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This section describes the tools and APIs for the XBOX environment.

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In this section

XBOX One and XBOX Series X|S GDK Tools Describes the development tools in the Microsoft Game Development Kit that are available as a separate GDK Tools download. XBOX Manager Manages the configuration and setup of XBOX development kits. XBOX Device Portal (Windows Device Portal on XBOX) Describe how XBOX Device Portal is the XBOX version of Windows Device Portal. Developer Home (Dev Home) Provides information about Developer Home on the console (Dev Home), which is the default experience for development consoles. Command-line tools Describes the command-line tools that are used to perform development tasks, such as managing remote consoles from the development PC and retrieving the version of the Gaming eXtensions Development Kit (GXDK) that’s installed on the development PC. Console based Command-line tools Describes the command-line tools that are available in the System OS and Game OS. Visual Studio The Visual Studio integrated development environment (IDE) is the development environment used to create, build, deploy, and debug GDK XBOX apps. The Microsoft GDK supports Visual Studio 2019 and Visual Studio 2022. PIX Performance Investigator for XBOX (PIX) provides an extensive array of monitoring, performance, and debugging tools to help you improve your title. Shader Compiler The DirectX Shader Compiler (DXCompiler or DXC) is a new shader compiler for Windows and XBOX. Hang Investigation Describes how HIX is used for offline analysis of GPU hangs. xbWatson xbWatson is a lightweight tool that allows you to use your development PC to monitor system-wide debug output coming from a XBOX console while also allowing you to collect heap, triage, and mini dumps. Profile-guided optimization Describes profile-guided optimization. XBOX video server Describes how the XBOX console’s video server can be used to share video and audio to third-party tools

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Packaging tools

Make package (makepkg.exe) Creates app packages and app package metadata. Make package resource index (makepri.exe) Creates and dumps Package Resource Index (PRI) files and performs utility functions on them. packageutil.exe Retrieves the signing key information for a package file and compares a base package file with an updated package file. Split package (splitpkg.exe) Builds subset packages from a master package.

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See also

Tools API reference Microsoft Game Development Kit Configuring your development network access for developing Microsoft Game Development Kit titles
Last modified on August 20, 2026

Related topics

XBOX console developer tools (GDK)XBOX console game development environment and toolsPC game development environment and toolsXBOX Tools FrameworkTools API reference