CLI automation parity with Dashboard/MCP

[davidfowl]

Summary

The CLI lacks several commands available in MCP/Dashboard that are essential for end-to-end automation, diagnostics, and scripting - including AI agent-led workflows.

Community POC

See #13727 for a community proof-of-concept implementing some of these features.

Current Commands (aspire 13.2)

App commands

Command	Description	Status
aspire new	Create a new app from an Aspire starter template.	✅
aspire init	Initialize Aspire in an existing codebase.	✅
aspire run	Run an Aspire AppHost interactively for development.	✅
aspire stop [<resource>]	Stop a running apphost or the specified resource.	✅
aspire ps	List running apphosts.	✅
aspire add [<integration>]	Add a hosting integration to the apphost.	✅
aspire update	Update integrations in the Aspire project. (Preview)	✅

Resource management

Command	Description	Status
aspire start [<resource>]	Start an apphost in the background, or start a stopped resource.	✅
aspire restart <resource>	Restart a running resource.	✅
aspire command <resource> <command>	Execute a command on a resource.	✅
aspire wait <resource>	Wait for a resource to reach a target status.	✅

Monitoring

Command	Description	Status
aspire describe [<resource>]	Describe resources in a running apphost.	✅
aspire logs [<resource>]	Display logs from resources in a running apphost.	✅
aspire otel logs <resource>	View structured logs from the Dashboard telemetry API.	✅
aspire otel spans <resource>	View spans from the Dashboard telemetry API.	✅
aspire otel traces <resource>	View traces from the Dashboard telemetry API.	✅

Deployment

Command	Description	Status
aspire publish	Generate deployment artifacts for an apphost. (Preview)	✅
aspire deploy	Deploy an apphost to its deployment targets. (Preview)	✅
aspire do <step>	Execute a specific pipeline step and its dependencies. (Preview)	✅

Tools & configuration

Command	Description	Status
aspire config	Manage CLI configuration including feature flags.	✅
aspire cache	Manage disk cache for CLI operations.	✅
aspire doctor	Diagnose Aspire environment issues and verify setup.	✅
aspire agent	Manage AI agent specific setup.	✅
aspire docs	Browse and search Aspire documentation from aspire.dev.	✅
aspire secret	Manage AppHost user secrets (set/get/list/delete).	✅ New

Secret Subcommands

Command	Description	Status
aspire secret get <key>	Get a secret value.	✅ New
aspire secret set <key> <value>	Set a secret value.	✅ New
aspire secret list [--format json]	List all secrets.	✅ New
aspire secret delete <key>	Delete a secret.	✅ New

Docs Subcommands

Command	Description	Status
aspire docs list	List all available Aspire documentation pages.	✅
aspire docs search <query>	Search Aspire documentation by keywords.	✅
aspire docs get <slug>	Get the full content of a documentation page by its slug.	✅

All Proposed Commands Implemented ✅

All commands from the original proposal have been implemented:

• aspire wait → ✅ Shipped
• aspire secret → ✅ Shipped (Add aspire secret command for managing AppHost user secrets #14673)

--format json Support

Command	JSON support
aspire ps	✅
aspire describe	✅
aspire logs	✅
aspire otel logs	✅
aspire otel spans	✅
aspire otel traces	✅
aspire doctor	✅
aspire start	✅
aspire secret list	✅

[JamesNK]

Missing structured logs. AI is confusing console logs = structured logs and thinking they're already done.

I don't think we need aspire trace-logs. The trace ID can be an argument on aspire structured-logs to filter results.

[Hona]

Unsure if it is in the spec already, but a few things missing from MCP that I hope are part of the new CLI:

• standalone dashboard support (no apphost) - old PoC for MCP
• getting attributes from OTEL on structured logging and spans (e.g. key info like IDs not in the message may be here)

[davidfowl]

standalone dashboard support (no apphost) - old PoC for MCP

Not yet, we don't have a good story here yet, but will take it as feedback and think about how to land it.

[Hona]

Perhaps a good story is as an Azure developer accessing Aspire dashboard instances from the cloud?
Pointing an agent to a cloud standalone(?) dashboard for an App Service could be nice.
Solves the local+Azure story together

[davidfowl]

There's nothing baked into our CLI that has anything to do with azure. We'd need to build an extensibility model for that.