Build Dapr Applications Faster with Aspire and Diagrid Catalyst

Aspire is an easy way to build distributed applications locally for both .NET and Python.

We're excited to introduce the Catalyst Aspire integration, which makes it dramatically easier to develop, test, and run Dapr applications using Aspire.

With just a few lines of code, you can provision a Catalyst project, configure your Dapr sidecars, and connect your infrastructure services — all directly from your Aspire AppHost.

No YAML. No manual setup. Just code.

Introducing the Diagrid Catalyst Aspire integration

If you're building with Dapr workflows and the other Dapr APIs, managing infrastructure and sidecars during development can make your inner developer loop complex.

That's where Diagrid Catalyst comes in for Dapr. Catalyst is an enterprise platform for workflow orchestration and Dapr APIs. It provides:

• A managed Dapr runtime
• Workflow visualization and debugging tools
• Operational insights for Dapr applications

The new Catalyst Aspire integration connects these capabilities directly into the Aspire developer experience.

This means you can provision and configure Catalyst resources automatically from your AppHost, keeping everything defined in code.

The Catalyst Aspire integration matches the fast development, onboarding and convenience of Aspire with an equally nimble way to automatically provision Catalyst resources during development. You get automatic configuration between Catalyst-managed Dapr sidecars and your locally-running applications with as little as a single method call per application.

All driven by code in your AppHost layout!

Who is this for?

The Catalyst Aspire integration is particularly useful for developers working with:

• Dapr Workflows
• Dapr Agents
• Event-driven applications using Pub/Sub
• Other Dapr APIs including conversation

It reduces friction during development and keeps your inner development loop fast with minimal setup.

The integration is also a great resource for people who want to quickly try out Dapr with minimal setup. It's as simple as taking a new or existing Aspire AppHost, adding the Nuget package and configuring a few resources in your project.

You can start with an existing Aspire AppHost, add the NuGet package, configure a few resources, and immediately run a distributed application powered by Dapr.

For new or current Catalyst users, this integration removes the need to manually configure development environments through the Catalyst UI. Each Catalyst resource defined in your Aspire project is provisioned directly into a Catalyst project.

Configure everything with code

No YAML!

Instead, you get a fluent C# API to configure apps and components from the comfort of your favourite IDE. Also, your projects won't have to share a single Dapr installation on your local workstation.

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var catalystProjectOne = builder
    .AddCatalystProject()
    .WithCatalystKvStore()
    .WithCatalystPubSub();

builder
    .AddProject<TestApi>("test-api")
    .WithCatalyst(catalystProjectOne)
    .WithSubscription("test", "/");

builder.Build().Run();

With just this configuration, the integration will:

• Automatically provision a Catalyst project with services and components
• Create appids to be used as Dapr sidecars
• Inject the required environment variables
• Where needed, configure tunnels for Catalyst to make callbacks

Your applications can then immediately communicate with the Catalyst-managed Dapr runtime:

The project configuration will include environment variables so that your application can talk directly to the Catalyst project:

If at any point you want to clean up, simply delete the Catalyst project and next time you start your Aspire AppHost, a new one will be created.

Try it and give us feedback

Follow our tutorial to build a Dapr workflow project with Aspire from scratch and configure it to run with Catalyst.

We're actively gathering feedback to improve both the Catalyst integration and the Dapr + Aspire experience.

With this integration released, we're planning on taking the lessons learned to look at how the Dapr Aspire integration can be a much smoother experience.

Try it out and let us know what you think in the Diagrid Discord.