microsoft / microsoft/aspire

Support publish-mode app model introspection with aspire describe

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#17,947 3 comments 0 reactions 0 assignees View on GitHub
area-deployment triage:bot-seen
Dominant language
C#
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2d 15h
Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

## Description

`aspire describe` should be able to describe the app model in **publish mode**, not just describe a currently running AppHost.

Today, `aspire describe` is primarily useful for introspecting a running AppHost instance. For deployment and publishing workflows, we also need a way to inspect the publish-time app model without starting the app. The output should probably be different from the running-AppHost output because the questions are different.

In publish mode, the command should help answer things like:

- What resources are in the publish/deployment model?
- What deployment artifacts or steps would be produced?
- What resources participate in deployment, and how are they connected?
- What information does deployment need in order to list steps and reason about resources?

This may be related to, or potentially replace some use cases for, the manifest: a structured way to introspect the app model for publishing/deployment without relying on a running AppHost.

## Expected behavior

There should be a supported way to run something like `aspire describe` in publish mode and get structured output for the publish/deployment model.

The output should be distinct from the running-AppHost description and focused on deployment introspection: resources, publish artifacts, steps, and relationships needed by deployment tooling.

## Why this matters

Deployment tooling needs to inspect the app model, list deployment steps, and understand the resources involved without requiring the AppHost to be running. A publish-mode describe command would provide a clear CLI/API surface for that introspection.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start at the existing `aspire describe` CLI entry point and trace how it produces the running-AppHost description. Compare that flow with the manifest and publish/deployment model surfaces mentioned in the issue; done means a supported publish-mode command returns structured resources, artifacts or steps, and deployment relationships without starting the AppHost.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
csharp
Domain
cli, cloud, devops
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Quiet
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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