shiny-ble-hosting

Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting Skill

You are an expert in Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting, a .NET library for turning a device into a BLE peripheral. It provides a GATT server, BLE advertising, iBeacon broadcasting, and L2CAP CoC channels through the imperative IBleHostingManager API.

The attribute-based managed characteristic pattern (BleGattCharacteristic base class, [BleGattCharacteristic] attribute, AddBleHostedCharacteristic<T>, AttachRegisteredServices) was removed for AOT compliance. Use the imperative AddService(...) builder pattern below — it is the single supported way to expose a GATT service.

When to Use This Skill

Invoke this skill when the user wants to:

• Set up a BLE GATT server on a device (iOS, macOS, Mac Catalyst, Android, Linux)
• Advertise as a BLE peripheral with custom service UUIDs or a local name
• Broadcast as an iBeacon
• Create GATT services with read, write, and notify characteristics
• Handle read requests from connected centrals
• Handle write requests from connected centrals
• Send notifications or indications to subscribed centrals
• Configure characteristic properties (read, write, notify, indicate, encryption)
• React to central subscribe/unsubscribe events
• Build a MAUI app that acts as a BLE peripheral
• Publish an L2CAP PSM for centrals to open streaming channels against (iOS/macOS, Android API 29+, Linux)

Library Overview

• NuGet: Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting (Android, iOS/macOS, Mac Catalyst, Windows stub), Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting.Linux (Linux via BlueZ)
• Namespaces: Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting
• Platforms: iOS, Mac Catalyst, macOS (CoreBluetooth), Android, Linux (BlueZ). Windows throws NotSupportedException for advertising/GATT-server hosting; only the OpenL2Cap API is exposed and it also throws on Windows.
• Dependencies: Shiny.Core, Shiny.BluetoothLE.Common

The library exposes a single imperative API: inject IBleHostingManager, call AddService(uuid, primary, builder) to register a GATT service inline.

Setup

1. Install NuGet Package

dotnet add package Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting

2. Register in MauiProgram.cs

builder.Services.AddBluetoothLeHosting();

Code Generation Instructions

When generating code for Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting projects, follow these conventions:

1. Requesting Access

Always request access before advertising or adding services:

var access = await hostingManager.RequestAccess();
if (access != AccessState.Available)
{
    // Handle denied/disabled/not supported
    return;
}

2. Imperative GATT Service Setup

Use the builder pattern to add services and characteristics inline:

var service = await hostingManager.AddService("12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc", true, sb =>
{
    sb.AddCharacteristic("12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789ab1", cb =>
    {
        cb.SetRead(request =>
        {
            var data = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Hello");
            return Task.FromResult(GattResult.Success(data));
        });

        cb.SetWrite(request =>
        {
            var received = request.Data;
            if (request.IsReplyNeeded)
                request.Respond(GattState.Success);
            return Task.CompletedTask;
        }, WriteOptions.Write);

        cb.SetNotification(sub =>
        {
            // sub.IsSubscribing tells you if subscribing or unsubscribing
            // sub.Peripheral is the central device
            return Task.CompletedTask;
        }, NotificationOptions.Notify);
    });
});

3. Advertising

// Advertise with local name and service UUIDs
await hostingManager.StartAdvertising(new AdvertisementOptions(
    LocalName: "MyDevice",
    ServiceUuids: "12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc"
));

// Advertise with defaults (no name, no service UUIDs)
await hostingManager.StartAdvertising();

// Stop advertising
hostingManager.StopAdvertising();

4. iBeacon Broadcasting

await hostingManager.AdvertiseBeacon(
    uuid: Guid.Parse("12345678-1234-1234-1234-123456789abc"),
    major: 1,
    minor: 100,
    txpower: -59
);

5. Sending Notifications

// From an IGattCharacteristic reference
var data = System.Text.Encoding.UTF8.GetBytes("Updated value");

// Notify all subscribed centrals
await characteristic.Notify(data);

// Notify specific centrals
await characteristic.Notify(data, specificPeripheral1, specificPeripheral2);

6. Responding to Write Requests

When WriteRequest.IsReplyNeeded is true, you must call Respond:

cb.SetWrite(request =>
{
    try
    {
        // Process data
        if (request.IsReplyNeeded)
            request.Respond(GattState.Success);
    }
    catch
    {
        if (request.IsReplyNeeded)
            request.Respond(GattState.Failure);
    }
    return Task.CompletedTask;
}, WriteOptions.Write);

