microsoft/aspire.dev

Container Images Skill

This skill extracts every container image reference from the microsoft/aspire product repository and writes a structured JSON file to microsoft/aspire.dev at:

src/frontend/src/data/container-images.json

This JSON is consumed by Astro components on the aspire.dev site to render a browsable catalog of all container images used by Aspire hosting integrations.

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Source code pattern

All container image metadata in microsoft/aspire lives in static classes named *ContainerImageTags (or *ContainerImageTags.cs). Each file follows a strict, consistent pattern:

internal static class <Name>ContainerImageTags
{
    public const string Registry = "<registry-host>";
    public const string Image = "<image-path>";
    public const string Tag = "<tag>";

    // Some files have additional companion images, e.g.:
    public const string <Companion>Registry = "<registry-host>";
    public const string <Companion>Image = "<image-path>";
    public const string <Companion>Tag = "<tag>";
}

Where to find them

All files matching the glob pattern:

src/**/ContainerImageTags.cs
src/**/*ContainerImageTags.cs

These span across many projects including (but not limited to):

Project	File
Aspire.Hosting.Redis	RedisContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.PostgreSQL	PostgresContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.SqlServer	SqlServerContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.MongoDB	MongoDBContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.MySql	MySqlContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Kafka	KafkaContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.RabbitMQ	RabbitMQContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Nats	NatsContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Garnet	GarnetContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Valkey	ValkeyContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Seq	SeqContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Qdrant	QdrantContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Keycloak	KeycloakContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Oracle	OracleContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Milvus	MilvusContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Elasticsearch	ElasticsearchContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Yarp	YarpContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Storage	StorageEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CosmosDB	CosmosDBEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.ServiceBus	ServiceBusEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.EventHubs	EventHubsEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.SignalR	SignalREmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.AppConfiguration	AppConfigurationEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Functions	DurableTaskSchedulerEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs
Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kusto	AzureKustoEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs

Important: New hosting packages may be added at any time. Always discover files dynamically — never rely on a hardcoded list.

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Extraction procedure

Step 1 — Clone or access the aspire repo at HEAD

# If working locally:
git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/aspire.git /tmp/aspire

Step 2 — Find all ContainerImageTags files

find /tmp/aspire/src -name '*ContainerImageTags.cs' -type f

Step 3 — Parse each file

For each file, extract all image groups. A single file can define multiple images (primary + companions). The parsing rules are:

1. Primary image: Fields named exactly Registry, Image, Tag.
2. Companion images: Fields with a prefix, e.g. PgAdminRegistry, PgAdminImage, PgAdminTag — group them by the shared prefix.
3. Alternate tags: Fields like TagVNextPreview, ManagementTag — include these as additional tag variants on the same image.
4. Static properties vs const fields: Most use public const string, but some (e.g. Kusto) use public static string { get; }. Handle both.
5. Computed tags: Some tags are computed, e.g. public const string ManagementTag = $"{Tag}-management"; — resolve these to their literal value.
6. Derive the aspirePackage from the project directory name (e.g. src/Aspire.Hosting.Redis/ → Aspire.Hosting.Redis).
7. Derive the sourceFile as the path relative to the repo root.

Step 4 — Build the JSON

Each entry in the output array represents one distinct container image:

