.NET Aspire and Semantic Kernel AI

 Let's learn how to use the .NET Aspire Azure OpenAI client. We will familiarize ourselves with the Aspire.Azure.AI.OpenAI library, which is used to register an OpenAIClient in the dependency injection (DI) container for consuming Azure OpenAI or OpenAI functionality. In addition, it enables corresponding logging and telemetry.

Companion Video: https://youtu.be/UuLnCRdYvEI
Final Solution Code: https://github.com/medhatelmasry/AspireAI_Final

Pre-requisites:

• .NET 9.0
• Visual Studio Code
• .NET Aspire Workload
• "C# Dev Kit" extension for VS Code

Getting Started

We will start by cloning a simple C# solution that contains two projects that use Semantic Kernel - namely a console project (ConsoleAI) and a razor-pages project (RazorPagesAI). Clone the project in a working directory on your computer by executing these commands in a terminal window:

git clone https://github.com/medhatelmasry/AspireAI.git

cd AspireAI

The cloned solution contains a console application (ConsoleAI) and a razor-pages application (RazorPagesAI). They both do pretty much do the same thing. The objective of today’s exercise is to:

• use .NET Aspire so that both projects get started from one place 
• pass environment variables to the console and razor-pages web apps from the .AppHost project that belongs to .NET Aspire

Open the solution in VS Code and update the values in the following appsettings.json files with your access parameters for Azure OpenAI and/or OpenAI:

ConsoleAI/appsettings.json

RazorPagesAI/appsettings.json

The most important settings are the connection strings. They are identical in both projects:

"ConnectionStrings": {

  "azureOpenAi": "Endpoint=Azure-OpenAI-Endpoint-Here;Key=Azure-OpenAI-Key-Here;",

  "openAi": "Key=OpenAI-Key-Here"

}

After you update your access parameters, try each application separately to see what it does:

Here is my experience using the console application (ConsoleAI) with AzureOrOpenAI set to “OpenAI”:

cd ConsoleAI

dotnet run

I then changed the AzureOrOpenAI setting to “Azure” and ran the console application (ConsoleAI) again:

Next, try the razor pages web application (RazorPagesAI) with AzureOrOpenAI set to “OpenAI”:

cd ../RazorPagesAI

dotnet watch

In the RazorPagesAI web app’s appsettings.json file, I changed AzureOrOpenAI to “Azure”, resulting in a similar experience.

In the root folder, add .NET Aspire to the solution:

cd ..

dotnet new aspire --force

Add the previous projects to the newly created .sln file with:

dotnet sln add ./AiLibrary/AiLibrary.csproj

dotnet sln add ./RazorPagesAI/RazorPagesAI.csproj

dotnet sln add ./ConsoleAI/ConsoleAI.csproj

Add the following .NET Aspire agent packages to the client ConsoleAI and RazorPagesAI projects with:

dotnet add ./ConsoleAI/ConsoleAI.csproj package Aspire.Azure.AI.OpenAI --prerelease

dotnet add ./RazorPagesAI/RazorPagesAI.csproj package Aspire.Azure.AI.OpenAI --prerelease

To add Azure hosting support to your IDistributedApplicationBuilder, install the 📦 Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CognitiveServices NuGet package in the .AppHost project:

dotnet add ./AspireAI.AppHost/AspireAI.AppHost.csproj package Aspire.Hosting.Azure.CognitiveServices

In VS Code, add the following references:

1. Add a reference from the .AppHost project into ConsoleAI project.
2. Add a reference from the .AppHost project into RazorPagesAI project.
3. Add a reference from the ConsoleAI project into .ServiceDefaults project.
4. Add a reference from the RazorPagesAI project into .ServiceDefaults project.

Copy the AI and ConnectionStrings blocks from either the console (ConsoleAI) or web app (RazorPagesAI)  appsettings.json file into the appsettings.json file of the .AppHost project. The appsettings.json file in the .AppHost project will look similar to this:

"AI": {

  "AzureOrOpenAI": "OpenAI",

  "OpenAiChatModel": "gpt-3.5-turbo",

  "AzureChatDeploymentName": "gpt-35-turbo"

},

"ConnectionStrings": {

  "azureOpenAi": "Endpoint=Azure-OpenAI-Endpoint-Here;Key=Azure-OpenAI-Key-Here;",

  "openAi": "Key=OpenAI-Key-Here"

}

Add the following code to the Program.cs file in the .AppHost project just before builder.Build().Run(): 

IResourceBuilder<IResourceWithConnectionString> openai;

var AzureOrOpenAI = builder.Configuration["AI:AzureOrOpenAI"] ?? "Azure"; ;

var chatDeploymentName = builder.Configuration["AI:AzureChatDeploymentName"];

var openAiChatModel = builder.Configuration["AI:OpenAiChatModel"];

 

// Register an Azure OpenAI resource. 

