[Mitch Denny (mitchdenny)]

Description

External deployment publishers can generate Aspire's Kubernetes Helm charts through public pipeline annotations, but cannot currently inspect the complete deferred-value mappings or access the actual chart-producing Kubernetes environment behind AKS.

This change exposes AzureKubernetesEnvironmentResource.KubernetesEnvironment with an internal setter and adds KubernetesEnvironmentResource.HelmChartPublishingResult. The result contains the chart output directory and read-only parameter, value-provider, image-resource, and composite-template mappings. Each mapping preserves its three path segments and original source object. Results are published only after chart generation succeeds; a new attempt clears the current result, and previously obtained metadata snapshots remain unchanged.

The publisher context, chart-writing method, capture lists, and deployment-engine factory remain internal. Existing publishing/deployment resolution behavior is unchanged. The result is a C# deployment-extension API, explicitly excluded from the polyglot AppHost authoring surface. Generated API release baselines are intentionally unchanged.

Fixes # (issue)

User-facing usage

var environment = builder.AddKubernetesEnvironment("k8s");
builder.Pipeline.AddStep("consume-chart", context =>
{
    var result = environment.Resource.HelmChartPublishingResult
        ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("The Helm chart has not been published.");
    // Consume result.OutputPath, Parameters, ValueProviders, Images, and CrossReferences.
    return Task.CompletedTask;
}, dependsOn: $"publish-{environment.Resource.Name}", requiredBy: "publish");

For AKS, obtain the same environment through aks.Resource.KubernetesEnvironment and depend on its publish-{Name} step. Resolve references only in the consuming publisher's appropriate deployment phase; the result does not clone resources or chart files.

Validation

• Passed: dotnet test --project tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests.csproj --no-launch-profile -- --filter-class '*.HelmChartPublishingResultTests' --filter-class '*.KubernetesPublisherTests' --filter-class '*.KubernetesDeployTests' --filter-not-trait 'quarantined=true' --filter-not-trait 'outerloop=true' — 176 tests.
• Passed: dotnet test --project tests/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests.csproj --no-launch-profile -- --filter-class '*.AzureKubernetesEnvironmentExtensionsTests' --filter-class '*.AzureKubernetesHelmChartTests' --filter-not-trait 'quarantined=true' --filter-not-trait 'outerloop=true' — 119 tests.
• Passed: for project in Aspire.Hosting Aspire.Hosting.Azure Aspire.Hosting.Azure.ContainerRegistry Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Network Aspire.Hosting.Azure.OperationalInsights Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes Aspire.Hosting.Dotnet Aspire.Hosting.AppHost; do dotnet pack "src/$project/$project.csproj" -c Release -p:VersionSuffix=preview.1.helm.gb7cbb35077 -p:DotNetFinalVersionKind=prerelease -o artifacts/helm-publishing-packages/b7cbb35077 --verbosity quiet || exit "$?"; done — nine local 17.0 packages, with matching dependency versions and repository commit metadata. These are local artifacts, not packages published to a remote feed.

No cloud provisioning or deployment was performed. Formal API review and downstream integration remain pending; this PR is intentionally a draft.

Checklist

• Is this feature complete?
  • Yes. Ready to ship.
  • No. Follow-up changes expected.
• Are you including unit tests for the changes and scenario tests if relevant?
  • Yes
  • No
• Did you add public API?
  • Yes
    • If yes, did you have an API Review for it?
      • Yes
      • No
    • Did you add <remarks /> and <code /> elements on your triple slash comments?
      • Yes
      • No
  • No
• Does the change make any security assumptions or guarantees?
  • Yes
    • If yes, have you done a threat model and had a security review?
      • Yes
      • No
  • No

[github-actions]

🚀 Dogfood this PR with:

⚠️ WARNING: Do not do this without first carefully reviewing the code of this PR to satisfy yourself it is safe.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.sh | bash -s -- 21789

Or

• Run remotely in PowerShell:

iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1) } 21789"

[github-actions]

Tests selector

8 / 101 PR test projects · 2 PR jobs, from 10 changed files.

