable instead of stressful.
Demystifying async/await in C#: The Hidden State Machine
An async/await state machine explainer that should help developers understand what the compiler is really generating.
Mastering .NET 8 Resilience Pipelines: Internals, Custom Strategies, and Production-Grade Patterns
A deep dive into .NET 8 resilience pipelines with custom strategies, ordering, and observability concerns.
Why Every EF Core Developer Needs to Try Entity Framework Extensions
A bulk operations overview for EF Core teams who need speed and fewer round trips on large data changes.
Fix Time Zone Mismatch Issues Between Application and Database
A time zone mismatch guide that tackles one of those cross-layer bugs that keeps surfacing in real systems.