Make Aspire extension activity notifications dismissible

[Adam Ratzman (adamint)]

Description

Long-running build, AppHost connection, and dashboard startup notifications can cover other VS Code UI and cannot be dismissed without stopping the AppHost.

This moves Aspire-owned CLI activity out of persistent notification toasts and into one status bar item with the existing safe stop action. It also hardens extension shutdown so expected RPC closure does not surface as an unhandled failure, while unexpected stop failures remain visible in logs. Shared workspace identities keep status, quick-pick, and debug labels short, nonempty, privacy-safe, and distinct for Windows drive and UNC roots.

Fixes #19036

User-facing usage

Starting an AppHost now reports long-running Aspire activity in the VS Code status bar instead of a notification that blocks other UI. Users can dismiss the activity from view without terminating the AppHost, while the explicit stop action still stops the owned operation.

Screenshots / Recordings

This PR includes UI changes. Please add screenshots or screen recordings so reviewers can evaluate the visual changes without running locally.

• For before/after comparisons, place them side-by-side or label them clearly.
• For interactive changes (animations, transitions, new flows), prefer a short screen recording (GIF or video).
• If you cannot capture visuals now, note what scenario to test and mark this section as TODO.

TODO: Capture the status bar activity and dismiss/stop behavior in VS Code Insiders.

Validation

• Focused workspace tests: 7 passing
• Focused interaction tests: 44 passing
• Focused extension-context tests: 5 passing
• Full extension suite: 1,473 passing, 4 pending
• Extension compile and lint

Checklist

• Is this feature complete?
  • Yes. Ready to ship.
  • No. Follow-up changes expected.
• Are you including unit tests for the changes and scenario tests if relevant?
  • Yes
  • No
• Did you add public API?
  • Yes
    • If yes, did you have an API Review for it?
      • Yes
      • No
    • Did you add <remarks /> and <code /> elements on your triple slash comments?
      • Yes
      • No
  • No
• Does the change make any security assumptions or guarantees?
  • Yes
    • If yes, have you done a threat model and had a security review?
      • Yes
      • No
  • No

[github-actions]

🚀 Dogfood this PR with:

⚠️ WARNING: Do not do this without first carefully reviewing the code of this PR to satisfy yourself it is safe.

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.sh | bash -s -- 19124

Or

• Run remotely in PowerShell:

iex "& { $(irm https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/aspire/main/eng/scripts/get-aspire-cli-pr.ps1) } 19124"

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

Moves long-running Aspire extension activity from blocking notifications to a shared, dismissible status bar item.

Changes:

• Adds aggregated CLI status and stop controls.
• Hardens RPC and extension shutdown.
• Adds localized labels and extensive unit/E2E coverage.

Show a summary per file

File	Description
extension/src/views/AppHostDataRepository.ts	Moves discovery progress to status bar.
extension/src/utils/workspace.ts	Generates concise workspace identities.
extension/src/test/workspace.test.ts	Tests Windows root identities.
extension/src/test/rpc/interactionServiceTests.test.ts	Tests status and RPC disposal behavior.
extension/src/test/rpc/aspireRpcServer.test.ts	Tests RPC ownership and shutdown races.
extension/src/test/progressNotifier.test.ts	Tests status notifier lifecycle.
extension/src/test/cliStatusBar.test.ts	Tests aggregation and stop interactions.
extension/src/test/AspireExtensionContext.test.ts	Tests asynchronous deactivation.
extension/src/test/aspireDebugSession.test.ts	Tests stop-request reuse.
extension/src/test/appHostDataRepository.test.ts	Updates discovery progress expectations.
extension/src/test-e2e/helpers/vscode.ts	Adds status-bar E2E helpers.
extension/src/test-e2e/debugDashboard.e2e.test.ts	Verifies CLI status and stopping end-to-end.
extension/src/test-e2e/appHostTree.e2e.test.ts	Verifies discovery avoids notifications.
extension/src/server/rpcClient.ts	Adds deterministic client disposal.
extension/src/server/progressNotifier.ts	Routes CLI progress to shared status.
extension/src/server/interactionService.ts	Supplies operation identities and disposal.
extension/src/server/cliStatusBar.ts	Implements shared CLI activity UI.
extension/src/server/AspireRpcServer.ts	Owns pending and active connections.
extension/src/loc/strings.ts	Adds localized status strings.
extension/src/extension.ts	Registers cleanup and async deactivation.
extension/src/debugger/AspireDebugSession.ts	Reuses shutdown stop requests.
extension/src/AspireExtensionContext.ts	Coordinates bounded asynchronous shutdown.
extension/package.nls.json	Adds localization source entries.
extension/loc/xlf/aspire-vscode.xlf	Updates generated localization data.

