Get started with the MongoDB integrations

MongoDB is a document-oriented NoSQL database that stores data in flexible, JSON-like documents, offering high performance, high availability, and easy horizontal scaling. The Aspire MongoDB integration lets you model a MongoDB 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 MongoDB with Aspire

Adding MongoDB through Aspire — rather than wiring up containers and connection strings by hand — gives you:

• Zero-config local development. Aspire runs MongoDB from the docker.io/library/mongo container image with credentials generated automatically for you.
• 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.
• A first-class C# client integration. C# apps can use the Aspire.MongoDB.Driver (or Aspire.MongoDB.Driver.v3) package for dependency injection, health checks, and OpenTelemetry, all wired up from the same resource name.
• MongoDB Express. Optionally spin up the Mongo Express web admin UI alongside your database with a single API call.

How the pieces fit together

The MongoDB integration has two sides: a hosting integration that you use in your AppHost to model the database resource, and a connection story for consuming apps that reference it.

architecture-beta

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

  service hosting(server)[Hosting integration] in apphost
  service mongo(logos:mongodb)[MongoDB server] in apphost
  service db(database)[mongodbname] in apphost

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

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

The hosting integration lives in your AppHost project and models the MongoDB server and databases as resources. The client integration lives in each C# consuming app and uses the connection information Aspire injects to talk to the database. Apps written in other languages read the same injected environment variables directly.

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

1. Model MongoDB in your AppHost

   Add the MongoDB hosting integration to your AppHost, then declare a MongoDB server, one or more databases, and reference them from the apps that need to talk to the database. The MongoDB hosting integration article walks through every capability — adding databases, Mongo Express, data volumes, init files, custom parameters, and more — with side-by-side C# and TypeScript examples.

   Set up MongoDB in the AppHost

2. Connect from your consuming app

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

   Connect to MongoDB

See also

• MongoDB community extensions
• Get started with the MongoDB Entity Framework Core integrations