Microsoft Releases Aspire 13.5 With a Refreshed Dashboard and Workflow Improvements
Last week, Microsoft released Aspire 13.5, an update that refreshes the dashboard and the aspire.dev homepage and adds several quality-of-life features. The Interaction Service gains file imports and progress dialogs; resources can host an interactive terminal in the dashboard, and deployment adds Kubernetes persistent volumes and cross-scope Azure references. By Almir Vuk
Microsoft unveiled the Aspire 13.5 update, which refreshes the user dashboard and workflow capabilities. The recent version enhances the app integration, deployment options, and overall user experience. Earlier iterations of Aspire focused on supporting multiple languages, deployment targets, and coding agents, including a fully functional TypeScript AppHost, new CLI features, and integrations with Kubernetes and Docker Compose.
The most noticeable change in this update is the refreshed visual design of the dashboard, described as receiving "a new coat of paint." While the layout and features remained the same, Microsoft ensured the updated design adheres to accessibility guidelines.
Smaller improvements to the dashboard include case-insensitive console log search, filtering logs and traces by timestamp or exact numeric comparison, improved reconnection when resource-service connections drop, and clearer health-check failure messages.
The Interaction Service, which enables resource commands to request input or display notifications, now supports file imports. Resources can now open file pickers that accept JSON or YAML, enforce size limits, and provide a stream for reading, eliminating the need for an older workaround involving placing files in a designated directory prior to running a script.
The new release also introduces an interactive terminal within the dashboard, accessible through the WithTerminal() method. This feature enables resource applications to provide an interactive shell, REPL, or other tools requiring real input and output. Users can type into the terminal, switch between replicas, and continue using the console logs without interrupting the session. Multiple users can attach to the same process simultaneously.
TypeScript AppHosts are now generally available, removing the need for an experimental opt-in. This change ensures that Interaction Service, file uploads, and progress dialogs work consistently across C# and TypeScript implementations. TypeScript also gains support for custom health checks and container file copying.
Deployment enhancements allow applications to model persistent volumes for Kubernetes workloads, incorporating storage class, capacity, and access mode specifications. Aspire automatically generates the persistent volume claim and configures the workload accordingly. New methods facilitate referencing existing Azure resources across resource groups, subscriptions, and tenants, abstracting away environment details while preserving deployment intent within the model.
Additionally, the Aspire command-line interface can now be installed and updated via popular package managers such as Homebrew, WinGet, npm, Nix, mise, and NuGet. The Visual Studio Code extension has been rebranded to Aspire and incorporates new functionalities, including opening the dashboard in a side panel, debugging support for Bun and MAUI, and resource commands displayed directly in the tree view.
The release also includes several breaking changes, such as the renaming of the ServiceProvider property to Services and the deprecation of GitHub Models integration. The dashboard's AI Assistant chat feature has been removed in this version.
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