ConsoleMonster.Hosting 2.1.2

ConsoleMonster.Hosting

A live console dashboard for .NET generic host applications. It depends only on Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting.Abstractions and ConsoleMonster.

dotnet add package ConsoleMonster.Hosting
dotnet add package ConsoleMonster.Extensions.Logging

using ConsoleMonster.Extensions.Logging;
using ConsoleMonster.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.DependencyInjection;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Logging;

HostApplicationBuilder builder = Host.CreateApplicationBuilder(args);
builder.Logging.ClearProviders();            // the default console logger would print over the view
builder.Logging.AddConsoleMonster();
builder.Services.AddHostedService<QueueWorker>();
builder.Services.AddHostedService<CacheWarmer>();
builder.Services.AddConsoleDashboard(dashboard => dashboard.Title = "Orders");   // after AddHostedService
await builder.Build().RunAsync();

 Orders · Production                                                  ctrl+c stops · 00:01:12
 ⠹ Queue        running      1m 10s  42 messages waiting
 ✓ CacheWarmer  completed       58s
 ✗ Reports      failed          12s  InvalidOperationException: the template folder is missing
 14:05:12        Queue  picked up order 1042
 14:05:13 ▴ WARN Queue  payment slow for order 1042

What it shows

• A header with the title (default: the application name), the environment and the elapsed time.
• One line per hosted service registered before AddConsoleDashboard:
  • its state: waiting, starting, running, stopping, stopped, completed or failed;
  • elapsed time from the beginning of its StartAsync to its own stop, completion or failure;
  • the failure message when it fails. For a BackgroundService, the line also follows its ExecuteAsync: it shows completed when the method returns and failed when it throws.
• Your own entries through IConsoleDashboard, which you can inject anywhere:
  • SetStatus("Import", ServiceState.Running, "file 3 of 10");
  • SetDetail(...);
  • Log(...);
  • Snapshot().
• A log region. ConsoleMonster.Extensions.Logging writes into it while the dashboard shows, so log lines never print over the view. Remove the default console logger (builder.Logging.ClearProviders()) before adding it. Entries with an exception print above the dashboard instead, with their details, so they stay in the scrollback.

Hosted-service elapsed time uses a monotonic clock and includes startup and shutdown work. It freezes at that service's first terminal outcome, so later host shutdown and wall-clock adjustments do not change the final duration. Application-reported entries continue to show time in their current state; ServiceStatus.Since remains the timestamp of the latest state change.

Only the hosted services the dashboard draws are wrapped, and the wrappers forward every call. A BackgroundService stays a BackgroundService for the host, which logs a failure and applies BackgroundServiceExceptionBehavior as usual. Lifecycle callbacks (IHostedLifecycleService) still reach the service. Where the dashboard won't draw, the services are left as registered.

When the host stops, the dashboard stops last and leaves its final state in the scrollback (KeepFinalState).

When it stays out of the way

With Mode = Auto (the default), the dashboard draws only on an interactive terminal. It draws nothing when:

• the output is redirected, or the app runs in CI or a container log;
• the process is not user-interactive (a Windows service);
• the app runs as a daemon without a terminal.

In those cases the host and its logging run exactly as they would without it. Always draws whenever the terminal can, and Never only tracks the statuses, for Snapshot(). Ctrl+C stays with the host: it stops the application, and the dashboard ends with it.

Options

The package works with trimming and native AOT on .NET 8 and later.

dotnet new install ConsoleMonster.Templates and dotnet new consolemonster start an app with this dashboard already wired up. Hosting dashboard · ConsoleMonster