Aspire.Hosting.Dotnet

.NET / C# app hosting integration

Use this integration to model, configure, and orchestrate C# projects and file-based C# apps (added by path) in an Aspire solution. It is the C# peer of Aspire.Hosting.Go, Aspire.Hosting.Python, and Aspire.Hosting.JavaScript.

AddDotnetProject is experimental and is exposed under the ASPIREDOTNETPROJECT001 diagnostic. Its API surface may change in future releases.

Getting started

Prerequisites

The .NET SDK must be available on the PATH of the machine running the AppHost. File-based C# apps (.cs) require .NET 10 or later.

Add the integration

From your AppHost directory, add the Aspire.Hosting.Dotnet integration with the Aspire CLI:

aspire add Aspire.Hosting.Dotnet

Usage example

In the AppHost, add a C# app resource by path. The path can point at a project file (.csproj), a directory containing a single .csproj, or a file-based app (.cs):

C#

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var api = builder.AddDotnetProject("api", "../api/api.csproj")
    .WithHttpEndpoint(port: 8080)
    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints();

builder.Build().Run();

TypeScript

import { createBuilder } from "./.aspire/modules/aspire.mjs";

const builder = await createBuilder();

const api = await builder.addDotnetProject("api", "../api/api.csproj")
    .withHttpEndpoint({ port: 8080 })
    .withExternalHttpEndpoints();

await builder.build().run();

The resource is launched with dotnet run --project <path> (or dotnet run --file <path> for a file-based app). Endpoints, environment variables, and service discovery are configured from the project's launchSettings.json and Kestrel configuration, matching AddProject<T>.

Publishing

Automatic project publishing for DotnetProjectResource is not currently supported. A plain DotnetProjectResource causes aspire publish and aspire deploy to fail with an actionable error instead of emitting an executable.v0 manifest containing machine-local paths.

Use one of these alternatives:

• Use AddProject<TProject>(...) for a project referenced by a C# AppHost.
• Use AddCSharpApp(...) or addCSharpApp(...) for a path-based project or file-based app that should use standard .NET project publishing.
• Call PublishAsDockerFile(...) or publishAsDockerFile(...) to configure container publishing explicitly.
• Call ExcludeFromManifest() or excludeFromManifest() when the resource is intentionally available only during local orchestration.

Additional documentation

• https://aspire.dev/integrations/gallery/
• Aspire documentation

Feedback & contributing

https://github.com/microsoft/aspire