Demeanor for .NET Documentation

Installation

CLI tool (one-time, per machine)

dotnet tool install -g Demeanor.NET

Installs the demeanor command on your PATH. Includes native binaries for Windows, Linux, and Mac. To update later: dotnet tool update -g Demeanor.NET

Build integration (once per project)

dotnet add package Demeanor.NET.Build

Adds MSBuild targets that automatically obfuscate your assembly on Release builds. Acquired via dotnet restore on any machine — CI agents and teammates get it automatically.

Quick Start

dotnet tool install -g Demeanor.NET

dotnet add package Demeanor.NET.Build

dotnet build -c Release

demeanor inspect bin/Release/net10.0/MyProject.dll

Licensing

Per-company licensing. No seat counting, no machine locking, no activation server. License keys are self-validating — they work completely offline.

Professional is a perpetual per-company license ($799 one-time) with 1 year of package updates. After that year, your license continues working with package versions released during your entitlement window. Renew for $299/yr for access to newer releases.

Enterprise is a per-company subscription ($1,499/yr) with all features and all updates. When the subscription expires, the license degrades to Community tier.

Community is free — no license key required. Symbol renaming only, alpha naming mode, single assembly.

Applying Your License Key

Project file:

<DemeanorLicense>YOUR_LICENSE_KEY</DemeanorLicense>

Environment variable (recommended for CI/CD):

DEMEANOR_LICENSE=YOUR_LICENSE_KEY

CLI flag:

demeanor --license YOUR_LICENSE_KEY MyApp.dll

Expiry Behavior

• Professional (update entitlement expired): Upgrading to a package version released after your entitlement date fails the build with an error. Install an earlier package version or renew.
• Enterprise (subscription expired): Degrades to Community tier (renaming only). The build succeeds but without encryption, CFG, or other Professional+ features.
• Invalid or missing key: Community tier. Build succeeds with renaming only.

Verifying Your License

demeanor license YOUR_LICENSE_KEY

Command-Line Interface

The Demeanor CLI is a self-contained native binary — no .NET runtime required.

demeanor [options] <assembly>
demeanor <command> [options]

CLI Reference — Obfuscate

Input / Output

Scope

Naming

Protection Features

All protection features are enabled by default at Professional tier and above. At Community tier, only renaming is active.

Exclusions

Category Exclusions

Reporting & Incremental (Enterprise)

Strong Name Re-signing

Output Control

CLI Reference — inspect

Inspect assembly metadata, IL, and dependencies without obfuscating. When no flags are specified, enters an interactive REPL mode.

demeanor inspect <assembly> [options]

CLI Reference — license

Decode and display license key information.

demeanor license YOUR_LICENSE_KEY

Also reads from the DEMEANOR_LICENSE environment variable if no argument is provided.

MSBuild Property Reference

All properties are optional. Set them in a <PropertyGroup> in your .csproj.

Release-Only Obfuscation

<PropertyGroup Condition="'$(Configuration)' == 'Release'">
  <Obfuscate>true</Obfuscate>
</PropertyGroup>

Exclusions Guide

Some symbols must keep their original names. Demeanor provides multiple exclusion mechanisms.

Automatic Exclusions

Demeanor automatically preserves entry points, runtime-critical methods, and public/protected symbols in library DLLs (unless --include-publics is used).

[Obfuscation] Attribute

[Obfuscation(Exclude = true)]
public class MyApiResponse { ... }

[Obfuscation(Exclude = true, ApplyToMembers = true)]
public class MyDataContract { ... }

Name Exclusions

demeanor --exclude "MyApp.Models.ApiResponse" MyApp.dll

In MSBuild (semicolon-separated):

<ObfuscateExclude>MyApp.Models.ApiResponse;MyApp.Services.PaymentService</ObfuscateExclude>

Regex Exclusions

demeanor --xr ".*ViewModel$" --xr ".*Controller$" MyApp.dll

Common Patterns

• WinForms: Exclude form types — --xr ".*Form$" --xr ".*UserControl$"
• Serialization: Use [Obfuscation(Exclude = true, ApplyToMembers = true)] on serialized types
• Reflection: Exclude types accessed by Type.GetMethod("Name") or similar
• Plugin systems: Exclude types loaded by name from configuration or DI containers

CI/CD Integration

Store your license key as a secret and set the DEMEANOR_LICENSE environment variable.

GitHub Actions

- name: Build and obfuscate
  env:
    DEMEANOR_LICENSE: ${{ secrets.DEMEANOR_LICENSE }}
  run: dotnet build -c Release

Azure Pipelines

- task: DotNetCoreCLI@2
  inputs:
    command: build
    arguments: '-c Release'
  env:
    DEMEANOR_LICENSE: $(DemeanorLicense)

Add DemeanorLicense as a secret variable in your pipeline settings.

Troubleshooting

"Assembly has already been obfuscated by Demeanor"

Your build pipeline is running obfuscation twice. Ensure <Obfuscate> is only set for the final build step.

Reflection breaks at runtime

Code that accesses types or members by name (Type.GetType("MyClass")) needs those names excluded. Use [Obfuscation(Exclude = true)] or --exclude.

Serialization/deserialization fails

Types serialized to JSON, XML, or binary depend on property names. Exclude with [Obfuscation(Exclude = true, ApplyToMembers = true)].

WinForms designer or data binding breaks

WinForms uses reflection extensively. Exclude form types: --xr ".*Form$".

Build fails with update entitlement error

Your license's update entitlement has expired and you've upgraded to a newer package. Either renew or pin to an earlier package version.

Output assembly crashes at runtime

Contact [email protected] with the error details.

Supported Platforms

Target assemblies (what you can obfuscate)

• .NET 10, 9, 8, 7, 6
• .NET Framework 4.x
• C++/CLI mixed-mode assemblies

Host platforms (where Demeanor runs)

• Windows x64
• Linux x64
• macOS x64 (Intel)
• macOS ARM64 (Apple Silicon)