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

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](references/cli reference.md) Command flags, options, or detailed usage [MCP Server](references/mcp server.md) Setting up MCP for AI assistants, available tools [Integrations Catalog](references/integrations catalog.md) Discovering integrations via MCP tools, wiring patterns [Polyglot APIs](references/polyglot apis.md) Method signatures, chaining options, language specific patterns [Architecture](references/architecture.md) DCP internals, resource model, service discovery, networking, telemetry [Dashboard](references/dashboard.md) Dashboard features, standalone mode, GenAI Visualizer [Deployment](references/deployment.md) Docker, Kubernetes, Azure Container Apps, App Service [Testing](references/testing.md) Integration tests against the AppHost [Troubleshooting](references/troubleshooting.md) 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](references/mcp server.md) 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](https://github.com/dotnet/aspire/pull/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: 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 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. For complete API signatures, see [Polyglot APIs](references/polyglot apis.md). 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](references/cli reference.md). 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/