Azure Database for PostgreSQL integrations overview

Azure Database for PostgreSQL — Flexible Server is a fully managed relational database service built on the open-source PostgreSQL engine. It delivers mission-critical workloads with predictable performance, built-in high availability, and dynamic scalability. The Aspire Azure PostgreSQL integration lets you model an Azure PostgreSQL flexible server and its databases as first-class resources in your AppHost, then hand the connection information to any consuming app — regardless of language.

Why use Azure Database for PostgreSQL with Aspire

Adding Azure PostgreSQL through Aspire — rather than managing connection strings and credentials by hand — gives you:

• Managed identity by default. Aspire configures Microsoft Entra ID authentication so no passwords are stored in your app configuration.
• Easy local development. Call runAsContainer (TypeScript) or RunAsContainer (C#) to run a local PostgreSQL container with auto-generated credentials instead of provisioning an Azure resource during development.
• Consistent connection info across languages. Once you reference the database from a consuming app, Aspire injects connection properties as environment variables in a predictable format that works from C#, TypeScript, Python, Go, or any other language.
• Built-in health checks. The hosting integration automatically registers a health check so the dashboard and your orchestrator can tell when the server is ready.
• Dashboard observability. The database resource shows up in the Aspire dashboard with logs, status, and telemetry alongside your other services.
• Automatic Bicep generation. When you publish your app, Aspire generates Azure Bicep for the flexible server, firewall rules, and role assignments so you don’t need to write infrastructure-as-code by hand.
• An upgrade path from local PostgreSQL. If you already use the PostgreSQL Hosting integration, switching to Azure PostgreSQL is a single-line change in your AppHost.

How the pieces fit together

The Azure PostgreSQL integration has two sides: a hosting integration that you use in your AppHost to model the flexible server and database resources, and a connection story for consuming apps that reference them.

architecture-beta

  group apphost(server)[AppHost]
  group consumer(server)[Consuming app]

  service hosting(server)[Hosting integration] in apphost
  service server(logos:postgresql)[Azure PG Flexible Server] in apphost
  service db(database)[postgresdb] in apphost

  service client(iconoir:server-connection)[Client and env vars] in consumer
  service app(server)[App] in consumer

  hosting:R --> L:server
  server:R --> L:db
  db:R --> L:client
  client:R --> L:app

The hosting integration lives in your AppHost project and models the Azure PostgreSQL flexible server and databases as resources. The connection story lives in each consuming app and uses the connection information Aspire injects to talk to the database.

Getting there is a two-step process: model the Azure PostgreSQL resources in your AppHost, then connect to the database from each app that needs it.

1. Model Azure PostgreSQL in your AppHost

   Add the Azure PostgreSQL hosting integration to your AppHost, then declare a flexible server, one or more databases, and reference them from the apps that need to talk to the database. The Azure PostgreSQL Hosting integration article walks through every capability — adding databases, run-as-container for local dev, password authentication, existing server connections, Bicep customization, and more — with side-by-side C# and TypeScript examples.

   Set up Azure PostgreSQL in the AppHost

2. Connect from your consuming app

   When you reference an Azure PostgreSQL database from a consuming app, Aspire injects its connection information as environment variables. See Connect to Azure PostgreSQL for the connection properties reference and per-language examples for C#, Go, Python, and TypeScript — including the full C# client integration.

   Connect to Azure PostgreSQL

See also

• PostgreSQL integrations — the non-Azure variant for pure local-container development.
• PostgreSQL Entity Framework Core integrations — use EF Core with the same Azure PostgreSQL resource.