BuildSmith

Why BuildSmith

Features

• The time in the status bar after every build, with the change against the previous comparable build: ⏱ 1 min 48 s (▲ 4.1 s).
• The Build Timeline window: one bar per project in the order they started, the critical path outlined, up-to-date projects hatched, failed ones in red, and the change against the previous build next to each bar.
• Never up to date: projects that are built on every incremental build although most of the solution was up to date — and what they cost per build.
• History of every build of the solution, kept for a week by default: search, date ranges, a calendar, and bars that show at a glance which build was slow.
• Labels — "before the fix", "new SDK" — in one of five colors or your own; a labeled or kept build is never deleted by age.
• Compare 2 to 10 builds: the trend of the totals and a table of projects × builds with colored changes, sparklines and the critical path — copied as Markdown for a pull request.
• Turn it off without uninstalling: for one solution or everywhere; the history stays.

The build at a glance

Open Build › Build Timeline (also in View › Other Windows and on the SmithWorks toolbar). The window shows the last build — or any build from the history — with a summary at the top and one bar per project below.

The time in the status bar

After every build, the status bar of Visual Studio shows its time and the change against the previous comparable build: ⏱ 1 min 48 s (▲ 4.1 s) — ▲ slower, ▼ faster. It is the only thing BuildSmith shows on its own, and it can be turned off in the settings.

Comparable means the same kind of build (Build or Rebuild), the same configuration, the same platform and the same Git branch. If there is no such build yet, only the time is shown.

The header

The top of the window sums up the shown build:

The bars

Hover a bar for the details: how long the project took, from when to when after the build started, the change against the previous build, and whether it was on the critical path.

The window can stay open while you work: it moves to every new build by itself. The tabs Timeline, Compare and History are at the top.

Never up to date

Some projects are built on every build, even when nothing in them changed. Each time it costs a few seconds, and nobody notices. BuildSmith does: above the timeline of an incremental build, a strip says how many such projects there are and what they cost per build. It folds open into the list of projects; their rows on the timeline get the ⟳ mark.

The rule: a project is pointed out when it was built in every one of the last 3 to 5 incremental builds of the same configuration and branch, while more than half of the solution was up to date. Rebuilds do not count — there everything is built on purpose.

The usual causes:

• a file with Copy to Output Directory: Copy always — Copy if newer is enough;
• a pre-build or post-build step that touches a file the project depends on;
• code generated on every build, even when its source has not changed.

Fixing it saves that time on every build. The strip can be turned off in the settings: Point out projects that are never up to date.

History

The History tab lists the recorded builds of the solution, newest first, grouped by day. Each row shows the time, the kind of build, the configuration and branch, its label, and a bar proportional to the build time — a slow build stands out at once.

Find a build

Type in the search box — every word must be found in the label, the branch, the configuration or the kind of build. Narrow it by date with Today, Yesterday and today, 7 days or All, or pick dates in the calendar (Dates…). Labeled only leaves the builds you labeled.

Open, label, keep, delete

Click a build (or press Enter) to open it on the timeline. Right-click for Open in Timeline, Label…, Keep (never delete) and Delete. The Delete key deletes the build, with Undo for a few seconds. The ⋯ menu deletes builds older than a date, clears the history of this solution or of all solutions.

Tick builds to compare them or to delete several at once. Tick the labeled ones ticks every shown build that has a label — the quickest way to compare "before" and "after".

How long builds are kept

Builds are kept only on this computer, in %LocalAppData%\BuildSmith, one history per solution — for 1 day, 3 days, 1 week (the default), 2 weeks or 1 month. Older builds are deleted when the solution opens or a build ends. Labeled and kept builds stay however old they are.

Labels

🏷 in the header (or Label… in the History menu) gives a build a short text and a color: one of five, or one of your own from a small picker with a palette and recent colors. Recently used labels are offered again with one click, so a series of builds can share one label.

A labeled build is never deleted by age (unless you turn off Keep labeled builds). Keep (never delete) pins a build without a label.

Recording

⏻ in the header chooses whether builds are recorded:

Asleep, BuildSmith truly does nothing: it does not subscribe to build events, writes nothing to the status bar or the disk. The history stays, and the window offers Record builds again.

Compare builds

The Compare tab puts builds side by side: did the fix help, which project got slower after the update, how the build time went over the week.

Pick the builds

Tick 2 to 10 builds in History and press ⇄ Compare N. Without ticks, Compare shows the shown build against the previous comparable one. The builds appear as chips at the top; ✕ takes one out of the comparison.

The trend and the table

A small chart shows the total time of each build. Below it, a table of projects × builds: each cell is colored by the change against the first build — warmer is slower, green is faster — with a sparkline, the change, and ● where the project was on the critical path. Projects without a notable change are folded into … N more without a notable change.

Only the projects you care about

Projects: … filters the table: All projects (N), Changed notably (N), On critical path (N) or Only the ticked ones, with a search box. The filter is remembered per solution, and the trend then sums the time of the filtered projects — the trend of your projects, not of the whole solution.

One project across the builds

Click a project for its bars in every compared build; an outlined bar means it was on the critical path of that build. ‹ All projects goes back.

Copy as Markdown

⧉ Copy puts the table as you see it — the same builds, the same filter — on the clipboard as a Markdown table, ready for a pull request or a chat. In the one-project view it copies that project.

Settings

Tools › Options › SmithWorks › BuildSmith (or ⚙ in the Build Timeline window). Every option has a short description of what it does.

Option	Default
Record builds	On
Not recorded for:	No solution is turned off.
Keep builds for:	1 week
Keep labeled builds	On
Time in the status bar	On
Point out projects that are never up to date	On
Ask for a rating on the Marketplace	On

Clear all history (N solutions, size)… deletes the recorded builds of every solution and asks whether to keep the labeled and kept ones. At the bottom: Reset to defaults, Documentation, Rate on Marketplace and Send feedback.

Settings and the history are stored in %LocalAppData%\BuildSmith.

FAQ

Changelog

1.0.0

• First release: the build time and its change in the status bar, the Build Timeline window with the critical path, projects that are never up to date, the history with search, dates and labels, Compare of up to 10 builds with Markdown copy, recording on and off per solution, the SmithWorks toolbar, a one-time request for a rating.