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 CPU, memory, disk, resource type, environment badges, endpoint counts, live URLs, and Start/Stop controls from 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 start 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 and opening the Aspire dashboard at the standard default http://localhost:18888.

✨ What's New in v1.6.0

Now aligned with Aspire 13.3, ElBruno.AspireMonitor brings:

• Standard Dashboard Alignment — The monitor defaults to the local Aspire dashboard endpoint documented by Aspire 13.3 (http://localhost:18888) while preserving user overrides.
• Richer Resource Telemetry — Resource cards now display resource type, disk usage percentage, endpoint counts, and compact environment summaries, giving you more visibility into your services at a glance.
• Sample Harness Validation — A maintained Aspire sample solution (src/SampleHarness/) ensures end-to-end and regression validation as Aspire evolves.

See CHANGELOG.md for detailed release history.

🎯 Features

Feature	Description
🟢🟡🔴 Color-Coded Status	Visual indicators: Green (<70%), Yellow (70-90%), Red (>90%)
⚡ Real-Time Updates	Automatic polling every 2 seconds (configurable)
📦 Rich Resource Telemetry	See type, disk usage percentage, and endpoint counts at a glance
🏷️ Environment Badges	Compact badges summarize resource environment variables
🙈 Hide Development Resources	Optionally filter development-only resources from the list
🧭 Open Dashboard	One-click button opens the configured Aspire dashboard URL
🔄 Auto-Reconnect	Gracefully handles network interruptions
📊 Multi-Resource Monitoring	Track unlimited Aspire resources
🪟 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 — Use the Start button in the tray to launch Aspire; 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 is running, resources appear automatically.

Configuration

Open the in-app Settings dialog, or edit:

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

Example:

{
  "projectFolder": "C:\\Projects\\MyApp\\src\\MyApp.AppHost",
  "aspireEndpoint": "http://localhost:18888",
  "pollingIntervalMs": 2000,
  "miniWindowResources": "web, store, gateway",
  "hideDevelopmentResources": false
}

Field	Purpose
projectFolder	Folder containing your Aspire *.AppHost.csproj
aspireEndpoint	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)
hideDevelopmentResources	Hides resources marked as development-only in Aspire environment metadata

See Configuration Guide for all options.

📚 Documentation

• Quick Start Guide — Get up and running in 5 minutes
• What's New in v1.6.0 — Aspire 13.3 alignment, richer telemetry, and sample harness
• 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. Start Aspire using the Start button in the tray, or run aspire start 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.