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.NET Aspire applications can be deployed to various cloud platforms and container orchestration environments. The framework provides a flexible deployment model based on manifest generation that enables deployment to Azure Container Apps, Kubernetes, and other container platforms.

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Deployment Model

Aspire uses a pipeline-based deployment model where your application model is transformed into deployment artifacts:
  1. Development: Define your application using the Aspire app model in your AppHost project
  2. Manifest Generation: Generate a deployment manifest describing all resources and their configuration
  3. Deployment: Deploy to your target environment using platform-specific tools

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Manifest Generation

The manifest is a JSON file that describes your entire application topology, including:
  • Container images and their configurations
  • .NET projects and their build settings
  • Environment variables and configuration
  • Service endpoints and bindings
  • Dependencies between resources

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Generating a Manifest

Use the aspire CLI to generate a deployment manifest: 
aspire deploy --output-path ./deployment-artifacts
This creates an aspire-manifest.json file in the output directory: 
{
  "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/aspire-8.0.json",
  "resources": {
    "apiservice": {
      "type": "project.v0",
      "path": "../ApiService/ApiService.csproj",
      "env": {
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EXCEPTION_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true",
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EVENT_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true"
      },
      "bindings": {
        "http": {
          "scheme": "http",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "http"
        },
        "https": {
          "scheme": "https",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "http"
        }
      }
    }
  }
}

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Manifest Resource Types

The manifest supports several resource types:
Represents a .NET project that will be built and containerized.
{
  "type": "project.v0",
  "path": "../ApiService/ApiService.csproj",
  "env": { },
  "bindings": { }
}
Represents a pre-built container image.
{
  "type": "container.v0",
  "image": "mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/sdk:9.0",
  "env": { },
  "bindings": { }
}
Represents a container built from a Dockerfile.
{
  "type": "container.v1",
  "build": {
    "context": "../frontend",
    "dockerfile": "../frontend/Dockerfile"
  },
  "env": { },
  "bindings": { }
}
Represents a connection string or other configuration value.
{
  "type": "value.v0",
  "connectionString": "{postgres.connectionString}"
}
Represents a deployable parameter with optional secrets.
{
  "type": "parameter.v0",
  "value": "{password.inputs.value}",
  "inputs": {
    "value": {
      "type": "string",
      "secret": true
    }
  }
}

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Deployment Targets

.NET Aspire supports deployment to multiple platforms:

Azure Container Apps

Deploy to Azure’s serverless container platform with automatic scaling and managed infrastructure

Kubernetes

Deploy to any Kubernetes cluster using Helm charts or kubectl

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Deployment Pipeline

The deployment process uses a pipeline architecture located in src/Aspire.Hosting/Publishing/:

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Pipeline Steps

  1. Manifest Publishing - Generates the deployment manifest
  2. Deployment Step - Executes platform-specific deployment logic
You can customize the deployment process by implementing custom pipeline steps.

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Using the Deploy Command

The aspire deploy command orchestrates the deployment: 
# Deploy to default environment
aspire deploy --output-path ./artifacts

# Deploy with specific environment
aspire deploy --environment Production --output-path ./artifacts

# Clear deployment cache
aspire deploy --clear-cache --output-path ./artifacts
The deploy command is located in src/Aspire.Cli/Commands/DeployCommand.cs and executes the publish pipeline with the --step deploy flag.

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Deployment State Management

Aspire tracks deployment state to enable incremental deployments and rollbacks:
  • State is stored per environment (Development, Staging, Production)
  • Use --clear-cache to reset deployment state
  • State managers are implemented in src/Aspire.Hosting/Pipelines/Internal/

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Next Steps

Deploy to Azure

Learn how to deploy to Azure Container Apps and configure Azure resources

Deploy to Kubernetes

Learn how to deploy to Kubernetes clusters using Helm

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Additional Resources

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