microsoft / microsoft/aspire

Support Apple's container runtime in Aspire

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#19,819 2 comments 1 reaction 0 assignees View on GitHub
area-app-model area-deployment area-orchestrator
Dominant language
C#
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Merged PRs (30d)
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Description

### Is there an existing issue for this?

- [x] I have searched the existing issues

### Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe the problem.

Aspire currently detects and uses Docker or Podman for container workloads. Developers using Apple's native container tooling on supported macOS systems cannot select it as the runtime for an Aspire application and must install a separate runtime.

### Describe the solution you'd like

Add support for Apple's container runtime through Aspire's container-runtime abstraction. The implementation should define the supported local-run and publishing scenarios, then:

- Detect the Apple runtime when it is installed and available on a supported macOS version.
- Allow users to select it without changing application code.
- Implement the supported image build, inspect, tag, push, and application lifecycle operations through the existing runtime abstraction.
- Produce actionable diagnostics when the runtime, OS support, or a required capability is unavailable.
- Add platform-specific tests and document known capability differences from Docker and Podman.

### Additional context

The public roadmap's **Run applications on more container runtimes** item explicitly mentions both WSL containers and Apple's container framework. WSLC is already tracked separately by #17865; this issue tracks the Apple portion. The planning Loop marked Apple support as tentative, so the first step may be to confirm the precise support boundary against the current Apple container APIs.

Contributor guide

Open the contributing guide

Research direction

Start by reviewing Aspire's existing container-runtime abstraction and the current Apple container APIs to confirm the supported local-run and publishing boundary. Then trace the Docker and Podman runtime operations and their platform-specific tests; done means Apple runtime detection, selection, supported lifecycle and image operations, actionable diagnostics, and capability-difference documentation are covered.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Assessment

Tech stack
macos
Domain
infrastructure
Issue type
Feature
Difficulty
5/5
Estimated time
Over a week
Activity status
Active
Clarity
Mostly clear
Newbie friendliness
35/100

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