[GitHub Discussions] Deployment & CI/CD documentation gaps

[davidfowl]

Summary

Based on analysis of 820 GitHub discussions from dotnet/aspire.

Question counts:

Topic	Questions
Deployment (general)	111
Kubernetes/Helm	25+
CI/CD Pipelines	20+
aspire deploy CLI	15+

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Status update (April 2026)

This issue is partially addressed by #720.

Newly added docs

URL	Title	Coverage
https://aspire.dev/deployment/overview/	Deployment overview	Pipeline model, publish vs deploy, compute environments, parameters, environments
https://aspire.dev/deployment/ci-cd/	CI/CD overview	Workflow-first CI/CD guidance
https://aspire.dev/deployment/app-lifecycle/	Example app lifecycle workflow	End-to-end GitHub Actions workflow example
https://aspire.dev/deployment/pipelines/	Pipeline model	aspire do, step execution, selective workflow guidance
https://aspire.dev/deployment/environments/	Environments	Environment mapping and CI/CD context

Addressed or partially addressed

• A CI/CD guide now exists.
• A GitHub Actions deployment example now exists.
• Selective step execution is now documented in the pipeline model docs.
• Deployment concepts are clearer and more progressive across overview + CI/CD docs.

Still open

1. CI/CD platform-specific gaps

• Azure DevOps pipeline setup
• GitLab CI setup
• Service Principal vs User auth in CI
• Test failures in CI troubleshooting
• Multi-environment CI workflows beyond the current overview/example pages

2. aspire publish / aspire deploy troubleshooting

• Debugging and verbose-output guidance for aspire publish and aspire deploy

3. Self-hosting / non-Azure

• Linux VPS deployment
• On-premises patterns
• AWS/GCP deployment
• Air-gapped environments

4. Kubernetes troubleshooting

• ASPIRE_RESOURCE_SERVICE_ENDPOINT_URL documentation
• Connection string debugging in Kubernetes
• Password/secrets troubleshooting in Kubernetes

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Data Source

• GitHub Discussions: 820 total, 111 deployment-related
• Verification method: aspire-get_doc to read actual doc content
• Date: February 2026