grpc/doc/csharp/server_reflection.md

gRPC C# Server Reflection

This document shows how to use gRPC Server Reflection in gRPC C#. Please see C++ Server Reflection Tutorial for general information and more examples how to use server reflection.

Enable server reflection in C# servers

C# Server Reflection is an add-on library. To use it, first install the Grpc.Reflection Nuget package into your project.

Note that with C# you need to manually register the service descriptors with the reflection service implementation when creating a server (this isn't necessary with e.g. C++ or Java)

// the reflection service will be aware of "Greeter" and "ServerReflection" services.
var reflectionServiceImpl = new ReflectionServiceImpl(Greeter.Descriptor, ServerReflection.Descriptor);
server = new Server()
{
    Services =
    {
        // the server will serve 2 services, the Greeter and the ServerReflection
        Greeter.BindService(new GreeterImpl()),
        ServerReflection.BindService(reflectionServiceImpl)
    },
    Ports = { { "localhost", 50051, ServerCredentials.Insecure } }
};
server.Start();

After starting the server, you can verify that the server reflection is working properly by using the grpc_cli command line tool:

 $ grpc_cli ls localhost:50051

output:

helloworld.Greeter
grpc.reflection.v1alpha.ServerReflection

For more examples and instructions how to use the grpc_cli tool, please refer to the grpc_cli documentation and the C++ Server Reflection Tutorial.

Additional Resources

The Server Reflection Protocol provides detailed information about how the server reflection works and describes the server reflection protocol in detail.