resolve-project-references

ResolveProjectReferences time is mostly wall-clock wait time while the MSBuild node is yielded waiting for dependent projects to build, not actual CPU work. The target itself does very little work, so the reported number is misleading.

Use the Task Performance Summary instead of the Target Performance Summary to see task self-time. The binlog MCP expensive_tasks tool gives rankings directly from a binlog, or replay the binlog to a diagnostic text log and grep for the Task Performance Summary section.

No. Optimizing ResolveProjectReferences directly is misguided because its reported time includes waiting for dependent project builds. Identify the true bottleneck task such as Csc, ResolveAssemblyReference, or Copy and optimize that instead.

You need a diagnostic build log or binlog containing the Target Performance Summary. Capture a binlog during your build, then use the binlog MCP server or replay it with dotnet msbuild to generate a full diagnostic log with performance summaries.

Use build-perf-diagnostics for general build performance optimization or when the bottleneck is clearly a different target like Csc or ResolveAssemblyReference. This Skill only applies when ResolveProjectReferences appears as the top target and someone is trying to optimize it directly.