Manifest

The manifest.json is a document which aspire generates in order for it to work with different tooling.

If we run dotnet run --publisher manifest --output-path ./aspire-manifest.json we get the following:

{
  "$schema": "https://json.schemastore.org/aspire-8.0.json",
  "resources": {
    "secrets": {
      "type": "azure.bicep.v0",
      "connectionString": "{secrets.outputs.vaultUri}",
      "path": "secrets.module.bicep",
      "params": {
        "principalId": "",
        "principalType": ""
      }
    },
    "username": {
      "type": "parameter.v0",
      "value": "{username.inputs.value}",
      "inputs": {
        "value": {
          "type": "string",
          "secret": true
        }
      }
    },
    "password": {
      "type": "parameter.v0",
      "value": "{password.inputs.value}",
      "inputs": {
        "value": {
          "type": "string",
          "secret": true
        }
      }
    },
    "messaging": {
      "type": "container.v0",
      "connectionString": "amqp://guest:{messaging-password.value}@{messaging.bindings.tcp.host}:{messaging.bindings.tcp.port}",
      "image": "docker.io/library/rabbitmq:4.0-management",
      "env": {
        "RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_USER": "guest",
        "RABBITMQ_DEFAULT_PASS": "{messaging-password.value}"
      },
      "bindings": {
        "tcp": {
          "scheme": "tcp",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "tcp",
          "targetPort": 5672
        },
        "management": {
          "scheme": "http",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "http",
          "targetPort": 15672
        }
      }
    },
    "consumers": {
      "type": "project.v0",
      "path": "../User.Email/User.Email.csproj",
      "env": {
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EXCEPTION_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true",
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EVENT_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true",
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_RETRY": "in_memory",
        "ConnectionStrings__messaging": "{messaging.connectionString}"
      }
    },
    "auth": {
      "type": "container.v0",
      "connectionString": "Host={auth.bindings.tcp.host};Port={auth.bindings.tcp.port};Username={username.value};Password={password.value}",
      "image": "docker.io/library/postgres:16.4",
      "env": {
        "POSTGRES_HOST_AUTH_METHOD": "scram-sha-256",
        "POSTGRES_INITDB_ARGS": "--auth-host=scram-sha-256 --auth-local=scram-sha-256",
        "POSTGRES_USER": "{username.value}",
        "POSTGRES_PASSWORD": "{password.value}"
      },
      "bindings": {
        "tcp": {
          "scheme": "tcp",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "tcp",
          "port": 5433,
          "targetPort": 5432
        }
      }
    },
    "authdb": {
      "type": "value.v0",
      "connectionString": "{auth.connectionString};Database=100days_auth"
    },
    "authapi": {
      "type": "project.v0",
      "path": "../Auth.Api/Auth.Api.csproj",
      "env": {
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EXCEPTION_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true",
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_EMIT_EVENT_LOG_ATTRIBUTES": "true",
        "OTEL_DOTNET_EXPERIMENTAL_OTLP_RETRY": "in_memory",
        "ASPNETCORE_FORWARDEDHEADERS_ENABLED": "true",
        "HTTP_PORTS": "{authapi.bindings.http.targetPort}",
        "ConnectionStrings__messaging": "{messaging.connectionString}",
        "ConnectionStrings__secrets": "{secrets.connectionString}",
        "ConnectionStrings__authdb": "{authdb.connectionString}"
      },
      "bindings": {
        "http": {
          "scheme": "http",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "http"
        },
        "https": {
          "scheme": "https",
          "protocol": "tcp",
          "transport": "http"
        }
      }
    },
// the rest removed for brevity

This is what tools like Aspir8, azd, and others use to create container environments when you want to publish your application.