In this situation:

public class StrongHooksTest
{
    [Fact]
    public void NoInvocations()
    {
        //Hooks.TestHook += (x) => 1234;
        var a = Hooks.TestHook.Invoke;
    }

    static class Hooks
    {
        public delegate int TestDelegate(int a);
        public static TestDelegate TestHook;
    }
}

Calling NoInvocations() results in ArgumentException: Delegate to an instance method cannot have null 'this'. because Hooks.TestHook has not been initialized and is therefore null. (The actual exception does not really make sense, but I understand )

Method groups cannot be made nullable so Hooks.TestHook?.Invoke does not work.

Now you may ask, why do I need to do this?
I’m trying to dynamically invoke delegates through a wrapper, with strongly typed parameters and return values. This requires the Delegate.Invoke trick which exposes the delegate’s signature which I then abuse with generic types in my wrapper method.

Example of a wrapper method:

TResult Run<T, TResult>(Func<T, TResult> hook, T arg);

which is called like this:

int result = Run(Hooks.TestHook.Invoke, 1234);

This does work, but only if the delegate field is +=ed at least once.

What options do I have to deal with uninitialized delegate fields, without requiring the caller of my wrapper to perform additional logic (and without losing strong typing)?