[
  {
    "aspirePackage": "Aspire.Hosting.Redis",
    "name": "Redis",
    "registry": "docker.io",
    "image": "library/redis",
    "tag": "8.6",
    "fullImage": "docker.io/library/redis:8.6",
    "sourceFile": "src/Aspire.Hosting.Redis/RedisContainerImageTags.cs",
    "sourceUrl": "https://github.com/microsoft/aspire/blob/main/src/Aspire.Hosting.Redis/RedisContainerImageTags.cs",
    "isCompanion": false,
    "companionOf": null,
    "alternateTags": []
  },
  {
    "aspirePackage": "Aspire.Hosting.Redis",
    "name": "Redis Commander",
    "registry": "docker.io",
    "image": "rediscommander/redis-commander",
    "tag": "latest",
    "fullImage": "docker.io/rediscommander/redis-commander:latest",
    "sourceFile": "src/Aspire.Hosting.Redis/RedisContainerImageTags.cs",
    "sourceUrl": "https://github.com/microsoft/aspire/blob/main/src/Aspire.Hosting.Redis/RedisContainerImageTags.cs",
    "isCompanion": true,
    "companionOf": "Redis",
    "alternateTags": []
  },
  {
    "aspirePackage": "Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CosmosDB",
    "name": "CosmosDB Emulator",
    "registry": "mcr.microsoft.com",
    "image": "cosmosdb/linux/azure-cosmos-emulator",
    "tag": "stable",
    "fullImage": "mcr.microsoft.com/cosmosdb/linux/azure-cosmos-emulator:stable",
    "sourceFile": "src/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CosmosDB/CosmosDBEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs",
    "sourceUrl": "https://github.com/microsoft/aspire/blob/main/src/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CosmosDB/CosmosDBEmulatorContainerImageTags.cs",
    "isCompanion": false,
    "companionOf": null,
    "alternateTags": ["vnext-preview"]
  }
]

Field definitions

Field	Type	Description
aspirePackage	string	The NuGet package / project name (directory name under src/)
name	string	Human-friendly name. For primary images, derive this from the class name (strip ContainerImageTags / EmulatorContainerImageTags suffix, split PascalCase). For companion images, derive this from the companion prefix/type (e.g. PgAdmin*, RedisCommander*) rather than only from the class name.
registry	string	Container registry host (e.g. docker.io, mcr.microsoft.com, ghcr.io, quay.io, container-registry.oracle.com)
image	string	Image path within the registry
tag	string	Primary tag
fullImage	string	Fully qualified image reference: {registry}/{image}:{tag}
sourceFile	string	Relative path to the source file in microsoft/aspire
sourceUrl	string	GitHub permalink to the source file on the main branch
isCompanion	boolean	true if this is a companion/tooling image (e.g. pgAdmin, Kafka UI, phpMyAdmin)
companionOf	string?	Name of the primary image this accompanies, or null
alternateTags	string[]	Any additional tag constants defined for this image (e.g. vnext-preview, management)

Step 5 — Sort and write

Sort the array by aspirePackage (ascending), then by isCompanion (primary first), then by name (ascending).

Write to: src/frontend/src/data/container-images.json

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Validation checklist

After generating the file, verify:

• Every *ContainerImageTags.cs file in src/ is represented
• No duplicate entries (same registry + image + tag + aspirePackage)
• All fullImage values are well-formed (registry/image:tag)
• Companion images are correctly linked to their primary
• The JSON is valid and properly formatted (2-space indent)
• The file is sorted per the rules above

Consuming the data in Astro

The JSON file at src/frontend/src/data/container-images.json can be imported directly in Astro components:

import containerImages from '../data/container-images.json';

This follows the same pattern as existing data files like aspire-integrations.json, samples.json, and github-stats.json in the same directory.

Linking to related content

Each container image entry can be cross-referenced with:

• The integration docs at src/frontend/src/data/integration-docs.json (match on aspirePackage)
• The NuGet integrations at src/frontend/src/data/aspire-integrations.json (match on title ≈ aspirePackage)
• The source file link back to microsoft/aspire for contributors

Important rules

• Always discover files dynamically — new hosting packages are added frequently.
• Parse both const and static property patterns — they both exist in the codebase.
• Resolve string interpolation in computed tag values (e.g. $"""{Tag}-management""").
• Do not include devcontainer images, test-only images, or images from the playground/ directory.
• Only extract from src/ directory files matching *ContainerImageTags.cs.
• The aspire.dev repo is an Astro site — the data file lives alongside other JSON data consumed by components.