![.NET Conf 2025 banner](https://aivoyagerimages.blob.core.windows.net/blog-images/dotnet-conf-2025.png) **TL;DR** .NET Conf 2025 started yesterday, continues today (Day 2 goes live at 6:00 PM on November 12, 2025), and wraps up tomorrow with major releases including .NET 10 (LTS), Aspire 13 with true polyglot support, and Visual Studio 2026. The conference showcases significant improvements in performance, AI integration, and developer tooling. AI Voyager will start testing Aspire 13 for API development.

## Learning objectives - Understand the key announcements from .NET Conf 2025. - Learn about .NET 10's LTS status and major improvements. - Explore Aspire 13's polyglot capabilities and new features. - See how AI Voyager plans to leverage the new technology stack. ## Assumptions & context - Information sourced from official Microsoft DevBlogs and .NET Conf announcements[^1][^2][^3]. - .NET 10 is a Long Term Support (LTS) release supported until November 10, 2028[^1]. - Aspire 13 represents a major shift toward true polyglot development beyond just .NET[^2]. - All referenced features are in stable release unless noted as preview. ## .NET 10: The fastest and most intelligent release yet .NET 10 is now generally available as an LTS release, providing three years of support until November 2028[^1]. This release focuses on performance, security, and AI integration across the entire stack. ### Performance improvements .NET 10 delivers measurable performance gains through: - **JIT compiler enhancements**: Better inlining, method devirtualization, and improved code generation for struct arguments. - **Hardware acceleration**: AVX10.2 support for Intel silicon and Arm64 SVE for advanced vectorization, with Arm64 write-barrier improvements reducing GC pause times by 8-20%[^1]. - **NativeAOT improvements**: Smaller, faster ahead-of-time compiled applications. - **Runtime optimizations**: Enhanced loop inversion and stack allocation strategies[^1]. ### C# 14 language features C# 14 introduces powerful language improvements[^1]: - **Field-backed properties**: Simplified property declarations with automatic backing field generation. - **Extension properties and methods**: Add members to types you don't own, including interfaces and static members. - **First-class Span<T> conversions**: Implicit conversion support for high-performance span operations. - **Null-conditional assignment**: `?.=` operator for cleaner null-safe assignment. - **Partial properties and constructors**: Complete the partial members story. ### AI integration capabilities .NET 10 brings first-class AI support[^1]: - **Microsoft Agent Framework**: Build intelligent multi-agent systems combining Semantic Kernel and AutoGen. - **Microsoft.Extensions.AI**: Unified abstractions for integrating AI services with any provider (OpenAI, Azure OpenAI, GitHub Models, Ollama). - **Model Context Protocol (MCP) support**: First-class support for extending AI agents with external tools and services[^4]. - **AG-UI protocol support**: Build rich agent user interfaces with streaming and shared state management[^1]. ## Aspire 13: Aspireify anything Aspire 13 represents a fundamental shift in how we think about distributed application development[^2]. This release transforms Aspire from a .NET-focused tool into a true polyglot orchestration platform. ### Major features in Aspire 13 **aspire do command**[^2] The new `aspire do` command reimagines build, publish, and deployment pipelines as discrete, parallelizable steps with dependency tracking: ```bash # Build containers only aspire do build # View deployment pipeline aspire do diagnostics # Define custom pipeline steps builder.Pipeline.AddStep("validate", async (context) => { context.Logger.LogInformation("Running validation checks..."); // Custom validation logic }, requiredBy: WellKnownPipelineSteps.Build); ``` **Aspire MCP Server**[^2] The Aspire Dashboard includes a Model Context Protocol server enabling AI assistants to: - List all resources with state and endpoints. - Access console logs in real-time. - Retrieve structured logs and traces. - Execute commands on resources. Use the MCP button in the Dashboard's top right corner to configure integration with GitHub Copilot, Claude, or other AI assistants. **Polyglot connection properties**[^2] Database resources automatically expose multiple connection string formats: - .NET: `ConnectionStrings` format - Python: `DATABASE_URL` (URI format) - Java: `DB_JDBCCONNECTIONSTRING` (JDBC