WithExplicitStart clashes with WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent)

[DavidZidar]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Describe the bug

WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent) is supposed to keep a container running even if you stop and restart Aspire. This isn't working properly in combination with WithExplicitStart() as this feature prevents Aspire from reflecting the proper state of the containers during startup and thus negates some of the benefit of persistent lifetimes.

For instance, dependent services don't start until a running container is explicitly started again.

Expected Behavior

I expect a container to require an initial explicit start due to WithExplicitStart() but then remain running and be available even if I restart Aspire due to WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent).

Steps To Reproduce

1. Use .WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent).WithExplicitStart()
2. Start Aspire
3. Start the container
4. Restart Aspire
5. The container is now shown as stopped even though it should be running

Exceptions (if any)

No response

.NET Version info

.NET SDK:
 Version:           9.0.201
 Commit:            071aaccdc2
 Workload version:  9.0.200-manifests.a3a1a094
 MSBuild version:   17.13.13+1c2026462

Runtime Environment:
 OS Name:     Windows
 OS Version:  10.0.26100
 OS Platform: Windows
 RID:         win-x64
 Base Path:   C:\Program Files\dotnet\sdk\9.0.201\

I'm using Aspire 9.1.

Anything else?

No response

[DavidZidar]

Here's what I was trying to do, I wanted to be able to start Redis Insight on demand but then keep it running until no longer needed. But as soon as I restart Aspire I can no longer access Redis via Redis Insight and the Aspire UI is showing Redis Insight as stopped even though the container is actually still running.

var redis = builder.AddRedis("redis")
	.WithEndpoint(port: 6379, isProxied: false, name: "external")
	.WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent)
	.WithRedisInsight(config => config.WithLifetime(ContainerLifetime.Persistent).WithExplicitStart());

[DavidZidar]

Also, if I use .WithExplicitStart() on Redis itself then services that .WaitFor(redis) don't start after a restart of Aspire until I explicitly start Redis again even though it is actually already running.

[davidfowl]

cc @JamesNK