Review details

• Files reviewed: 24/24 changed files
• Comments generated: 2
• Review effort level: Balanced

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Retrying the failed CI jobs for this pull request from the CI run attempt. The rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.

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Retrying the failed CI jobs for this pull request from the CI run attempt. The rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.

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Review details

Suppressed comments (4)

extension/src/AspireExtensionContext.ts:152

• Promise.allSettled does not expose any result until every stop request settles. With multiple AppHosts, if one request rejects and another hangs, this race takes the timeout branch and the first failure is never logged (even if it rejects after the timeout); only the generic timeout is visible. Attach the expected/info vs unexpected/warn logging to each request as it settles, while retaining the aggregate timeout for teardown.

        const allStops = Promise.allSettled(stopRequests);
        let timeout: ReturnType<typeof setTimeout> | undefined;
        const outcome = await Promise.race([
            allStops.then(results => ({ timedOut: false as const, results })),

extension/src/utils/workspace.ts:87

• Forward-slash UNC roots are absolute under both parsers, so this condition selects the host path implementation on POSIX. Consequently //server-a/share/ and //server-b/share/ both collapse to share, breaking the promised distinct root identities. Select Win32 semantics when its parsed root is more specific than the POSIX root; forward-slash UNC inputs are already treated as valid elsewhere (for example src/test/cliPath.test.ts:156-165).

    const pathOperations = path.win32.isAbsolute(filePath) && !path.posix.isAbsolute(filePath)
        ? path.win32
        : path;

extension/package.nls.json:191

• This new user-facing localization key is absent from loc/xlf/aspire-vscode.xlf, while the other keys in this block are present. gulpfile.js:54-72 generates that XLF directly from package.nls.json; regenerate it so this stop-failure message is included for translation.

  "aspire-vscode.strings.failedToStopCliOperation": "Failed to stop the Aspire CLI operation: {0}",

extension/src/server/cliStatusBar.ts:275

• slice counts UTF-16 code units, but ProgressNotifier has already expanded CLI emoji shortcodes. If a non-BMP emoji crosses this boundary, truncation emits a lone surrogate and the status bar shows a replacement character. Truncate by code points instead.

    const truncated = singleLine.length > maxRenderedStatusLength
        ? `${singleLine.slice(0, maxRenderedStatusLength - 1).trimEnd()}…`
        : singleLine;

• Files reviewed: 24/24 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced

[Copilot]

Review details

Suppressed comments (4)

extension/src/server/cliStatusBar.ts:253

• A normal stopCli follows this rejection path: ExtensionRpcTarget.StopCliAsync() calls Environment.Exit before sending a response, so disposal rejects the pending request. The connection-close handler has already disposed this entry, but the error is logged before that check, causing every successful status-bar stop to emit a misleading “Failed to stop CLI” error. Check disposal before logging so only failures for a still-live operation are reported.

        this._owner.stop().catch(err => {
            extensionLogOutputChannel.error(`Failed to stop CLI: ${err}`);

extension/package.nls.json:191

• failedToStopCliOperation is the only new localization key missing from extension/loc/xlf/aspire-vscode.xlf. That XLF is generated from this file by extension/gulpfile.js:54-73; regenerate it so the new user-facing error is included in translation input.

  "aspire-vscode.strings.failedToStopCliOperation": "Failed to stop the Aspire CLI operation: {0}",

extension/src/utils/workspace.ts:60

• This privacy-safe identity helper is not used by the primary tree/editor launch path. AppHostLaunchService.launch() still builds the initial debug configuration name with vscode.workspace.asRelativePath(appHostPath) (extension/src/services/AppHostLaunchService.ts:147), while AspireEditorCommandProvider supports launching an AppHost from an active editor outside the workspace. In that scenario VS Code returns the absolute path unchanged, so the debug label still exposes it despite the PR’s privacy claim. Use this helper for that launch configuration and its failure label too.

export function getRelativePathToWorkspace(filePath: string): string | undefined {
    const uri = vscode.Uri.file(filePath);
    const workspaceFolder = vscode.workspace.getWorkspaceFolder(uri);
    if (!workspaceFolder) {
        return getPathIdentity(filePath);

extension/src/server/cliStatusBar.ts:275

• String.length and slice count UTF-16 code units, so this truncation can split an emoji surrogate pair and render a replacement character. CLI status already supports emoji through formatText; truncate by code points (or grapheme clusters) before appending the ellipsis.

