.NET 9 Middleware Pipeline: Advanced Patterns and...

TL;DR — The ASP.NET Core middleware pipeline is where your app does its real work, but most developers only scratch the surface. In .NET 9, you've got new tools like MapStaticAssets, better exception handling, and the same old performance patterns still apply: short-circuit early, order cheap before expensive, and never sync-over-async. Let's look at the patterns actually worth knowing. Pipeline Basics Here's the mental model that actually helps: your middleware pipeline is a series of functions