This repo includes several documents that explain both high-level and low-level concepts about the .NET runtime. These are very useful for contributors, to get context that can be very difficult to acquire from just reading code.

.NET Core is a self-contained .NET runtime and framework that implements ECMA 335. It can be (and has been) ported to multiple architectures and platforms. It supports a variety of installation options, having no specific deployment requirements itself.

• Installing the .NET Core SDK
• Official .NET Core Docs

• Project Roadmap
• Developer Guide
• Contributing to .NET Core
• Contributing Workflow
• Performance Guidelines
• Garbage Collector Guidelines
• Public APIs in System.Private.CoreLib
• Project NuGet Dependencies

• CLR Coding Guide
• CLR JIT Coding Conventions
• Cross Platform Performance and Eventing Design
• Adding New Events to the VM

• Building CoreCLR on FreeBSD
• Building CoreCLR on Linux
• Building CoreCLR on OS X
• Building CoreCLR on Windows

• Debugging CoreCLR
• Testing Changes on Windows
• Testing Changes on Linux, OS X, and FreeBSD
• Testing with CoreFX
• Performance Tracing on Windows
• Performance Tracing on Linux
• Creating native images

The Book of the Runtime is a set of chapters that go in depth into various interesting aspects of the design of the .NET Framework.

• Book of the Runtime

For your convenience, here are a few quick links to popular chapters:

• Introduction to the Common Language Runtime
• Garbage Collection Design
• Type System

For additional information, see this list of blog posts that provide a 'deep-dive' into the CoreCLR source code

• .NET Core Glossary
• .NET Filename Encyclopedia

• CoreFX Repo documentation
• Porting to .NET Core
• .NET Standards (Ecma)
• CLR Configuration Knobs
• MSDN Entry for the CLR
• Wikipedia Entry for the CLR