Aspire Restart

Restart Aspire

dotnet run --project developer-cli -- restart

Use developer-cli exactly as written - do not expand to an absolute worktree path.

Stops any running Aspire AppHost and starts a fresh instance. Detached by default - the CLI returns immediately while Aspire keeps running.

Always use restart, even when nothing is running yet. It is a no-op when Aspire is not up, and the safe default in every other case. Never use the developer CLI's run command, aspire run, or aspire restart.

• --public-url <url> - set PUBLIC_URL (e.g. an ngrok URL)

When to use

• After backend or frontend changes - restart is the safe default; it works whether Aspire is up or not.
• To run database migrations.
• When hot reload breaks or stops picking up changes.
• Before running e2e tests on a fresh stack.

Port allocation

Fully automatic. On a fresh checkout the developer CLI bootstraps .workspace/port.txt: the root gets the default base port; worktrees scan a fixed list of candidates and pick the first one whose ports are all free. Once written, the file is the authoritative allocation for the lifetime of the checkout.

Output is fire-and-forget

The CLI prints Aspire is restarting on https://app.dev.localhost:<port> and exits before Aspire is fully ready.

Stopping Aspire

To stop without restarting, run dotnet run --project developer-cli -- stop. Rarely needed - prefer restart for everyday use.