Aspire

Aspire

Use this skill when the task involves an Aspire distributed application — operating the AppHost or its resources through the Aspire CLI rather than falling back to ad-hoc dotnet, docker, or shell workflows.

Detection

Activate when ANY signal is present. Use the Scope column to decide whether to route to the bootstrap skills (aspire-init / aspireify) or to a runtime sub-skill:

| Signal | How to Detect | Confidence | Scope | |--------|---------------|------------|-------| | C# AppHost | .csproj containing Aspire.AppHost.Sdk | ✅ Definitive | AppHost present → orchestration / deployment / monitoring | | File-based C# AppHost | apphost.cs with #:sdk Aspire.AppHost.Sdk | ✅ Definitive | AppHost present → orchestration / deployment / monitoring | | TypeScript AppHost | apphost.ts file in project | ✅ Definitive | AppHost present → orchestration / deployment / monitoring | | Aspire config without AppHost | aspire.config.json present and no AppHost above | High | Bootstrap → aspireify (skeleton dropped, needs wiring) | | Aspire config with AppHost | aspire.config.json present and AppHost above | High | AppHost present → orchestration / deployment / monitoring | | Aspire settings | .aspire/ directory present | High | AppHost present (usually) | | Generated TS modules | .aspire/modules/ directory present | High | AppHost present (TS) | | Service defaults | Aspire.ServiceDefaults in project references | Medium | AppHost present | | No AppHost, no aspire.config.json | None of the above and user asks to add Aspire | n/a | Bootstrap → aspire-init (skeleton drop) |

Default Workflow

1. Bootstrap branch — if no AppHost exists in the repo, route to

aspire-init for the skeleton drop. If an AppHost stub exists but is unwired (no resources declared), route to aspireify. Only continue with the steps below once a wired AppHost is present.

1. Confirm workspace is Aspire — identify the AppHost
2. aspire start (or aspire start --isolated in worktrees or whenever shared local state is risky)
3. aspire wait before interacting with any resource
4. Inspect state with aspire describe, aspire otel logs, aspire logs, aspire otel traces, and aspire export before making code changes
5. Before adding integrations, use aspire integration search when the package is unknown, then aspire add when ready to mutate the AppHost
6. When code changes, decide whether the AppHost model changed or only one resource changed. Re-run aspire start after AppHost changes; otherwise prefer resource commands, runtime watch/HMR, dashboard actions, or IDE-managed debugging as appropriate.

Key Rules

• Always aspire start, never dotnet run on AppHosts
• Always aspire wait , never manual HTTP polling
• Use aspire resource for resource operations such as stop, start, or rebuild when available
• Do not stop or restart the whole AppHost just because one resource changed
• Use features.defaultWatchEnabled only for Aspire default watch; do not treat it as per-resource rebuild, restart, or hot reload
• Prefer a resource's own framework/runtime hot reload, HMR, or watch workflow when it already handles the change
• Always aspire docs search before editing unfamiliar AppHost APIs
• Always aspire docs api search --language csharp|typescript for API reference before editing AppHost code
• Always --non-interactive for agent execution
• Use aspire integration list --format Json and aspire integration search --format Json for read-only integration discovery
• Never install the obsolete Aspire workload
• Never edit .aspire/modules/ directly in TypeScript AppHosts

Routing

| Task | Route To | |------|----------| | Start, stop, wait, restart, rebuild | → aspire-orchestration | | Create a new Aspire project from a template (aspire new) | → aspire-init (in-plugin) | | Add Aspire to an existing repo (aspire init, drop skeleton) | → aspire-init (in-plugin) | | Wire AppHost / scaffold resource graph / add integrations after aspire init | → aspireify (in-plugin) | | Deploy, publish, destroy, pipeline steps | → aspire-deployment | | Logs, traces, metrics, dashboard, browser logs | → aspire-monitoring | | Deployed app monitoring (Azure) | → azure-diagnostics skill (azure-skills plugin) |

Sub-Skills

aspire-init

First-run flow only. Owns the skeleton drop for repos that do not yet have an AppHost — picks aspire new (greenfield) or aspire init (existing repo), runs the CLI, and hands off to aspireify for the actual wiring. Self-deactivates once the skeleton is in place. Do not use it on a repo that already contains an AppHost.