7. L2CAP Channels

Publish an L2CAP PSM that centrals can connect to for streaming data without going through GATT. OpenL2Cap returns an L2CapInstance representing the listener; the onOpen callback fires for every accepted central connection. Each L2CapChannel is itself an IDisposable — dispose it to close that specific central's channel; dispose the L2CapInstance to stop accepting new connections and release the PSM.

using System.Reactive.Threading.Tasks;
using Shiny.BluetoothLE;
using Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting;

var instance = await hostingManager.OpenL2Cap(
    secure: false,
    onOpen: channel =>
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"Central {channel.Identifier} connected on PSM {channel.Psm}");

        channel.DataReceived.Subscribe(
            async payload =>
            {
                // Echo back
                await channel.Write(payload).ToTask();
            },
            ex => Console.WriteLine($"Channel error: {ex.Message}"),
            () => channel.Dispose()
        );
    }
);

Console.WriteLine($"Listening on PSM {instance.Psm}");

// Later, when shutting down:
instance.Dispose();

The platform-assigned PSM is on instance.Psm — advertise it to centrals out-of-band (typically through a GATT characteristic exposed by your service).

Platform notes:

• iOS / Mac Catalyst / macOS: CBPeripheralManager.PublishL2CapChannel(encryptionRequired). The secure flag maps to encryption-required.
• Android: BluetoothAdapter.ListenUsing[Insecure]L2capChannel. Requires API 29+ — throws InvalidOperationException on older versions.
• Linux: AF_BLUETOOTH / BTPROTO_L2CAP / SOCK_SEQPACKET socket via Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting.Linux. PSM is kernel-assigned from the LE dynamic range (≥ 0x80); secure=true maps to BT_SECURITY_MEDIUM, secure=false to BT_SECURITY_LOW. Independent of GATT-server / LE-advertisement hosting (still WIP on Linux) — centrals must learn the device address out-of-band.
• Windows / Blazor WASM: not supported. OpenL2Cap throws NotSupportedException.

File Transfer

L2CapChannelExtensions.SendFile(...) streams a file over a connected channel with progress metrics (throughput, percent-complete, ETA) matching the Shiny.Net.Http.TransferProgress shape. Useful for pushing large blobs to a connected central:

using Shiny.BluetoothLE;

using var instance = await hostingManager.OpenL2Cap(secure: false, onOpen: async channel =>
{
    await channel.SendFile(
        "/path/to/firmware.bin",
        bufferSize: 4096,
        onProgress: p => Console.WriteLine(
            $"{p.PercentComplete:P0} {p.BytesPerSecond / 1024} KB/s ETA {p.EstimatedTimeRemaining}"
        )
    );
    channel.Dispose();
});

A Stream overload is available for non-file sources; pass totalBytes to enable percent / ETA computation.

8. File Organization

• Group hosting services in a BleHosting/ folder, one class per GATT service
• Or by feature: Features/{Feature}/{Name}HostingService.cs

Namespace Ambiguities

• IPeripheral: Both Shiny.BluetoothLE (client) and Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting define an IPeripheral interface with different members. If both packages are referenced in the same project, do NOT add both namespaces as global usings. Use file-level using directives or FQN (Shiny.BluetoothLE.Hosting.IPeripheral) to disambiguate.

Best Practices

1. Always request access first -- call RequestAccess() and check the result before any hosting operations
2. Compose services in code, not attributes -- the managed BleGattCharacteristic pattern was removed for AOT compliance. Build services with AddService(uuid, primary, sb => ...) lambdas inside a service class registered in DI so they're easy to unit-test
3. Use valid UUIDs -- standard 128-bit UUID format (xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx) or short 16-bit UUIDs for standard Bluetooth SIG services
4. Respond to writes when needed -- always check WriteRequest.IsReplyNeeded and call Respond with the appropriate GattState
5. Return GattResult.Error on failures -- use GattResult.Error(GattState.Failure) in read handlers when an error occurs
6. Stop advertising before cleanup -- call StopAdvertising() and ClearServices() when done
7. Check IsAdvertising -- avoid calling StartAdvertising if already advertising
8. Dispose L2CapInstance and per-central L2CapChannels explicitly -- disposing the instance closes the listener but does not auto-close already-open channels

Reference Files

For detailed API signatures and examples, see:

• reference/api-reference.md - Full API surface, interfaces, enums, records, and usage examples