Arcturus.DevHost.Hosting 2026.3.15.316

Arcturus.DevHost.Hosting

The Arcturus.DevHost.Hosting library provides a lightweight orchestration framework for running multiple .NET projects and executables together in a local development environment. It simplifies the developer inner loop by managing the lifecycle of multiple services, applications, and processes from a single orchestrator.

Overview

This library enables you to:

• Orchestrate multiple .NET projects: Launch and manage multiple .NET applications simultaneously
• Run arbitrary executables: Start and monitor external processes like npm, docker, or any other command-line tools
• Centralized logging: Configure and view logs from all managed resources in one place
• Process lifecycle management: Automatic process cleanup and graceful shutdown handling
• Environment configuration: Set custom URLs and environment variables per resource

Key Components

OrchestratorHost

The main host that manages the lifecycle of all registered resources (projects and executables). It handles:

• Starting and stopping processes
• Signal handling (CTRL+C, process termination)
• Job object management for process cleanup
• Coordinating logging across all resources

OrchestratorHostBuilder

A fluent builder API for configuring your orchestrator:

var host = OrchestratorHostBuilder.Create()
    .AddProject<MyApiProject>(project => 
    {
        project.WithUrls("http://localhost:5000");
        project.WithEnvironmentVariable("ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT", "Development");
    })
    .AddExecutable("npm", "run dev", workingDirectory: "./frontend")
    .ConfigureLogging(logging => 
    {
        logging.AddConsole();
    })
    .Build();

await host.RunAsync();

Resources

• ProjectResource: Represents a .NET project with metadata, URLs, and environment variables
• ExecutableResource: Represents an external executable with arguments and working directory
• IResource: Common interface for all managed resources

Usage

1. Define Project Metadata

Implement IProjectMetadata for each project you want to orchestrate:

public class MyApiProjectMetadata : IProjectMetadata
{
    public string ProjectPath => "path/to/MyApi/MyApi.csproj";
    public string ProjectName => "MyApi";
}

2. Build and Run the Orchestrator

using Arcturus.DevHost.Hosting;

var host = OrchestratorHostBuilder.Create()
    .AddProject<MyApiProjectMetadata>()
    .AddProject<MyWebAppMetadata>(project =>
    {
        project.WithUrls("http://localhost:3000");
    })
    .AddExecutable("npm", "run dev", "./client-app")
    .ConfigureLogging(logging =>
    {
        logging.AddConsole();
        logging.SetMinimumLevel(LogLevel.Information);
    })
    .Build();

await host.RunAsync();

3. Graceful Shutdown

The orchestrator automatically handles shutdown signals and ensures all child processes are terminated cleanly.

Features

• Job Object Management: Uses Windows Job Objects to ensure child processes are terminated when the orchestrator exits
• Cancellation Support: Integrates with CancellationToken for graceful shutdown
• Extensible Logging: Supports any Microsoft.Extensions.Logging provider
• Fluent Configuration: Clean and intuitive builder pattern

Use Cases

• Running a web API alongside a frontend development server
• Starting multiple microservices for local testing
• Orchestrating background workers, databases, and APIs together
• Simplifying complex multi-project development environments

Related Projects

• Arcturus.DevHost.Sdk: Core SDK types and abstractions
• Arcturus.DevHost.SourceGenerator: Code generation for project metadata
• Arcturus.DevHost.OrchestratorTemplate: Project template for creating orchestrators