Take Command Line Interface (CLI) commands, for example. For years, the industry pushed to move away from CLI towards graphical interfaces, promising a more user-friendly experience. Yet here we are in 2025, witnessing a remarkable return to CLI-based tools, especially in software development.

As a programmer, efficiency is key – particularly when dealing with repetitive tasks. This became evident when my business partner Javier and I decided to create our own application templates for Visual Studio. The process was challenging, mainly because Visual Studio’s template infrastructure isn’t well maintained. Documentation was sparse, and the whole process felt cryptic.

Our first major project was creating a template for Xamarin.Forms (now .NET MAUI), aiming to build a multi-target application template that could work across Android, iOS, and Windows. We relied heavily on James Montemagno’s excellent resources and videos to navigate this complex territory.

The task became significantly easier with the introduction of the new SDK-style projects. Compared to the older MSBuild project types, which were notoriously complex to template, the new format makes creating custom project templates much more straightforward.

In today’s development landscape, most application templates are distributed as NuGet packages, making them easier to share and implement. Interestingly, these packages are primarily designed for CLI use rather than Visual Studio’s graphical interface – a perfect example of technology coming full circle.

Following this trend, DevExpress has developed a new set of application templates that work cross-platform using the CLI. These templates leverage SkiaSharp for UI rendering, enabling true multi-IDE and multi-OS compatibility. While they’re not yet compatible with Apple Silicon, that support is likely coming in future updates.

The templates utilize CLI under the hood to generate new project structures. When you install these templates in Visual Studio Code or Visual Studio, they become available through both the CLI and the graphical interface, offering developers the best of both worlds.