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How Aspire Dashboard telemetry retention works
Aspire Dashboard limits retained telemetry by count, not by age. Logs and traces share their respective limits across resources; the metric limit applies per dimension. When those limits fill, the dashboard evicts the oldest stored values. This does not promise that data will remain for a particular number of hours or days: actual retention time depends on how quickly telemetry arrives.
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The current configuration reference describes telemetry storage in SQLite and documents these defaults and effects:
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| Setting | Documented default | Scope and effect |
|---|---|---|
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxLogCount |
100,000 | Structured log entries across resources; oldest entries are evicted when full. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxTraceCount |
100,000 | Traces across resources; oldest traces are evicted when full. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxMetricsCount |
50,000 | Metric data points per dimension; oldest points are evicted when full. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxAttributeCount |
128 | Maximum attributes on telemetry; excess incoming attributes are truncated. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxAttributeLength |
null | No maximum is configured by the documented default. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxSpanEventCount |
null | No maximum is configured by the documented default. |
Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxResourceCount |
10,000 | Maximum tracked resources; telemetry for new resources is rejected after the limit is reached. |
These limits bound stored records or incoming data dimensions; they are not time-to-live settings, disk quotas, or ingestion rate limits.
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Configure limits for your launch mode
The dashboard reads configuration at startup. Select the route for how you launch it, and restart it after changing settings.
AppHost: set an environment variable in the launch profile
For an AppHost, the recommended route is an environment variable in a launch profile in aspire.config.json. Replace each colon in a configuration key with a double underscore. This example lowers the structured-log cap to 50,000:
{
"$schema": "https://aspire.dev/reference/cli/configuration/schema.json",
"profiles": {
"https": {
"environmentVariables": {
"DASHBOARD__TELEMETRYLIMITS__MAXLOGCOUNT": "50000"
}
}
}
}Use the profile that actually launches your AppHost. The example changes only the log limit; add corresponding environment variables for other settings you intend to change.
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Standalone: pass CLI arguments
Standalone mode accepts CLI arguments, environment variables, or an optional JSON configuration file. To set all three principal retention limits as command-line arguments:
aspire dashboard run
--Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxLogCount=1000
--Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxTraceCount=1000
--Dashboard:TelemetryLimits:MaxMetricsCount=1000The 1,000 values are an example, not a universal recommendation. Choose caps for your workload and available memory and storage. For a standalone JSON file, set ASPIRE_DASHBOARD_CONFIG_FILE_PATH to select the file; environment variables are also supported.
Choose persistence and protect the data directory
Retention caps and persistence are different decisions. Aspire launch mode affects persistent-data behavior, including support for None, Run, and Resume modes. Dashboard:Data:Directory selects the persistent data root, and ASPIRE_DASHBOARD_DATA_DIRECTORY maps to that setting. Check the configuration reference for the behavior applicable to your launch mode.
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The SQLite database can contain resource properties and environment variables, console output, structured log bodies and attributes, trace attributes and events, metric dimensions, and exemplars. Aspire’s security considerations advise restricting access to the entire data directory, including backups, snapshots, and copies. On Unix-like systems, the application-specific directory is created with owner-only 0700 permissions. On Windows, inherited ACLs apply; review them to ensure only intended users can read the files.
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Browser authentication controls who can view dashboard data; OTLP authentication controls who can send telemetry. The optional HTTP telemetry API is another access surface. Aspire tooling configures HTTPS, browser-token authentication, and API-key authentication for incoming telemetry by default. Standalone mode has a different default: browser access uses a token, but incoming OTLP telemetry is unsecured unless you configure it.
Secure standalone OTLP ingestion
For standalone mode, configure the OTLP endpoint to use API-key authentication and give it a strong primary key. The documentation recommends at least 128 bits of entropy. Senders must include the key in the x-otlp-api-key header.
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aspire dashboard run
--Dashboard:Otlp:AuthMode=ApiKey
--Dashboard:Otlp:PrimaryApiKey=YOUR_STRONG_KEYReplace YOUR_STRONG_KEY with a securely generated secret; do not publish it in source control or expose it in logs. Configure each authorized sender to supply the required header.
Avoid anonymous UI access beyond trusted local development
aspire dashboard run --allow-anonymous and ASPIRE_DASHBOARD_UNSECURED_ALLOW_ANONYMOUS=true disable dashboard authentication. The security documentation limits this to trusted local development and warns against exposing anonymous access to untrusted networks.
Enable and key the optional telemetry API deliberately
The HTTP API exposes stored data through /api/telemetry/* endpoints. The configuration reference lists Dashboard:Api:Disabled with a default of false; the security guidance describes the API as optional and advises enabling and securing it deliberately. If you use it, configure API-key authentication and a primary key, and have clients send the key in the x-api-key header. Do not assume browser-token or OTLP authentication also protects API requests.
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Do not treat retention limits as ingestion protection
Count caps constrain what is retained, but telemetry still consumes network bandwidth, CPU, and memory while it is received and processed. They are not rate limits, admission controls, or disk quotas. For senders you do not fully trust, pair authentication with private-network or firewall restrictions and use a gateway or reverse proxy for request-size, rate, and concurrency limits. Set caps for the workload and monitor host resources.
Version scope
The figures and behaviors above are the current values in Aspire’s living configuration and security documentation as accessed October 7, 2026. Those pages do not provide a version-pinned Aspire 13.6 snapshot, so they do not establish that every 13.6 build or patch has identical settings. For a specific installation, confirm available options and defaults against that build’s CLI and configuration reference.
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