microsoft/container-images

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 .NET 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.