Akira

A cross-platform .NET system state snapshot library.

Akira captures a complete, point-in-time snapshot of a machine's hardware and software state and returns it as a single, serializable .NET object. Every property is strongly typed, every DTO is immutable, and the entire pipeline is compatible with Native AOT via System.Text.Json source generation. Use it for fleet inventory, diagnostics dashboards, change detection, compliance auditing, or anywhere you need a structured view of what a machine looks like right now.

Overview

Akira provides 26 snapshot types covering BIOS, CPU, GPU, disks, memory, network adapters, services, processes, and more — totaling over 1,000 strongly-typed properties with full nullable annotations. Platform-specific providers implement a shared ISnapshotProvider<T> interface, and a single MachineSnapshotCollector aggregates everything into one envelope object with machine identification and collection metadata.

Capabilities

Requirements

Linux and macOS provider packages are planned. The core Vaporsoft.Akira package has zero additional dependencies.

Installation

# Core library (DTOs, interfaces, JSON serialization)
dotnet add package Vaporsoft.Akira

# Windows providers (WMI-based)
dotnet add package Vaporsoft.Akira.Windows

Quick Start

using Vaporsoft.Akira;
using Vaporsoft.Akira.Windows;

// Create a WMI executor (the default implementation talks to real WMI)
var wmi = new WmiQueryExecutor();

// Collect a single snapshot
var cpuProvider = new ProcessorSnapshotProvider(wmi);
SnapshotResult<ProcessorSnapshot[]> result = await cpuProvider.GetSnapshotAsync();

if (result.Success)
{
    foreach (var cpu in result.Data!)
        Console.WriteLine($"{cpu.Name} — {cpu.NumberOfCores} cores @ {cpu.MaxClockSpeed} MHz");
}

Serialize to JSON (AOT-safe)

using System.Text.Json;

string json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(
    result,
    AkiraJsonContext.Default.SnapshotResultProcessorSnapshotArray);

Collect a complete MachineSnapshot

var collector = new MachineSnapshotCollector(new WmiQueryExecutor());
MachineSnapshot snapshot = await collector.CollectAsync();

string json = JsonSerializer.Serialize(snapshot, AkiraJsonContext.Default.MachineSnapshot);

CollectAsync runs all 26 providers and populates every metadata field (machine name, OS, runtime, version) automatically.

Build a selective MachineSnapshot

var snapshot = new MachineSnapshot
{
    MachineName    = Environment.MachineName,
    CollectedAtUtc = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow,
    Processors     = await new ProcessorSnapshotProvider(wmi).GetSnapshotAsync(),
    BIOS           = await new BIOSSnapshotProvider(wmi).GetSnapshotAsync(),
    DiskDrives     = await new DiskDriveSnapshotProvider(wmi).GetSnapshotAsync(),
    // ... add as many or as few providers as you need
};

Architecture

akira/
├── src/
│   ├── Akira/                  Core DTOs, interfaces, JSON context  (net10.0)
│   ├── Akira.Windows/          WMI-based providers                  (net10.0-windows)
│   ├── Akira.Linux/            procfs / sysfs providers             (planned)
│   └── Akira.MacOS/            IOKit / sysctl providers             (planned)
├── tests/
│   ├── Akira.Tests/            Core DTO and serialization tests
│   └── Akira.Tests.Windows/    Windows provider tests
└── akira.slnx

Data Flow

_{Source: docs/diagrams/data-flow.mmd}

Each platform package ships providers that implement ISnapshotProvider<T> using native OS APIs. The core Vaporsoft.Akira package contains only the DTOs, the interface, SnapshotResult<T>, and the AOT-safe JSON serialization context — it has zero dependencies.

Provider Pattern

Every provider follows the same shape:

// Singleton (one instance per machine, e.g. BIOS)
public class BIOSSnapshotProvider : WmiSnapshotProvider<BIOSSnapshot> { ... }

// Collection (multiple instances, e.g. disks, adapters)
public class DiskDriveSnapshotProvider : WmiCollectionSnapshotProvider<DiskDriveSnapshot> { ... }

Both base classes accept an IWmiQueryExecutor, making every provider fully unit-testable without touching real WMI.

Snapshot Classes

Every snapshot DTO and the native data source used on each platform.

Windows Providers

All 26 Windows providers use WMI via System.Management. Most query root\CIMV2; thermal zones query root\WMI.

API Reference

ISnapshotProvider<TSnapshot>

public interface ISnapshotProvider<TSnapshot>
{
    Task<SnapshotResult<TSnapshot>> GetSnapshotAsync(
        CancellationToken cancellationToken = default);
}

SnapshotResult<T>

Factory methods:

SnapshotResult<T>.Ok(data, source, durationMs)
SnapshotResult<T>.Fail(source, error, durationMs)
SnapshotResult<T>.Unsupported(source)

MachineSnapshot

A sealed class that aggregates every SnapshotResult<T> into one serializable envelope with machine identification (MachineName, DnsHostName, Domain), OS info (OsDescription, OsVersion), and collection metadata (CollectedAtUtc, AkiraVersion).

MachineSnapshotCollector

A convenience class in Vaporsoft.Akira.Windows that collects all 26 snapshots and metadata in a single CollectAsync() call. Accepts an IWmiQueryExecutor and supports CancellationToken.

AkiraJsonContext

Pre-configured System.Text.Json source-generated context with camelCase naming, indented output, and null-property omission. Includes serialization metadata for all 26 snapshot types and their SnapshotResult<T> wrappers.

JsonSerializer.Serialize(snapshot, AkiraJsonContext.Default.MachineSnapshot);
JsonSerializer.Deserialize(json, AkiraJsonContext.Default.MachineSnapshot);

Development

dotnet restore
dotnet build --configuration Release -warnaserror
dotnet test --configuration Release --logger trx --results-directory TestResults

Deployment

• Trigger: creating a GitHub Release
• Workflow: CI — builds, tests, packs, and publishes on the release event
• Targets: NuGet.org and GitHub Packages

Links

Contributing

Contributions are welcome. If you'd like to add Linux or macOS providers, open an issue first to discuss the approach.

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch
3. Write tests for any new providers
4. Submit a pull request

Copyright © 2026 Corderro Artz / Vaporsoft.