Last week, Microsoft released Aspire 13.3, the latest update to its cloud-native application framework. The release introduces several major features aimed at deployment, observability, and broader language support, while also bringing a number of breaking changes that developers should review before upgrading.
A central addition is the new aspire destroy command, which tears down resources previously provisioned by aspire deploy. As reported, the command works across Azure, Kubernetes, and Docker Compose environments, making it easier to clean up ephemeral deployments and continuous integration setups.
Alongside this, the Aspire CLI is now available as a NativeAOT .NET global tool, and a new aspire dashboard command as stated, lets users run the standalone dashboard without launching an AppHost.
The release also brings native Kubernetes deployment in preview. Developers can declare a Kubernetes environment in their AppHost, and Aspire will generate a Helm chart and run the full deployment pipeline. Also, new Ingress and Gateway API routing resources allow traffic configuration to be defined at the AppHost level.
Furthermore, an Azure Kubernetes Service hosting integration, described as "Kubernetes without the YAML" has also been added in this preview.
For frontend developers, Aspire 13.3 introduces first-class JavaScript publishing through a unified family of PublishAs* methods covering static sites, Node servers, and npm-script-based deployments. A new AddNextJsApp helper joins existing helpers for Vite and Node, and as stated, first-class support has been added for Bun, Yarn, and pnpm.
var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);
var app = builder
.AddNodeApp("app", "./api", "src/index.js")
.WithHttpEndpoint(port: 3000, env: "PORT")
.WithExternalHttpEndpoints();
var frontend = builder
.AddViteApp("frontend", "./frontend")
.WithReference(app)
.WaitFor(app);
app.PublishWithContainerFiles(frontend, "./static");
builder.Build().Run();
Also, the TypeScript AppHost has received significant parity work with its C# counterpart, including a unified withEnvironment API.
Regarding the integration updates in this preview, a new Aspire.Hosting.Browsers integration captures browser console logs, network requests, and screenshots, surfacing them in the dashboard next to server-side telemetry.
Next, the container tunnel, previously marked as experimental, is now enabled by default, providing uniform host connectivity across Docker Desktop, Docker Engine, and Podman.
Other changes in this release include the new aspire init command with the aspireify agent skill, an Azure Front Door integration, Azure Network Security Perimeter support, Foundry Prompt Agent support, a dashboard notification center, VS Code extension improvements with CodeLens and gutter decorations, RabbitMQ v7 support, and the migration of the Python starter template to a TypeScript AppHost.
Developers should note several breaking changes, including the renaming of --log-level to --pipeline-log-level, the removal of the in-dashboard GitHub Copilot UI in favor of agentic development through the CLI, and API renames in Azure Network and AKS resources.
Lastly, interested developers can explore the full release notes, which are available on the official Aspire 13.3 release page.