Legacy deployment manifest format

The deployment manifest is a deprecated compatibility format kept for existing Azure Developer CLI (azd) workflows. It is no longer a core part of the recommended Aspire deployment model.

When it still matters

The legacy manifest is only relevant when:

You maintain an existing azd workflow that still consumes it.
You are debugging how azd interprets an Aspire app model.

Treat it as an implementation detail

When azd deploys an Aspire app, it generates and consumes the manifest automatically. In most cases, you do not need to generate, inspect, or edit it yourself.

Generate it manually only for troubleshooting

If you need to inspect the manifest while debugging a legacy azd workflow, you can generate it manually:

aspire do publish-manifest --output-path ./aspire-manifest.json

For the supported azd path, see Use existing azd workflows. For the recommended Azure deployment path, see Deploy to Azure.