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.NET Aspire 13.2 Adds AI-Agent CLI, TypeScript AppHost Support
Microsoft has released .NET Aspire 13.2, an update centered on what the company calls an "AI-agent-native CLI," along with TypeScript AppHost support.
Other highlights include dashboard improvements and updated integrations. Aspire is Microsoft's stack for building and orchestrating distributed cloud-native applications.
[Click on image for larger view.] Aspire Dashboard (source: Microsoft).
In the March 23 announcement, Microsoft framed the release this way: "TypeScript AppHost authoring. An AI-agent-native CLI. New and improved integrations. A smarter dashboard." But the most notable addition is the new CLI work aimed at coding agents. Microsoft said, "Coding agents need structure to build on and visibility into what's happening," adding that Aspire 13.2 gives agents "the same power that Aspire gives you, so they can do complex work without you copy-pasting logs, manually restarting processes, and sending screenshots."
According to Microsoft, developers who create a new sample app with aspire new or add an AppHost with aspire init get "Aspire specific skills and an MCP so your AI coding agents can work with you." The company said agents can start an AppHost in the background with --detach, restart individual resources from the CLI, wait for resource health states before moving on, and use --isolated to create parallel environments with separate ports and secrets. Microsoft also highlighted the aspire docs command for programmatic documentation access and aspire doctor for environment validation before an agent starts building.
The release also adds preview support for a TypeScript AppHost. Microsoft said, "Now, you can write your Aspire AppHost in TypeScript. Full orchestration, dashboard, service discovery." The company added that "The CLI, VS Code extension, and dashboard all work exactly the same whether your AppHost is C# or TypeScript," positioning the feature as part of a broader multi-language foundation.
On the observability side, the dashboard can now export traces, spans, logs, and resource configurations as JSON or .env files, and import telemetry bundles from aspire export. Microsoft also listed an "Improved GenAI visualizer with better schema handling and tool inspection" among the dashboard changes. The company further said Aspire 13.2 "overhauled the AI Foundry integration for the next-gen Microsoft Foundry," reinforcing the AI focus beyond the CLI itself.
About the Author
David Ramel is an editor and writer at Converge 360.