Diem CMF .NET 11: Public Design Proposal and Product Vision
Status: Public design proposal and product vision. This series presents Diem CMF .NET’s intended architecture and capabilities. Proposed features remain subject to implementation and validation; existing components are identified separately.
Model your application, generate its administration, compose its website, and develop each version in its own live workspace.
Diem CMF .NET is a proposed Content Management Framework joining three experiences: a frontend that can be composed in context, an administration application derived from the domain model, and an integrated Lab for development and delivery. Each experience is extensible through packages that contribute types, components and services.
The framework targets .NET 11, C# 15, ASP.NET Core 11/Blazor and EF Core 11, starting with compatible previews during product development. The intention is to incorporate their capabilities early and reach a stable .NET 11 foundation before commercial release. Adoption costs and delivery dates will have to be established by implementation.
Choose a reading path
| Reader | Start here | Then explore |
|---|---|---|
| .NET product team | Product vision | Model a catalogue, generate its admin, add application-specific behavior |
| Web agency | Building the front | Compose client sites, reuse extension packages, review branches with clients |
| Architect | Architecture index | Instance boundaries, shared contracts, sources, releases and self-description |
| Implementer or extension author | Specification index | Required behaviors, contribution contracts and acceptance scenarios |
Product explains the experience. Architecture explains how responsibilities fit together. Specification makes the proposal reviewable through explicit rules and observable scenarios.
Three experiences, one extensible framework
Front. Create pages, choose reusable views, add areas and zones, place widgets and edit in context. Select an appropriate renderer: a Hugo-based static output, a dynamic C#/Blazor application, or another compatible adapter.
Admin. Define entities, relationships and constraints in a versionable model. Generate administration modules, then extend their editors, lists and business actions through declared contracts.
Lab. Bind versions to addresses, manage editable workspaces, compile packages and activate releases. The Lab belongs to the product; exposure, access and security are configurable. It uses Bundles and C# binary wrappers to operate existing infrastructure tools.
Extensions can contribute to all three. A media package might supply a media type, a frontend component, an admin editor and a storage capability. Another package can compose these contributions into a product catalogue or a different application.
The reference application
The running example is Acme Catalogue, a fictional application with Products, Categories and Enquiries. It needs a public catalogue, an editorial admin and a dynamic enquiry submission capability. The same model lets us discuss generated interfaces, static exports, application behavior and branch-specific development without changing examples at every chapter.
The planned first-party instance at www.frenchexdev.net/diem will present Diem itself. Its use of a path prefix is an architectural requirement, not evidence that this instance is currently deployed. See Diem presenting and developing itself.
Publication status and evidence
This series is deliberately public. Its design maturity is separate from its publication visibility.
| Label | Meaning in this series |
|---|---|
| Historical behavior | Established by the original Diem source or dated documentation |
| Platform capability | Described by an external platform's official documentation |
| Related design | Discussed in an existing FrenchExDev article; implementation must be checked separately |
| Proposed capability | Intended Diem .NET behavior, including the contracts in this series |
The words must and required in the specification describe acceptance requirements for the proposed product. They do not assert that those requirements have already been implemented or tested. Illustrative C# contracts are proposals, not a released SDK.
Sources and related work
The historical reference is diem-project/diem at commit 116974e (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), together with its archived 2011 homepage (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). The heritage chapter links the precise schema and editing actions.
Technical platform references include Microsoft's .NET 11 overview (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), EF Core 11 (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre), .NET plugin loading (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre) and GitLab review apps (ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre). Platform information was checked on 8 September 2026; preview features must be rechecked against the selected toolchain.
Existing CMF, CMF architecture, HomeLab, typed Docker and GitLab configuration series provide background. Their assumptions and maturity claims are not automatically inherited here. The component inventory records that boundary explicitly.