[docs] Clarify CLI startup timeout excludes AppHost build time

[aspire-repo-bot]

Documents changes from microsoft/aspire#19478

@ellahathaway

Targeting release/13.6 based on the source PR milestone 13.6.

Why

PR microsoft/aspire#19478 changes ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT semantics: the startup budget now starts only after the AppHost has been prepared/built (restore, build, guest dependency installation, pre-execute checks, and required safety builds no longer count against it). The docs previously implied the timeout also bounded build time, which was misleading for cold/large solutions.

Changes

• reference/cli/commands/aspire-run.mdx: reworded the timeout description to state the budget begins after the AppHost starts executing, and that restore/build (including safety builds for --no-build) don't count against it.
• reference/cli/commands/aspire-start.mdx: same clarification, plus updated the example to match the PR's own usage example ($env:ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT = "15" with aspire start --no-build), noting the safety build can exceed the configured timeout before the full budget applies.

Both pages already documented ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT; no new page was created.

Generated by PR Documentation Check for #19478 · auto · 34.2 AIC · ⌖ 7.21 AIC · ⊞ 19.7K · ◷

[aspire-repo-bot]

Frontend HTML artifact ready

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[Copilot]

🟡 Changes recommended

The updated aspire start section says to set the timeout to a “higher” value but the example intentionally uses a lower value (15s), creating a factual inconsistency that should be corrected.

Once you've addressed the issues Copilot identified, you can request another Copilot review.

Pull request overview

This PR updates the Aspire CLI reference docs to reflect the updated ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT semantics introduced in microsoft/aspire#19478, clarifying that the timeout budget starts after AppHost preparation/build completes (so build time no longer consumes the startup budget).

Changes:

• Clarifies that ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT bounds only post-build AppHost startup time (not restore/build).
• Updates the aspire start example to align with the upstream usage example ($env:ASPIRE_CLI_START_TIMEOUT = "15" with aspire start --no-build), including the safety-build nuance.
• Adjusts aspire run wording to remove the implication that build time is included in the startup timeout.

File summaries

File	Description
src/frontend/src/content/docs/reference/cli/commands/aspire-start.mdx	Clarifies timeout budget start point and updates the example + safety-build explanation.
src/frontend/src/content/docs/reference/cli/commands/aspire-run.mdx	Clarifies timeout budget start point (startup only; restore/build excluded).

Review details

• Files reviewed: 2/2 changed files
• Comments generated: 1
• Review effort level: Lite

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[David Pine (IEvangelist)]

⏭️ Automated docs-accuracy review skipped — no matching source branch in microsoft/aspire

This hourly docs-accuracy reviewer verifies every factual claim in a docs PR against the matching release branch in microsoft/aspire, then validates the rendered docs with the doc-tester skill.

Branch mismatch this cycle:

• This PR targets release/13.6 in aspire.dev.
• microsoft/aspire does not have a release/13.6 branch yet — the newest release branch is release/13.5. The release/13.6 line has not been cut.
• The source change this PR documents — microsoft/aspire#19478 "Don't count AppHost builds against CLI startup timeout" (milestone 13.6) — is currently merged only into main (merge commit 9cede506b0b41f42ff4694ec19196f9bc3659e2c, the current main tip).

Because there is no matching release/13.6 branch to use as the source of truth, Phase A (claims verification) and Phase B (doc-tester) were not run this cycle, per the reviewer's source-of-truth policy.

What happens next: this PR will be picked up and fully reviewed automatically once microsoft/aspire branches release/13.6 (or on the next PR revision), so the claims can be verified against the correct source-of-truth branch rather than against main.

_{No changes are requested and nothing is blocking here — this is an informational skip only.}