To get started with the Windows Community Toolkit, you can follow these steps:

git clone --recurse-submodules https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/Windows.git

The folder will contain a tooling and components folder. The latter contains all the individual Toolkit components.

In an existing component folder, you can run OpenSolution.bat to generate the .sln:

cd *path of your component*

.\OpenSolution.bat

The .sln` will open automatically, and contains the source project (component code), samples project (samples and documentation) and tests project (for all tests).
You can test your component code by adding it to a sample, and use the different startup projects to test it on UWP, WinAppSDK or Uno.

Run the following script to navigate to the cloned folder, install SlnGen and run GenerateAllSolutions.bat.

cd *path of your Toolkit folder*

dotnet tool restore

.\GenerateAllSolution.bat

This will generate and open the CommunityToolkit.AllComponents.sln. In Visual Studio, select the preferred startup project (Uwp (WinUI2), WinAppSDK (WinUI3) or Wasm (Uno).

To create a new component run the following script:

cd *path of your Toolkit folder*

dotnet new --install .\tooling\ProjectTemplate\

cd components

dotnet new ctk-component -n MyExperimentNameHere

This will generate a new component folder that contains src, samples and tests folders.

Errors that might come up when running the .bat files:

Make sure you set the execution policy. (More info: https://lazyadmin.nl/powershell/running-scripts-is-disabled-on-this-system/)

Use Developer Command Prompt for VS2022, or add msbuild.exe to your PATH variables to use it in e.g. PowerShell. (More info: https://stackoverflow.com/a/12608705)