format) **JavaScript and Python first-class support**[^2] JavaScript improvements: - `AddJavaScriptApp` replaces `AddNpmApp` with automatic package manager detection (npm, yarn, pnpm). - Vite gets first-class support with HMR and automatic port configuration. - Intelligent package management with deterministic install commands in production. - Automatic Dockerfile generation with Node version detection. Python improvements: - Three execution models: `AddPythonApp`, `AddPythonModule`, `AddPythonExecutable`. - Uvicorn integration for FastAPI, Starlette, and Quart apps. - Flexible package management with pip, uv, or venv detection. - VS Code debugging support. - Production-ready Dockerfiles with automatic Python version detection. ## Visual Studio 2026 and developer tools Visual Studio 2026 brings AI-powered development to the forefront[^1]: - **Adaptive paste**: Copilot adapts pasted code to file context, fixing names, formatting, and translating between languages. - **Profiler Copilot Agent**: AI assistant analyzing CPU usage, memory allocations, and suggesting optimizations. - **Debugger Agent for unit tests**: Automatically debugs failing tests and validates solutions iteratively. - **Modern Fluent UI**: 11 new tinted themes with independent editor appearance settings. - **SLNX support**: Simplified solution format for cleaner version control. ## AI Voyager's next steps with Aspire 13 AI Voyager will begin testing Aspire 13 with .NET 10 for API development to modernize the current architecture[^3]. The plan includes: 1. **Install Aspire CLI**[^3]: ```bash # Install the Aspire CLI curl -sSL https://aspire.dev/install.sh | bash # Or update existing installation aspire update --self ``` 2. **Create initial API project**: Start with a .NET 10 API project using Aspire 13's orchestration capabilities, with potential integration of Python services for AI/ML workloads. 3. **Evaluate Aspire features**: - Test `aspire do` for deployment pipeline optimization. - Implement Aspire Dashboard MCP for AI-assisted debugging. - Leverage polyglot connection string management for database access. - Use automatic dev certificate trust for HTTPS across services. 4. **Integrate with existing AI Voyager infrastructure**: Gradually migrate services to Aspire orchestration while maintaining existing functionality. The goal is to modernize AI Voyager's backend infrastructure using .NET 10 and Aspire 13, enabling better scalability, observability, and developer productivity. ## Quick verification checklist When implementing new .NET 10 and Aspire 13 features: - Test .NET 10 LTS migration with existing codebases using small pilot projects. - Verify performance improvements through benchmark comparisons (BenchmarkDotNet recommended). - Validate Aspire polyglot features with simple multi-language projects before production deployment. - Review breaking changes documentation for .NET 10 upgrade paths. - Test MCP integrations with AI assistants in development environments first. ## Practical next steps 1. Download .NET 10 SDK and Visual Studio 2026[^1]. 2. Watch .NET Conf sessions to understand new features in depth. 3. Install Aspire CLI and test with starter templates[^3]. 4. Review official documentation for breaking changes and migration guides. 5. Join the Aspire Discord community for support and best practices[^2]. ## Summary .NET Conf 2025 delivers significant updates across the .NET ecosystem. .NET 10 provides LTS stability with three years of support, major performance improvements, and first-class AI integration. Aspire 13 transforms distributed application development with true polyglot support for JavaScript, Python, and .NET. Visual Studio 2026 brings AI-powered development tools directly into the IDE. AI Voyager will leverage .NET 10 and Aspire 13 to modernize API development, starting with CLI installation and pilot projects to evaluate the new capabilities. The combination of .NET 10's performance and Aspire 13's orchestration features provides a solid foundation for building scalable, observable, and maintainable distributed applications. The future of .NET development is polyglot, AI-powered, and highly productive. - [^1]: Announcing .NET 10 - [^2]: Aspire 13 – Aspireify anything - [^3]: Aspire CLI Installation - [^4]: Model Context Protocol C# SDK Until then, stay curious and keep exploring. — [André Barnard](/about), AI Explorer

.NET Conf 2025: Major Updates and AI Voyager's Next Steps

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