Microsoft .NET Aspire backs .NET 10 file-based apps

Microsoft has released.NET Aspire 9.5, an update of the company’s framework for building distributed apps that previews support for.NET 10 file-based apps. An AI-based visualizer also is featured.

Introduced September 25, Aspire 9.5 previews file-based AppHost support, which introduces backing for.NET 10’s new file-based applications. Developers can create an Aspire AppHost with a single file without the need for a project file. Whereas a traditional Aspire AppHost requires a.csproj file and multiple files to get started, the file-based AppHost allows developers to define a distributed application in a single apphost.cs file, Microsoft said. This builds on the work being delivered with.NET 10 that enables single-file applications..NET 10 is in a release candidate stage, with a production release expected in November. The file-based AppHost feature is currently behind a feature flag and requires.NET SDK 10.0.100 RC1 or later..NET Aspire 9.5 also introduces the GenAI visualizer, a display that collates, summarizes, and visualizes calls to large language models (LLMs) within an app. When the dashboard detects AI telemetry, a sparkle icon is presented that will enable exploration of the interaction with the LLM. Developers will be able to see the prompts, responses, and images returned from the LLM in the visualizer, Microsoft said..NET Aspire provides tools, templates, and packages for building production-ready distributed apps, Microsoft said. Developers can build with a code-first app model, develop locally with unified tooling, and deploy via the cloud, Kubernetes, or on-prem servers. Developers can update to.NET Aspire 9.5 by using instructions found on the September 25 blog post.

Other new features and improvements in.NET Aspire 9.5 include the following:

A preview of the aspire update command simplifies the upgrade process by automatically detecting and updating the AppHost SDK and Aspire integrations.

An AddOpenAI integration provides “first-class support” for modeling OpenAI endpoints and their associated models within an Aspire application.

The Aspire Dashboard has usability and functionality improvements intended to make it more powerful for debugging and monitoring distributed applications.

Targeted CLI and tool updates were made that speed up setup and maintenance. Among these is channel-aware package selection in aspire add to choose stable, daily, or custom builds.

Performance refinements to the CLI and tools include package search disk cache, cleaner debug output, clearer status messages, and faster repeat package resolution.

An “All” option in console logs streams logs from every running resource simultaneously with color-coded prefixes. Developers can see the various services that generated the log entries.

Support for Azure Dev Tunnels, for sharing local web services across the internet, has been added.

Resource life cycle event APIs are introduced that allow users to register callbacks for when resources stop, providing better control over cleanup and coordination during application shutdown.