// The AddAzureAIOpenAI method reads connection information

// from the app host's configuration

if (AzureOrOpenAI.ToLower() == "azure") {

    openai = builder.ExecutionContext.IsPublishMode

        ? builder.AddAzureOpenAI("azureOpenAi")

        : builder.AddConnectionString("azureOpenAi");

} else {

    openai = builder.ExecutionContext.IsPublishMode

        ? builder.AddAzureOpenAI("openAi")

        : builder.AddConnectionString("openAi");

}

 

// Register the RazorPagesAI project and pass to it environment variables.

//  WithReference method passes connection info to client project

builder.AddProject<Projects.RazorPagesAI>("razor")

    .WithReference(openai)

    .WithEnvironment("AI__AzureChatDeploymentName", chatDeploymentName)

    .WithEnvironment("AI__AzureOrOpenAI", AzureOrOpenAI)

    .WithEnvironment("AI_OpenAiChatModel", openAiChatModel);

 

 // register the ConsoleAI project and pass to it environment variables

builder.AddProject<Projects.ConsoleAI>("console")

    .WithReference(openai)

    .WithEnvironment("AI__AzureChatDeploymentName", chatDeploymentName)

    .WithEnvironment("AI__AzureOrOpenAI", AzureOrOpenAI)

    .WithEnvironment("AI_OpenAiChatModel", openAiChatModel);

We need to add .NET Aspire agents in both our console and web apps. Let us start with the web app. Add this code to the Program.cs file in the RazorPagesAI project right before “var app = builder.Build()”: 

builder.AddServiceDefaults();

In the same Program.cs of the web app (RazorPagesAI), comment out the if (azureOrOpenAi.ToLower() == "openai") { …. } else { ….. } block and replace it with this code:

if (azureOrOpenAi.ToLower() == "openai") {

    builder.AddOpenAIClient("openAi");

    builder.Services.AddKernel()

        .AddOpenAIChatCompletion(openAiChatModel);

} else {

    builder.AddAzureOpenAIClient("azureOpenAi");

    builder.Services.AddKernel()

        .AddAzureOpenAIChatCompletion(azureChatDeploymentName);

}

In the above code, we call the extension method to register an OpenAIClient for use via the dependency injection container. The method takes a connection name parameter. Also, register Semantic Kernel with the DI. 

Also, in the Program.cs file in the ConsoleAI project, add this code right below the using statements:

var hostBuilder = Host.CreateApplicationBuilder();

hostBuilder.AddServiceDefaults();

In the same Program.cs of the console app (ConsoleAI), comment out the if (azureOrOpenAi.ToLower() == "azure") { …. } else { ….. } block and replace it with this code:

if (azureOrOpenAI.ToLower() == "azure") {

    var azureChatDeploymentName = config["AI:AzureChatDeploymentName"] ?? "gpt-35-turbo";

    hostBuilder.AddAzureOpenAIClient("azureOpenAi");

    hostBuilder.Services.AddKernel()

        .AddAzureOpenAIChatCompletion(azureChatDeploymentName);

} else {

    var openAiChatModel = config["AI:OpenAiChatModel"] ?? "gpt-3.5-turbo";

    hostBuilder.AddOpenAIClient("openAi");

    hostBuilder.Services.AddKernel()

        .AddOpenAIChatCompletion(openAiChatModel);

}

var app = hostBuilder.Build();

Replace “var kernel = builder.Build();” with this code:

var kernel = app.Services.GetRequiredService<Kernel>();

app.Start();

You can now test that the .NET Aspire orchestration of both the Console and Web apps. Stop all applications, then, in a terminal window,  go to the .AppHost project and run the following command:

dotnet watch

You will see the .NET Aspire dashboard:

Click on Views under the Logs column. You will see this output indicating that the console application ran successfully:

Click on the link for the web app under the Endpoints column. It opens the razor pages web app in another tab in your browser. Test it out and verify that it works as expected.

Stop the .AppHost application, then comment out the AI and ConneectionStrings blocks in the appsettings.json files in both the console and web apps. If you run the .AppHost project again, you will discover that it works equally well because the environment variables are being passed from the .AppHost project into the console and web apps respectively.

One last refinement we can do to the console application is do away with the ConfigurationBuilder because we can get a configuration object from the ApplicationBuilder. Therefore, comment out the following code in the console application:

var config = new ConfigurationBuilder()

    .SetBasePath(Directory.GetCurrentDirectory())

    .AddJsonFile("appsettings.json", optional: true, reloadOnChange: true)

    .Build();

Replace the above code with the following:

var config = hostBuilder.Configuration;

You can delete the following package from the ConsoleAI.csproj file:

<PackageReference Include="Microsoft.Extensions.Configuration.Json" Version="9.0.0" />

Everything works just as it did before.

