One of my favorite Aspire tricks is publishing your local orchestration to a plain Docker Compose file. No bespoke YAML hand-crafting: define your resources in C#, run one command, and get a production-shaped compose you can run anywhere Docker is available.

This post shows a tiny demo that publishes PostgreSQL, Redis, and the Aspire Dashboard to Docker Compose.

AppHost: enable the Docker publisher

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

// Enables Docker publisher (gives the compose project a stable name)
builder.AddDockerComposeEnvironment("aspire-docker-demo");

var postgres = builder.AddPostgres("database")
    .WithDataVolume();

var database = postgres.AddDatabase("demo-db");

var redis = builder.AddRedis("cache");

builder. Build().Run();

What this does

• AddDockerComposeEnvironment("aspire-docker-demo")
  Opts the app into the Docker publisher and sets the Compose project name (used for networks, volume names, etc.).
• Postgres + volume
  WithDataVolume() ensures a named Docker volume is created for data durability.
• AddDatabase("demo-db")
  Declares a logical DB (helpful when apps bind to it; not strictly needed for Compose output).
• Redis
  Adds a simple cache service.

Publish to Docker Compose

From the AppHost directory:

aspire publish -o docker-compose-artifacts

This generates a docker-compose.yaml (and related files) under ./docker-compose-artifacts/.

Continue reading “From Aspire to Docker Compose in one command” →