`aspire` command startup far too slow

[aradalvand]

aspire's startup performance is far too terribly slow for a modern CLI tool — here's a comparison with dotnet:

2025-06-09.08-10-02.mp4

Host: WSL2/Ubuntu 24.04 x64 (20-core Core i7 14th-gen Intel processor, 32GB of RAM, NVMe storage) — I downloaded the executable from http://aka.ms/dotnet/9.0/daily/aspire-Cli-linux-x64.zip

Gets better after the first time, but even from the second time onward it's too slow.
Consider publishing the CLI program as a NativeAOT binary (which offers substantially better startup perf); or applying whatever optimizations have been applied to dotnet to make it snappy; I haven't checked out the source code, but you might be doing too much work on startup.

[davidfowl]

We know. It’s still a dotnet tool, not a standalone tool yet. We’re going to native aot it

[davidfowl]

If you want to try out bleeding edge bits to give us a signal on whether this is improved or not, give the scripts in here a try:

#10254

[aradalvand]

@davidfowl Seems to have improved somewhat, so there's evidently been progress, but still nowhere near as snappy as dotnet — likely needs additional work:

aspire-cli-perf.mp4

[davidfowl]

Hmm this might not be the AOT version. Let me check.

[eerhardt]

The link http://aka.ms/dotnet/9.0/daily/aspire-cli-linux-x64.tar.gz which is used above downloads the AOT'd version for me.

@aradalvand - are you sure you are running the aspire command that was installed? Can you whereis aspire? and ensure the downloaded aspire app is run?

[aradalvand]

It's in $HOME/.aspire.
@eerhardt Is this the AOT'd version?

[davidfowl]

Is that the first run after install? It can't be 11 seconds every time (at least I don't see that)

[aradalvand]

@davidfowl Not the first run after install but the first run after a system restart in my case.
Even from the second time onward, it's slower than what you'd expect from an AOTd program, as you can see in the screen recording I posted earlier today — in the ballpark of 800-1,500ms to my moderately-trained eye.

[aradalvand]

Here's a startup perf comparison with a few other world-class CLI programs out there — not quite on par:

2025-07-15.16-55-48.mp4

[davidfowl]

Yikes still slow. We need to investigate.

[eerhardt]

Is this the AOT'd version?

can you show an ls -al of that bin directory? The size of the file will show if it is AOT'd or not. But since it is that version and in that location, I assume it is the AOT'd version.

[aradalvand]

@eerhardt