Using Aspire with gRPC

We start with a simple gRPC application that involves a gRPC server and Blazor client. The gRPC server connects to a SQLite database. To test the sample solution, we must first start the gRPC server app, then start the client app. This is somewhat tedious. By introducing .NET Aspire into the mix, we only need to start one app to get the solution to work. .NET Aspire also gives us many more benefits.

Start source code: https://github.com/medhatelmasry/GrpcBlazorSolution
Companion Video: https://youtu.be/9048nfSvA9E

Prerequisites

In order to continue with this tutorial, you will need the following:

• .NET 9.0
• Visual Studio Code
• 'C# Dev Kit' extension for Visual Studio Code

.NET Aspire Setup

In any terminal window folder, run the following command before you install .NET Aspire:

dotnet workload update 

To install the .NET Aspire workload from the .NET CLI, execute this command:

dotnet workload install aspire

Check your version of .NET Aspire, with this command:

dotnet workload list

Startup Application

We will start with a .NET 9.0 solution that involves a gRPC backend and a Blazor frontend. Clone the code from this GitHub site with:

git clone https://github.com/medhatelmasry/GrpcBlazorSolution.git

To run the solution, we must first start the backend, then start the frontend. To get a good sense of what the application does, follow these steps:

1) Inside the GrpcStudents folder, run the following command in a terminal window:

dotnet run

2) Next, start the frontend. Inside a terminal window in the BlazorGrpcClient folder, run this command:

dotnet watch

Try the application by adding, updating, and deleting data saved in a SQLit database on the gRPC server. However, it is a pain to have to start both projects to get the solution to work. This is where .NET Aspire comes to the rescue.

Converting solution to .NET Aspire

Close both terminal windows by hitting CTRL C in each.

To add the basic .NET Aspire projects to our solution by running the following command inside the root GrpcBlazorSolution folder:

dotnet new aspire --force

We use the --force switch because the above command will overwrite the .sln file with a new one that only includes two new projects: GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost and GrpcBlazorSolution.ServiceDefaults.

NOTE: At the time of writing this article, the two .NET Aspire projects are created using .NET 8.0. This will likely change with the passage of time.

We will add our previous gRPC & Blazor projects to the newly created .sln file by executing the following commands inside the root SoccerFIFA folder:

dotnet sln add ./GrpcStudents/GrpcStudents.csproj

dotnet sln add ./BlazorGrpcClient/BlazorGrpcClient.csproj

Open the solution in Visual Studio Code.

We will add references in the GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost project to the GrpcStudents and BlazorGrpcClient projects. This can be done in the "Solution Explorer" tab in Visual Studio Code. 

Right-click on "GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost" then select "Add Project Reference". 

 

Choose BlazorGrpcClient.

Similarly, do the same for the the "GrpcStudents" project. Right-click on "GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost" then select "Add Project Reference". 

Choose BlazorStudents.

Also, both GrpcStudents and BlazorGrpcClient projects need to have references into GrpcBlazorSolution.ServiceDefaults.

Right-click on BlazorGrpcClient then select "Add Project Reference". 

Choose GrpcBlazorSolution.ServiceDefaults.

Similarly, add a reference to GrpcBlazorSolution.ServiceDefaults from GrpcStudents:

Right-click on GrpcStudents then select "Add Project Reference". 

Choose GrpcBlazorSolution.ServiceDefaults once again.

Then, in the Program.cs files of both GrpcStudents and BlazorGrpcClient projects, add this agent code right before "var app = builder.Build();":

// Add service defaults & Aspire components.
builder.AddServiceDefaults();

In the Program.cs file in GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost, add this code right before “builder.Build().Run();”:

var grpc = builder.AddProject<Projects.GrpcStudents>("backend");
builder.AddProject<Projects.BlazorGrpcClient>("frontend")
    .WithReference(grpc);

The relative name for the gRPC app is “backend”. Therefore, edit Program.cs in the BlazorGrpcClient project. At around line 15, change the address from http://localhost:5099 to simply http://backend so that the statement looks like this:

builder.Services.AddGrpcClient<StudentRemote.StudentRemoteClient>(options =>

{

    options.Address = new Uri("http://backend");

});

Test .NET Aspire Solution

To test the solution,  start the application in the GrpcBlazorSolution.AppHost folder with:

dotnet watch

NOTE: If you are asked to enter a token, copy and paste it from the value in your terminal window:

This is what you should see in your browser:

Click on the app represented by the frontend link on the second row. You should experience the Blazor app:

.NET Aspire has orchestrated for us the connection between multiple projects and produced a single starting point in the Host project. 

Mission accomplished. We have achieved our objective by adding NET Aspire into the mix of projects and wiring up a couple of agents.