Injection and Runtime Selection

Runtime selection problem

WPF applications may run on .NET Framework or modern .NET. The server must select the correct inspector target framework at runtime.

Current approach

• detect the target runtime family
• detect the target process architecture
• select the correct inspector payload
• inject the native bootstrapper
• host the managed bridge for that runtime
• wait for the named pipe readiness signal

Why not direct inspector injection

The bootstrapper model improves startup diagnostics and makes the connect success contract more trustworthy. It also centralizes runtime-specific hosting logic.

Important rule for operators

Architecture matching is not optional. The injector/bootstrapper path requires a build that matches the target process bitness.

Important rule for contributors

Treat connect as a staged pipeline, not a single operation. Error handling, tests, and docs should preserve the distinction between:

• validation failure
• bootstrap failure
• readiness timeout
• session success