Aspire 13.1 has been released as an incremental update that builds on the polyglot platform foundation introduced with Aspire 13. The release focuses on improving developer productivity through enhancements to the command-line interface, deeper support for AI-assisted development workflows, refinements to the dashboard experience, and clearer deployment behavior for Azure-based environments.
As reported by the team, the update aims to make daily development tasks more predictable, easier to automate, and better aligned with modern AI coding tools.
A central addition in Aspire 13.1 is expanded support for AI coding agents through integration with the Model Context Protocol. A new command allows projects to be initialized with MCP support, enabling compatible AI tools to discover Aspire integrations, inspect application structure, and interact with running resources.
aspire mcp init
When connected, AI agents can query application state, view logs, and inspect traces through exposed endpoints. This integration is intended to simplify the use of AI assistants during development without requiring custom setup for each tool.
The Aspire CLI has received several updates designed to reduce friction when creating, running, and maintaining projects. As stated, Channel selection is now available for project creation commands and is persisted globally once chosen, ensuring consistent behavior across new projects.
The CLI also detects already running instances and stops them automatically before starting a new run, avoiding common conflicts. Installation scripts now support an option to skip modifying the system PATH, which can be useful in controlled environments.
Dashboard updates in this release focus on clarity and visibility. A new Parameters tab allows configuration values to be viewed and managed directly from resource details. The GenAI visualizer has been enhanced to better display tool definitions, evaluations, and related logs, as well as to support previewing audio and video content. Several stability issues in the dashboard have also been addressed.
(GenAI visualizer tools definition, Source: Official Aspire documentation)
On the Azure improvements side, Aspire 13.1 introduces clearer naming and stronger validation. The Azure Redis integration has been renamed to better match the underlying service, and additional checks are performed earlier in the deployment process to surface configuration issues sooner.
Azure resources now expose standardized connection properties that work across supported languages, making it easier for non-.NET applications to connect using consistent settings. Support for deployment slots in Azure App Service and finer control over default role assignments has also been added.
Container and deployment workflows have been refined with the introduction of a general container registry resource, allowing developers to target registries beyond Azure Container Registry. Container image pushes are now more explicit and predictable, particularly when deploying to Azure Container Apps. Docker Compose support has been improved to enhance portability and reduce race conditions during parallel builds.
The release also includes updates for JavaScript and frontend development, such as a new starter template that combines an ASP.NET Core backend with a Vite-based frontend, improved HTTPS handling for development, and fixes for package manager–related issues.
Certificate handling has been simplified, with new APIs for configuring HTTPS and terminating TLS in supported containers.
In addition, Aspire 13.1 stabilizes several integrations that were previously in preview, including Dev Tunnels, endpoint proxy support, and Azure Functions. Templates have been updated to reflect consistent patterns, and a broad set of bug fixes improves reliability across platforms.
Aspire 13.1 requires the .NET 10 SDK or later. Developers upgrading from earlier versions are advised to review the noted breaking changes, particularly around Azure Redis APIs and renamed connection properties.
For interested readers, full release notes and detailed documentation are available in the official Aspire repositories and documentation channels.