Selected PR test projects (8 / 101)

Aspire.Cli.EndToEnd.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.CodeGeneration.Python.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.CodeGeneration.TypeScript.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.Docker.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.RemoteHost.Tests

Selected PR jobs (2)

polyglot, typescript-api-compat

---

How these were chosen — grouped by what changed

🔧 src/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes/AzureKubernetesEnvironmentResource.cs (changed source)
→ 2 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Tests
→ 3 via the project graph: Aspire.Hosting.CodeGeneration.Python.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.CodeGeneration.TypeScript.Tests, Aspire.Hosting.RemoteHost.Tests

🔧 src/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/HelmChartPublishingResult.cs (changed source)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests
→ 1 via the project graph: Aspire.Hosting.Docker.Tests

📦 affected project Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes
→ 1 test: Aspire.Cli.EndToEnd.Tests

🔧 src/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/HelmValueMapping.cs (changed source)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🔧 src/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/KubernetesEnvironmentResource.cs (changed source)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🔧 src/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/KubernetesPublishingContext.cs (changed source)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🧪 tests/Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests/AzureKubernetesEnvironmentExtensionsTests.cs (changed test)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests

🧪 tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/HelmChartPublishingResultTests.cs (changed test)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🧪 tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/Snapshots/HelmChartPublishingResultTests.ResultIsAvailableToDependentStepAndPreservesDeferredSources.verified.txt (changed test)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🧪 tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/Snapshots/HelmChartPublishingResultTests.ResultIsAvailableToDependentStepAndPreservesDeferredSources.verified.yaml (changed test)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

🧪 tests/Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/TestValueProvider.cs (changed test)
→ 1 directly: Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests

Job reasons

Job	Triggered by
polyglot	• affected project Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes • affected project Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Provisioning.ContainerService
typescript-api-compat	affected project Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes

---

Selection computed for commit b7cbb35.

[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

Capture lists persist across publishing attempts, exposing stale provider and image mappings for removed workloads and potentially causing unused source resolution or invalid overrides.

1 open issue

• Clear stale capture mappings between publishing attempts · New

What changed in this PR

This PR exposes generated Helm chart metadata to C# deployment extensions, including access to the chart-producing Kubernetes environment behind AKS.

Changes:

• Adds read-only publishing results with output paths and deferred-value mappings.
• Publishes results after successful chart generation and clears them when a new attempt starts.
• Adds usage documentation and tests for deferred sources, snapshot isolation, failure handling, and AKS access.

File	Description
tests/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/​TestValueProvider.cs	Tracks provider evaluations to verify deferred resolution.
tests/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/​Snapshots/​HelmChartPublishingResultTests.ResultIsAvailableToDependentStepAndPreservesDeferredSources.verified.yaml	Records generated Helm values.
tests/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/​Snapshots/​HelmChartPublishingResultTests.ResultIsAvailableToDependentStepAndPreservesDeferredSources.verified.txt	Records exposed mapping metadata.
tests/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes.Tests/​HelmChartPublishingResultTests.cs	Tests result availability, snapshots, failures, and run mode.
tests/​Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes.Tests/​AzureKubernetesEnvironmentExtensionsTests.cs	Tests access to AKS’s chart environment and publishing result.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/​README.md	Documents deployment-publisher consumption and result lifecycle.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/​KubernetesPublishingContext.cs	Clears and assigns publishing results around chart generation.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/​KubernetesEnvironmentResource.cs	Exposes the current publishing result.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/​HelmValueMapping.cs	Defines immutable mapping paths and source references.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Kubernetes/​HelmChartPublishingResult.cs	Captures read-only chart metadata and deferred mappings.
src/​Aspire.Hosting.Azure.Kubernetes/​AzureKubernetesEnvironmentResource.cs	Makes the underlying Kubernetes environment publicly readable.

_{Review effort: Balanced}