Set up Valkey in the AppHost

This article is the reference for the Aspire Valkey Hosting integration. It enumerates the AppHost APIs — with examples for both AppHost.cs and apphost.ts — that you use to model a Valkey resource in your AppHost project.

If you’re new to the Valkey integration, start with the Get started with Valkey integrations guide. For how consuming apps read the connection information this page exposes, see Connect to Valkey.

Installation

To start building an Aspire app that uses Valkey, install the 📦 Aspire.Hosting.Valkey NuGet package:

C#

Terminal

aspire add valkey

Learn more about aspire add in the command reference.

Or, choose a manual installation approach:

C# — AppHost.cs

#:package Aspire.Hosting.Valkey@*

XML — AppHost.csproj

<PackageReference Include="Aspire.Hosting.Valkey" Version="*" />

TypeScript

Terminal

aspire add valkey

Learn more about aspire add in the command reference.

This updates your aspire.config.json with the Valkey hosting integration package:

aspire.config.json

{
  "packages": {
    "Aspire.Hosting.Valkey": "13.3.0"
  }
}

Add Valkey resource

Once you’ve installed the hosting integration in your AppHost project, you can add a Valkey resource as shown in the following examples:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache");

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>("apiservice")
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache");

await builder.addNodeApp("api", "./api", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

1. When Aspire adds a container image to the AppHost, as shown in the preceding example with the docker.io/valkey/valkey image, it creates a new Valkey instance on your local machine.

2. The Valkey resource is configured with a randomly generated password by default. To set an explicit password, see Add Valkey resource with parameters.

3. The AppHost reference call configures a connection in the consuming project named after the referenced Valkey resource, such as cache in the preceding example.

Note

When you reference a Valkey resource from the AppHost, Aspire makes several properties available to the consuming project, such as connection URIs, hostnames, port numbers, and the password. For a complete list of these properties and per-language connection examples, see Connect to Valkey.

Add Valkey resource with data volume

Add a data volume to the Valkey resource as shown in the following examples:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache")
    .WithDataVolume(isReadOnly: false);

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache");
await cache.withDataVolume({ isReadOnly: false });

await builder.addNodeApp("api", "./api", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

The data volume is used to persist Valkey data outside the lifecycle of its container. The data volume is mounted at the /data path in the Valkey container, and when a name parameter isn’t provided, the name is generated at random. Calling WithDataVolume (or withDataVolume) also enables Valkey persistence so the in-memory state survives container restarts. For more information on data volumes and details on why they’re preferred over bind mounts, see Docker docs: Volumes.

Add Valkey resource with data bind mount

Add a data bind mount to the Valkey resource as shown in the following examples:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache")
    .WithDataBindMount(
        source: "/Valkey/Data",
        isReadOnly: false);

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache");
await cache.withDataBindMount("/Valkey/Data", { isReadOnly: false });

await builder.addNodeApp("api", "./api", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

Note

Data bind mounts have limited functionality compared to volumes, which offer better performance, portability, and security, making them more suitable for production environments. However, bind mounts allow direct access and modification of files on the host system, ideal for development and testing where real-time changes are needed.

Data bind mounts rely on the host machine’s filesystem to persist Valkey data across container restarts. The data bind mount is mounted at the C:\Valkey\Data on Windows (or /Valkey/Data on Unix) path on the host machine in the Valkey container. As with WithDataVolume, this call also enables persistence. For more information on data bind mounts, see Docker docs: Bind mounts.

Add Valkey resource with persistence

To configure Valkey snapshot persistence explicitly, call WithPersistence (or withPersistence) alongside a data volume or bind mount:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache")
    .WithDataVolume()
    .WithPersistence(
        interval: TimeSpan.FromMinutes(5),
        keysChangedThreshold: 100);

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache");
await cache.withDataVolume();
await cache.withPersistence({
    interval: 5 * 60 * 1000,
    keysChangedThreshold: 100,
});

await builder.addNodeApp("api", "./api", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

The preceding code adds explicit persistence to the Valkey resource by snapshotting data at the configured interval whenever the configured number of keys changes. The C# AppHost accepts a TimeSpan for interval; the TypeScript AppHost accepts the same value as milliseconds.

Add Valkey resource with parameters

When you want to explicitly provide the port and password used by the Valkey container, you can pass them as parameters:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var password = builder.AddParameter("password", secret: true);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache", port: 6379, password: password);

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const password = await builder.addParameter("password", { secret: true });

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache", { port: 6379, password });

await builder.addNodeApp("api", "./api", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

When no password parameter is provided, Aspire generates a strong password automatically using the CreateDefaultPasswordParameter method.

Pass custom environment variables

By default, Aspire injects the Valkey connection information using variable names derived from the resource name (for example, CACHE_URI, CACHE_HOST, CACHE_PORT, CACHE_PASSWORD). If your consuming app expects a different set of environment variable names, pass individual connection properties from the AppHost:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache");

var app = builder.AddExecutable("my-app", "node", "app.js", ".")
    .WithReference(cache)
    .WithEnvironment(context =>
    {
        context.EnvironmentVariables["VALKEY_HOST"] = cache.Resource.PrimaryEndpoint.Property(EndpointProperty.Host);
        context.EnvironmentVariables["VALKEY_PORT"] = cache.Resource.PrimaryEndpoint.Property(EndpointProperty.Port);
        context.EnvironmentVariables["VALKEY_PASSWORD"] = cache.Resource.PasswordParameter;
    });

builder.Build().Run();

TypeScript

TypeScript — apphost.ts

import { createBuilder, EndpointProperty } from './.modules/aspire.js';

const builder = await createBuilder();

const cache = await builder.addValkey("cache");
const cacheEndpoint = await cache.getEndpoint("tcp");
const cacheHost = await cacheEndpoint.property(EndpointProperty.Host);
const cachePort = await cacheEndpoint.property(EndpointProperty.Port);

await builder.addNodeApp("my-app", "./app", "index.js")
    .withReference(cache)
    .withEnvironment("VALKEY_HOST", cacheHost)
    .withEnvironment("VALKEY_PORT", cachePort)
    .withEnvironment("VALKEY_PASSWORD", await cache.passwordParameter());

await builder.build().run();

Connect to an existing Valkey instance

In C#, call AsExisting instead of AddValkey to reference an externally managed Valkey instance:

C#

C# — AppHost.cs

var builder = DistributedApplication.CreateBuilder(args);

var cache = builder.AddValkey("cache")
    .AsExisting(connectionStringParameter: builder.AddParameter("cache-cs", secret: true));

var exampleProject = builder.AddProject<Projects.ExampleProject>()
    .WithReference(cache);

// After adding all resources, run the app...

TypeScript

The TypeScript AppHost doesn’t currently expose an asExisting(...) API for Valkey. To connect to an existing Valkey instance from a TypeScript AppHost, use builder.addConnectionString(...) with a parameter and reference that connection string from your consuming apps instead.

Connection properties

For the full reference of Valkey connection properties — and how consuming apps in C#, TypeScript, Python, and Go read them — see Connect to Valkey.

Hosting integration health checks

The Valkey hosting integration automatically adds a health check for the Valkey resource. The health check verifies that the Valkey instance is running and that a connection can be established to it.

The hosting integration relies on the 📦 AspNetCore.HealthChecks.Redis NuGet package, which works for Valkey because it speaks the Redis serialization protocol.