telerik/ai-plugins/telerik-winforms-license-nuget-migration

Telerik WinForms Script Key → NuGet Licensing Migration

Moves a project off the script-key (EvidenceAttribute) licensing model and onto the recommended Telerik.Licensing NuGet package + telerik-license.txt model — cleanly, with no leftover script-key artifact and no half-migrated state.

Scope boundary: this skill only changes how the license is activated. It does not touch the Telerik control assemblies' delivery method — a project can keep direct assembly references to the Telerik controls while still moving its licensing onto the NuGet-based model, because Telerik.Licensing can be added as its own package independent of the control packages. If the customer also wants the control assemblies migrated, that is telerik-winforms-reference-migration's job — invoke it separately.

Inputs

• Per-project detection output from telerik-winforms-license-detection

(must show mechanism: script-key).

• Explicit customer consent to migrate (this skill never runs unprompted —

the calling scenario owns the recommend/consent decision).

Preconditions

1. telerik-winforms-license-detection ran and reports script-key for the

project.

1. The exception does not apply — confirm the project can actually use

NuGet packages before proceeding:

• OpenEdge ABL hosts are always this exception. OpenEdge does not

support NuGet at all — never migrate an openedge-manual-registration project. Report this plainly rather than attempting it.

• The project (or its build environment) can restore NuGet packages at

all more generally. If it fundamentally cannot, do not migrate — report this and leave the script key in place.

• Add-in/plugin hosts are not a blocking exception — they still

adopt the NuGet package, they just also keep the EvidenceAttribute and manual Register() call. Do not treat "hybrid" as "cannot migrate."

1. Customer has consented (recommend, never force — the script-key model is

fully supported).

Step 1: Add the NuGet-Based Mechanism

Delegate to telerik-winforms-license-key-setup's Step 1 (NuGet-based path) for the project: ensure Telerik.Licensing restores, and have the customer place telerik-license.txt at the recommended location. Do not duplicate those steps here.

Step 2: Remove the Script-Key Artifact

Only after Step 1's mechanism is in place (or in the same atomic change set — never leave a window where neither mechanism is active for a project that already had a working script key):

• Delete the TelerikLicense.cs/TelerikLicense.vb file containing the

EvidenceAttribute for this product's script key. If the file also contains script keys for other Telerik products (WPF, Document Processing, Reporting), remove only the WinForms line, not the whole file.

• Remove any manual Telerik.Licensing.TelerikLicensing.Register(...) call

that existed solely to work around the lack of file-based activation — but keep it if telerik-winforms-license-detection flagged the project as an add-in/plugin host (see Preconditions #2); those hosts keep both mechanisms, set up per telerik-winforms-license-plugin-hosts. This step never applies to OpenEdge, which is excluded from migration entirely.

Step 3: .NET Framework Binding Redirect Check

For .NET Framework projects, adding the Telerik.Licensing NuGet package can introduce a Telerik.Licensing.Runtime version that differs from what a previously, manually-referenced copy provided, producing a FileLoadException at runtime. This does not apply to modern .NET projects. If detection recorded a direct Telerik.Licensing.Runtime reference or the build now fails this way:

1. Ensure <AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>true</AutoGenerateBindingRedirects>

is set (or remove an explicit false).

1. Clean and rebuild; confirm the generated <application>.exe.config

contains a binding redirect for Telerik.Licensing.Runtime to the installed version.

1. If binding redirects are managed manually, add the redirect explicitly

with oldVersion/newVersion set to the installed Telerik.Licensing.Runtime version.

This same risk applies to a project setting up NuGet-based licensing for the first time, not only a migration away from a script key — telerik-winforms-license-key-setup's Step 1a runs the identical check in that case. Do not assume this check only matters during a migration.

Step 4: Verify

Hand off to telerik-winforms-license-verification. Do not consider the migration complete until it reports a clean build with no TKL* warnings.

Output

• Mechanism before/after per project
• Files removed and files added
• Whether the binding-redirect fix was needed and applied (.NET Framework

only)

• Verification result (delegated, not duplicated)

Idempotency

Re-running when the project already shows mechanism: nuget-file (or nuget-envvar) with no remaining EvidenceAttribute is a no-op.