aspire

// ServiceDefaults/Extensions.cs — Standard Aspire service defaults
// Configures OpenTelemetry (metrics + tracing), health checks, service discovery, and resilience
public static class Extensions
{
    public static IHostApplicationBuilder AddServiceDefaults(this IHostApplicationBuilder builder)
    {
        builder.ConfigureOpenTelemetry();
        builder.AddDefaultHealthChecks();
        builder.Services.AddServiceDiscovery();
 
        builder.Services.ConfigureHttpClientDefaults(http =>
        {
            http.AddStandardResilienceHandler();
            http.AddServiceDiscovery();
        });
 
        return builder;
    }
 
    // ConfigureOpenTelemetry: adds logging, metrics (ASP.NET, HttpClient, Runtime),
    //   tracing (ASP.NET, HttpClient, EF Core), and OTLP exporter if configured
    // AddDefaultHealthChecks: adds a "self" liveness check tagged ["live"]
}

// MyApp.Api/Program.cs
var builder = WebApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
builder.AddServiceDefaults();
 
// Add Aspire integrations
builder.AddNpgsqlDbContext<AppDbContext>("myappdb");
builder.AddRedisDistributedCache("redis");
 
var app = builder.Build();
app.MapDefaultEndpoints(); // health check endpoints
app.Run();

// AppHost — configure service references
var orderApi = builder.AddProject<Projects.OrderApi>("order-api");
var paymentApi = builder.AddProject<Projects.PaymentApi>("payment-api")
    .WithReference(orderApi); // paymentApi can discover orderApi
 
// In PaymentApi — use service discovery
builder.Services.AddHttpClient<OrderClient>(client =>
{
    client.BaseAddress = new Uri("https+http://order-api");
});

MyApp.slnx
├── MyApp.AppHost/               # Aspire orchestrator
│   └── Program.cs
├── MyApp.ServiceDefaults/       # Shared service configuration
│   └── Extensions.cs
├── src/
│   ├── MyApp.Api/               # Web API project
│   └── MyApp.Worker/            # Background worker
└── tests/
    └── MyApp.Api.Tests/

// BAD — running the AppHost executable in production as an orchestrator
// The AppHost is a dev/build-time tool, not a production runtime
 
// GOOD — deploy the generated assets, not the AppHost:
//   aspire publish  → docker-compose / Kubernetes manifests from the app model
//   aspire deploy   → direct deployment (e.g., Azure Container Apps)

// BAD — hardcoding connection strings defeats Aspire's purpose
builder.Services.AddDbContext<AppDbContext>(o =>
    o.UseNpgsql("Host=localhost;Database=myapp;..."));
 
// GOOD — use Aspire integration (connection string injected automatically)
builder.AddNpgsqlDbContext<AppDbContext>("myappdb");

// BAD — manually configuring each service
builder.Services.AddOpenTelemetry()...
builder.Services.AddHealthChecks()...
 
// GOOD — use shared service defaults
builder.AddServiceDefaults();