AI Foundry Local and .NET Aspire in WSL2 / Linux

[MedAnd]

Is there an existing issue for this?

• I have searched the existing issues

Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe the problem.

Improve Foundry Local support for WSL2 / Linux development scenarios

The current implementation of Foundry Local appears to assume that .NET Aspire is running on the same host as the Foundry Local service. This creates friction for development workflows where .NET Aspire is run from WSL2 or Linux, but Foundry Local is only supported on Windows or macOS.

Describe the solution you'd like

💡 Feature Request

Please consider adding support and documentation for the following:

1. Remote Foundry Local configuration:

   • Allow .NET Aspire to connect to a Foundry Local instance running on a different host (e.g., Windows host from WSL2).
   • Enable configuration of the Foundry Local endpoint via .WithEndpoint() or similar methods.

2. Enhance RunAsFoundryLocal():

   • Add an overload or configuration option to specify the location of the Foundry Local service.
   • Support environment variables or distributed app settings to override the default behavior.

Additional context

This feature request may require alignment and new features / APIs in AI Foundry Local as per this related issue: microsoft/Foundry-Local#222

🔍 Current Limitation

var foundry = builder.AddAzureAIFoundry("foundry")
                     .RunAsFoundryLocal();

[MedAnd]

@davidfowl - any update on this feature?

We are working with MS Global Team on a Banking PoC with AI Foundry. I would love to include Aspire in the development loop if this feature is anywhere close?

[davidfowl]

No, we’re not working on this, but reading the issue what is the expectation? Are you trying to expose the foundry local end point to the windows machine from wsl? How do you do this without aspire?

[MedAnd]

At a high level, we're looking to enable Aspire projects running inside WSL2 to support AI Foundry Local development. Currently, the AI Foundry API service runs as a background process on the Windows host and only supports Windows environments.

The initial integration within Aspire assumes both Aspire and the AI Foundry Local service are running on the same host. However, our goal is to run Aspire from within WSL2 while still being able to connect to the AI Foundry Local service on the Windows host.

To support this, we’ll need to:

• Ensure the AI Foundry API service is accessible from WSL2
• Update Aspire / AI Foundry integration to allow configurable endpoints instead of hardcoded localhost assumptions.