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name description
aspire
Aspire skill covering the Aspire CLI, AppHost orchestration, service discovery, integrations, MCP server, VS Code extension, Dev Containers, GitHub Codespaces, templates, dashboard, and deployment. Use when the user asks to create, run, debug, configure, deploy, or troubleshoot an Aspire distributed application.

Aspire — Polyglot Distributed-App Orchestration

Aspire is a code-first, polyglot toolchain for building observable, production-ready distributed applications. It orchestrates containers, executables, and cloud resources from a single AppHost project — regardless of whether the workloads are C#, Python, JavaScript/TypeScript, Go, Java, Rust, Bun, Deno, or PowerShell.

Mental model: The AppHost is a conductor — it doesn't play the instruments, it tells every service when to start, how to find each other, and watches for problems.

Detailed reference material lives in the references/ folder — load on demand.

References

Reference When to load
CLI Reference Command flags, options, or detailed usage
MCP Server Setting up MCP for AI assistants, available tools
Integrations Catalog Discovering integrations via MCP tools, wiring patterns
Polyglot APIs Method signatures, chaining options, language-specific patterns
Architecture DCP internals, resource model, service discovery, networking, telemetry
Dashboard Dashboard features, standalone mode, GenAI Visualizer
Deployment Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, App Service
Testing Integration tests against the AppHost
Troubleshooting Diagnostic codes, common errors, and fixes

1. Researching Aspire Documentation

The Aspire team ships an MCP server that provides documentation tools directly inside your AI assistant. See MCP Server for setup details.

Aspire CLI 13.2+ (recommended — has built-in docs search)

If running Aspire CLI 13.2 or later (aspire --version), the MCP server includes docs search tools:

Tool Description
list_docs Lists all available documentation from aspire.dev
search_docs Performs weighted lexical search across indexed documentation
get_doc Retrieves a specific document by its slug

These tools were added in PR #14028. To update: aspire update --self --channel daily.

For more on this approach, see David Pine's post: https://davidpine.dev/posts/aspire-docs-mcp-tools/

Aspire CLI 13.1 (integration tools only)

On 13.1, the MCP server provides integration lookup but not docs search:

Tool Description
list_integrations Lists available Aspire hosting integrations
get_integration_docs Gets documentation for a specific integration package

For general docs queries on 13.1, use Context7 as your primary source (see below).

Fallback: Context7

Use Context7 (mcp_context7) when the Aspire MCP docs tools are unavailable (13.1) or the MCP server isn't running:

Step 1 — Resolve the library ID (one-time per session):

Call mcp_context7_resolve-library-id with libraryName: ".NET Aspire".

Rank Library ID Use when
1 /microsoft/aspire.dev Primary source. Guides, integrations, CLI reference, deployment.
2 /dotnet/aspire API internals, source-level implementation details.
3 /communitytoolkit/aspire Non-Microsoft polyglot integrations (Go, Java, Node.js, Ollama).

Step 2 — Query docs:

libraryId: "/microsoft/aspire.dev", query: "Python integration AddPythonApp service discovery"
libraryId: "/communitytoolkit/aspire", query: "Golang Java Node.js community integrations"

Fallback: GitHub search (when Context7 is also unavailable)

Search the official docs repo on GitHub:

  • Docs repo: microsoft/aspire.dev — path: src/frontend/src/content/docs/
  • Source repo: dotnet/aspire
  • Samples repo: dotnet/aspire-samples
  • Community integrations: CommunityToolkit/Aspire

2. Prerequisites & Install

Requirement Details
.NET SDK 10.0+ (required even for non-.NET workloads — the AppHost is .NET)
Container runtime Docker Desktop, Podman, or Rancher Desktop
IDE (optional) VS Code + C# Dev Kit, Visual Studio 2022, JetBrains Rider 
# Linux / macOS
curl -sSL https://aspire.dev/install.sh | bash

