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Configure Aspire AppHost to emit explicit app config via environment variables while keeping app code free of Aspire clients and service discovery. Use when wiring AppHost resources to application configuration, ensuring production configuration is transparent and portable outside of Aspire, or avoiding Aspire client packages inside application code.
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Configures .NET Aspire AppHost to expose resource outputs as explicit environment variables for apps, avoiding Aspire clients and service discovery in application code.
Orchestrates .NET services with Aspire: AppHost configuration, service defaults, Postgres/Redis/RabbitMQ integrations, service discovery, and dashboard for local development.
Orchestrates cloud-native .NET distributed apps with Aspire AppHost, integrates components like Postgres/Redis/RabbitMQ, adds telemetry, service discovery, and health checks.
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Use this skill when:
AppHost owns Aspire infrastructure packages
Explicit configuration only
IOptions<T> or Configuration only.Production parity and transparency
AppHost resource -> WithEnvironment(...) -> app config keys -> IOptions<T> in app
The AppHost is responsible for turning Aspire resources into explicit app settings. The application never consumes Aspire clients or service discovery directly.
// AppHost/Program.cs
var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var postgres = builder.AddPostgres("postgres");
var db = postgres.AddDatabase("appdb");
var minio = builder.AddContainer("minio", "minio/minio")
.WithArgs("server", "/data")
.WithHttpEndpoint(targetPort: 9000, name: "http")
.WithHttpEndpoint(targetPort: 9001, name: "console")
.WithEnvironment("MINIO_ROOT_USER", "minioadmin")
.WithEnvironment("MINIO_ROOT_PASSWORD", "minioadmin");
var api = builder.AddProject<Projects.MyApp_Api>("api")
.WithReference(db, "Postgres")
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__Enabled", "true")
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__ServiceUrl", minio.GetEndpoint("http"))
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__AccessKey", "minioadmin")
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__SecretKey", "minioadmin")
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__Bucket", "attachments")
.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__ForcePathStyle", "true");
builder.Build().Run();
Key points
WithReference(db, "Postgres") sets ConnectionStrings__Postgres explicitly.Configuration values.Application code binds to options and initializes SDKs directly. It never depends on Aspire client packages or service discovery.
// Api/Program.cs
builder.Services
.AddOptions<BlobStorageOptions>()
.BindConfiguration("BlobStorage")
.ValidateDataAnnotations()
.ValidateOnStart();
builder.Services.AddSingleton<IBlobStorageService>(sp =>
{
var options = sp.GetRequiredService<IOptions<BlobStorageOptions>>().Value;
return new S3BlobStorageService(options); // uses explicit options only
});
Do not add Aspire client packages (or AddServiceDiscovery) to the app.
Those are orchestration concerns and should stay in AppHost.
Keep toggles in config and drive them through AppHost and test fixtures. This maintains parity between dev/test and production configuration.
// AppHost: disable persistence in tests via config overrides
var config = builder.Configuration.GetSection("App")
.Get<AppHostConfiguration>() ?? new AppHostConfiguration();
if (!config.UseVolumes)
{
postgres.WithDataVolume(false);
}
api.WithEnvironment("BlobStorage__Enabled", config.EnableBlobStorage.ToString());
See skills/aspire/integration-testing/SKILL.md for patterns on passing
configuration overrides into DistributedApplicationTestingBuilder.
Do
IOptions<T> with validation for all infrastructure settingsDon’t
skills/aspire/service-defaults/SKILL.mdskills/aspire/integration-testing/SKILL.mdskills/akka/aspire-configuration/SKILL.md