ElBruno.AspireMonitor

ElBruno.AspireMonitor

A Windows system tray monitor for Aspire distributed applications.

Point it at your Aspire AppHost folder, pin the resources you care about, and get a compact mini window with live URLs and Start/Stop controls — without leaving the tray.

What It Does

ElBruno.AspireMonitor is a lightweight Windows tray tool that:

1. Watches a working folder — point it at the directory containing your Aspire *.AppHost.csproj
2. Discovers resources — shells out to aspire describe --format json and parses the result
3. Surfaces what matters — lists every resource in the main window, and pins your chosen ones (with their real URLs) in a compact mini window
4. Drives your AppHost — Start / Stop buttons run aspire run and shut it down cleanly, with a live countdown while Aspire spins up

No third-party Aspire SDK dependency. No agents. Just a tray app talking to the Aspire CLI.

🎯 Features

Feature	Description
🪟 Tray + main window + mini window	Click the tray icon for the full resource list; the mini window pins just what you care about
📌 Pinned resources	Comma-separated MiniWindowResources setting pins resources by name prefix (case-insensitive — web matches Aspire's web-xggqzmyn replicas)
🔗 Full URLs inline	Pinned resources show their actual endpoint (http://localhost:5021), not a generic "Open" link
▶️ Start / Stop controls	Run or stop your AppHost from the tray. Start stays disabled with a live countdown (⏳ Starting Aspire... (12 / 90s)) until resources actually appear
🛡 Pinned-resource validation	Missing pins are skipped, not crashes — the mini window opens with whatever resolved
⚙️ Live config reload	Changes in Settings apply without restarting the app
🔄 Configurable polling	Default 2 second interval, override in config

⚡ Quick Start

1. Install as a .NET global tool: dotnet tool install --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor
2. Launch with aspiremon from any terminal
3. Set working folder when prompted (point to your Aspire AppHost directory)
4. Start monitoring — Run aspire run from that directory; the tray icon will turn green with resources listed

Install as a .NET Global Tool (recommended):

dotnet tool install --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor

Then launch anytime from any terminal:

aspiremon

The tool is Windows-only (the underlying app is WPF). Requires the .NET 10 Runtime.

Or download the executable from GitHub Releases.

For detailed setup instructions, see Quick Start Guide.

📋 Requirements

• Windows 10 or later (WPF is Windows-only)
• .NET 10 Runtime (download)
• .NET Aspire running locally on your machine

🚀 Usage

First Run

Install the global tool and launch it:

dotnet tool install --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor
aspiremon

On first run, you'll be prompted for your working folder:

Enter working folder (path to your Aspire AppHost project):
C:\Projects\MyAspireApp

System Tray

• Click icon — show/hide the main window
• Double-click — toggle the main window
• Right-click — context menu (Settings, Mini window, Exit)

The app watches your working folder. When aspire run is active, resources appear automatically.

Configuration

Open the in-app Settings dialog, or edit:

%APPDATA%\Local\ElBruno\AspireMonitor\config.json

Example:

{
  "WorkingFolder": "C:\\Projects\\MyApp\\src\\MyApp.AppHost",
  "AspireHostUrl": "http://localhost:18888",
  "PollingIntervalMs": 2000,
  "MiniWindowResources": "web, store, gateway"
}

Field	Purpose
WorkingFolder	Folder containing your Aspire *.AppHost.csproj
AspireHostUrl	Aspire dashboard URL (default http://localhost:18888)
PollingIntervalMs	Resource refresh interval (default 2000)
MiniWindowResources	Comma-separated list of resource name prefixes to pin to the mini window. Empty = mini window only shows the dashboard link. Case-insensitive prefix match (e.g. web matches web-xggqzmyn)

See Configuration Guide for all options.

📚 Documentation

• Quick Start Guide — Get up and running in 5 minutes
• Architecture Guide — System design, components, data flow
• API Contract & Services — Service layer, data contracts, retry logic
• Configuration Guide — Setup, CLI, advanced options
• Development Guide — Building from source, debugging
• Publishing Guide — NuGet publishing, versioning, releases
• Troubleshooting Guide — Common issues and solutions

💡 Use Cases

• Local Development — keep your AppHost one click away while coding
• Quick Status Checks — pin the two or three resources you actually hit and see their live URLs without opening the dashboard
• Demos — Start / Stop from the tray during walkthroughs
• Multi-window setups — the mini window stays out of the way and resizes itself

🏗️ Architecture Highlights

• Service-Oriented — AspireCliService (process I/O) → AspirePollingService (interval) → MainViewModel → views
• MVVM — testable view models, thin XAML, all business logic covered by xUnit + Moq
• Live config reload — settings changes flow through without restarting
• Pinned-resource matcher — case-insensitive prefix match against aspire describe output, with graceful handling of missing pins

See Architecture Guide for detailed design decisions and data flows.

📦 Installation & Updates

Install

dotnet tool install --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor

Then run aspiremon from any terminal.

Update

dotnet tool update --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor

Uninstall

dotnet tool uninstall --global ElBruno.AspireMonitor

Verify Version

dotnet tool list --global

🐛 Troubleshooting

Aspire instance not found?

1. Verify Aspire is running: aspire run in your working folder
2. Check the working folder setting in config: %APPDATA%\Local\ElBruno\AspireMonitor\config.json
3. See Troubleshooting Guide for more solutions

Tray icon not visible?

• Check Windows notification area (click ▲ in system tray)
• Verify AspireMonitor is running: tasklist | findstr aspire
• Restart the application and check tray icon placement
• See Troubleshooting Guide

🤝 Contributing

Contributions welcome! Please:

1. Fork the repository
2. Create a feature branch (git checkout -b feature/my-feature)
3. Make changes and write/update tests
4. Run full test suite: dotnet test
5. Commit with clear messages
6. Open a Pull Request

See Development Guide for setup and workflow.

📄 License

MIT License — See LICENSE file for details.

👋 About the Author

Bruno Capuano @elbruno
Microsoft AI MVP | GitHub Star

• Blog: elbruno.com
• GitHub: @elbruno
• LinkedIn: /in/elbruno
• Twitter: @elbruno
• YouTube: @elbruno

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Built with ❤️ for the Aspire community

Questions? Open an issue or reach out on GitHub Discussions.