# Windows PowerShell
irm https://aspire.dev/install.ps1 | iex

# Verify
aspire --version

# Install templates
dotnet new install Aspire.ProjectTemplates

3. Project Templates

Template Command Description
aspire-starter aspire new aspire-starter ASP.NET Core/Blazor starter + AppHost + tests
aspire-ts-cs-starter aspire new aspire-ts-cs-starter ASP.NET Core/React starter + AppHost
aspire-py-starter aspire new aspire-py-starter FastAPI/React starter + AppHost
aspire-apphost-singlefile aspire new aspire-apphost-singlefile Empty single-file AppHost

4. AppHost Quick Start (Polyglot)

The AppHost orchestrates all services. Non-.NET workloads run as containers or executables.

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Infrastructure
var redis = builder.AddRedis("cache");
var postgres = builder.AddPostgres("pg").AddDatabase("catalog");

// .NET API
var api = builder.AddProject<Projects.CatalogApi>("api")
    .WithReference(postgres).WithReference(redis);

// Python ML service
var ml = builder.AddPythonApp("ml-service", "../ml-service", "main.py")
    .WithHttpEndpoint(targetPort: 8000).WithReference(redis);

// React frontend (Vite)
var web = builder.AddViteApp("web", "../frontend")
    .WithHttpEndpoint(targetPort: 5173).WithReference(api);

// Go worker
var worker = builder.AddGolangApp("worker", "../go-worker")
    .WithReference(redis);

builder.Build().Run();

For complete API signatures, see Polyglot APIs.

5. Core Concepts (Summary)

Concept Key point
Run vs Publish aspire run = local dev (DCP engine). aspire publish = generate deployment manifests.
Service discovery Automatic via env vars: ConnectionStrings__<name>, services__<name>__http__0
Resource lifecycle DAG ordering — dependencies start first. .WaitFor() gates on health checks.
Resource types ProjectResource, ContainerResource, ExecutableResource, ParameterResource
Integrations 144+ across 13 categories. Hosting package (AppHost) + Client package (service).
Dashboard Real-time logs, traces, metrics, GenAI visualizer. Runs automatically with aspire run.
MCP Server AI assistants can query running apps and search docs via CLI (STDIO).
Testing Aspire.Hosting.Testing — spin up full AppHost in xUnit/MSTest/NUnit.
Deployment Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, Azure App Service.

6. CLI Quick Reference

Valid commands in Aspire CLI 13.1:

Command Description Status
aspire new <template> Create from template Stable
aspire init Initialize in existing project Stable
aspire run Start all resources locally Stable
aspire add <integration> Add an integration Stable
aspire publish Generate deployment manifests Preview
aspire config Manage configuration settings Stable
aspire cache Manage disk cache Stable
aspire deploy Deploy to defined targets Preview
aspire do <step> Execute a pipeline step Preview
aspire update Update integrations (or --self for CLI) Preview
aspire mcp init Configure MCP for AI assistants Stable
aspire mcp start Start the MCP server Stable

Full command reference with flags: CLI Reference.

7. Common Patterns

Adding a new service

  1. Create your service directory (any language)
  2. Add to AppHost: Add*App() or AddProject<T>()
  3. Wire dependencies: .WithReference()
  4. Gate on health: .WaitFor() if needed
  5. Run: aspire run

Migrating from Docker Compose

  1. aspire new aspire-apphost-singlefile (empty AppHost)
  2. Replace each docker-compose service with an Aspire resource
  3. depends_on → .WithReference() + .WaitFor()
  4. ports → .WithHttpEndpoint()
  5. environment → .WithEnvironment() or .WithReference()

8. Key URLs

Resource URL
Documentation https://aspire.dev
Runtime repo https://github.com/dotnet/aspire
Docs repo https://github.com/microsoft/aspire.dev
Samples https://github.com/dotnet/aspire-samples
Community Toolkit https://github.com/CommunityToolkit/Aspire
Dashboard image mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspire-dashboard
Discord https://aka.ms/aspire/discord
Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/aspiredotdev/