aspireify

Agentic AppHost wiring after aspire init lands the skeleton. Scans the repo, proposes a resource graph (Postgres / Redis / Rabbit / etc.), edits the AppHost (C#, file-based C#, or TypeScript), wires Aspire.ServiceDefaults + OTel, validates with aspire start, then self-deactivates. Owns current AppHost authoring patterns (AddNextJsApp, AddViteApp, WithBrowserLogs(), generated .aspire/modules/, unified TS withEnvironment, endpoint references, and config/secret migration).

aspire-orchestration

Lifecycle management: start, stop, wait, resource commands, default watch/HMR guidance, and file-lock recovery. Safety guardrails that prevent agent self-harm. Owns aspire ps / aspire describe / --include-hidden inspection and CLI upgrades (aspire update --self). Does not edit AppHost code — defers to aspireify for wiring.

aspire-deployment

Multi-target deployment and tear-down: aspire deploy, aspire publish, aspire destroy, aspire do . Targets: Azure Container Apps, App Service, AKS, Kubernetes (Helm), Docker Compose. Owns current deployment surfaces (Front Door, NSP, AKS hosting, Foundry AddPromptAgent, JS PublishAs*, --pipeline-log-level) and 13.4 API naming.

aspire-monitoring

Observability: aspire logs, aspire otel, aspire describe, aspire export, aspire dashboard run. Routes between local Aspire CLI diagnostics, AKS workload tooling, and deployed-Azure platform tools. Surfaces dashboard features (notification center, Rebuild command, browser-logs telemetry).

Project-Local Skill Override

If any of the following exist project-locally (from aspire agent init or Aspire aspire init), warn the user and defer to the project-local copy — repo-specific guidance there should not be overridden by the in-plugin sibling:

| Project-local file | Precedence | |--------------------|-----------| | .agents/skills/aspire/SKILL.md | This file (top-level router) defers to it for deeper C# / TS AppHost editing, Playwright handoff, investigation workflows. | | .agents/skills/aspireify/SKILL.md | The in-plugin aspireify sibling defers to it for AppHost wiring. | | .agents/skills/aspire-init/SKILL.md | The in-plugin aspire-init sibling defers to it for the skeleton/first-run flow. |

Safety guardrails from this plugin always apply even when project-local skills are active.

Prerequisites

| Requirement | Install | |-------------|---------| | .NET 10.0 SDK | https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download | | Aspire CLI (curl/PowerShell) | curl -sSL https://aspire.dev/install.sh \| bash | | Aspire CLI (NativeAOT global tool, .NET 10) | dotnet tool install -g Aspire.Cli |

Either install method works. The dotnet tool install path produces a NativeAOT binary (instant startup, no JIT warmup) and is recommended when .NET 10 is already present.

References

• [aspire-13-3-breaking-changes.md](references/aspire-13-3-breaking-changes.md) — Every 13.3

breaking change to scrub from agent-generated code, scripts, and CI snippets (rename of --log-level, dashboard MCP removal, NameOutput → NameOutputReference, AddAndPublishPromptAgent removal, TS withEnvironment* deprecation, and the full 13.2 → 13.3 migration checklist).

• aspire-orchestration/references/agent-workflows.md — Common agent workflows: worktrees, code changes, investigation, integrations, TypeScript generated APIs, secrets, deployment, and Playwright handoff.
• aspire-orchestration/references/app-commands.md — App lifecycle, bootstrap, update, restore, docs, and integration discovery commands.
• aspire-orchestration/references/resource-management.md — Resource wait and resource-command guidance.
• aspire-monitoring/references/monitoring.md — App state, logs, traces, search filtering, dashboard links, and export workflows.
• aspire-monitoring/references/playwright-handoff.md — Playwright handoff after Aspire endpoint discovery.
• aspire-deployment/SKILL.md — Deployment and pipeline-step workflows.
• aspireify/references/apphost-wiring.md — C# and TypeScript AppHost API lookup and wiring patterns.

Source & license

This open-source skill is cataloged on AgentStack and links to its original source — we do not rehost the code.

• Author: microsoft
• Source: microsoft/aspire-skills
• License: MIT
• Homepage: https://aspire.dev/get-started/aspire-skills/

Install and usage instructions live in the source repository linked above.