    const singleLine = collapseStatusText(statusText);
    const truncated = singleLine.length > maxRenderedStatusLength
        ? `${singleLine.slice(0, maxRenderedStatusLength - 1).trimEnd()}…`
        : singleLine;

• Files reviewed: 24/24 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced

[Copilot]

Review details

Suppressed comments (2)

extension/src/test-e2e/debugDashboard.e2e.test.ts:213

• This samples notifications only after debugAppHost has succeeded. The CLI's ShowStatusAsync queues showStatus(null) in finally before the command completes, so the old notification implementation can already be gone by this point; despite the comment above, there is no poll. This test can therefore pass before the fix. Observe one of the delayed status texts while the command is still in flight, then inspect notifications before awaiting the success outcome.

            await waitForCommandOutcome('aspire-vscode.debugAppHost', 'success', 120000, before);

            // A progress notification cannot be dismissed while the operation runs, so CLI status
            // stayed on top of the editor for the whole run
            // (https://github.com/microsoft/aspire/issues/19036).
            const notificationMessages = await getNotificationMessages();

extension/src/server/progressNotifier.ts:72

• ProgressLocation.Window provides no cancellation callback here, and this patch removes the ICliRpcClient/token.onCancellationRequested path that called stopCli(). The status UI therefore no longer has the “explicit stop action” promised by the PR, so a build or connection that hangs before an AppHost is available cannot be stopped from the activity indicator. Use a command-backed status-bar item (or another visible action) wired to the owning RPC client.

        vscode.window.withProgress({
            location: vscode.ProgressLocation.Window
        }, async progress => {

• Files reviewed: 11/11 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced

[Copilot]

Review details

Suppressed comments (2)

extension/src/server/progressNotifier.ts:72

• This removes the only usable stop path for an active CLI operation: ProgressNotifier no longer receives the RPC client, cancellable is omitted, and the cancellation handler that called stopCli() is deleted. A repository-wide search now leaves stopCli() only as an uncalled method, which contradicts the PR's promise that the explicit stop action remains available. Please keep a status-bar stop action wired to the owning RPC client while making dismissal independent from stopping.

        vscode.window.withProgress({
            location: vscode.ProgressLocation.Window
        }, async progress => {

extension/src/test-e2e/debugDashboard.e2e.test.ts:213

• This assertion runs only after debugAppHost reports success, by which time showStatus(null) or RPC closure has already removed either kind of progress. The previous notification implementation therefore also passes this regression test. Observe a delayed CLI status in the workbench and inspect notifications while that status is still active, then wait for command completion afterward.

            await waitForCommandOutcome('aspire-vscode.debugAppHost', 'success', 120000, before);

            // A progress notification cannot be dismissed while the operation runs, so CLI status
            // stayed on top of the editor for the whole run
            // (https://github.com/microsoft/aspire/issues/19036).
            const notificationMessages = await getNotificationMessages();

• Files reviewed: 11/11 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced

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Retrying the failed CI jobs for this pull request from the CI run attempt. The rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.

[github-actions]

Retrying the failed CI jobs for this pull request from the CI run attempt. The rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.

[github-actions]

Retrying the failed CI jobs for this pull request from the CI run attempt. The rerun is being tracked in the rerun attempt.

[Copilot]

Review details

Suppressed comments (2)

extension/src/test-e2e/debugDashboard.e2e.test.ts:213

• This one-time read can run before any CLI status has rendered. The debug command reports success once vscode.debug.startDebugging returns (AppHostLaunchService.ts:190-205), while status RPCs arrive later; additionally, the E2E delay blocks before ProgressNotifier.show (interactionService.ts:177-179), so it does not make a status visible before this assertion. Wait until one of cliRunStatusTexts is present in the workbench, then inspect notifications while that text is still present.

            const notificationMessages = await getNotificationMessages();

extension/src/server/progressNotifier.ts:72

• The PR description says the status-bar activity retains an explicit safe stop action, but this change drops the RPC client, cancellable: true, and the cancellation handler that called stopCli(). This Window progress defines no replacement command, so no stop action is retained here. Since the review thread says that affordance is deferred to #19134, update the PR description and user-facing usage rather than claiming it remains.

        vscode.window.withProgress({
            location: vscode.ProgressLocation.Window
        }, async progress => {

• Files reviewed: 11/11 changed files
• Comments generated: 0 new
• Review effort level: Balanced