Build on Your App¶
You've created your first Forge application — now add real capabilities. Follow this guided path to evolve your project from a starter API into a production-ready service.
🛤️ Guided Path¶
Work through these steps in order. Each builds on the previous, but you can skip ahead if a capability isn't relevant to your project.
1. Add Authentication¶
Secure your API with Entra ID (corporate) or Okta (external) authentication.
| What you'll do | Configure authentication providers and protect your endpoints |
| Guide | Security Overview |
| Deployment config | Deployment Workflow |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
2. Connect to Data¶
Add a database or storage backend to persist your application data.
| What you'll do | Provision and connect to Cosmos DB or Azure Blob Storage |
| Guide (Cosmos DB) | Cosmos DB NoSQL |
| Guide (Blob Storage) | Blob Storage |
| Foundry example | Blob Storage Integration |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
3. Call External APIs¶
Integrate with downstream services using generated Kiota clients and proper scope configuration.
| What you'll do | Add a Kiota-generated API client with authentication |
| Guide | Downstream API Calls |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
4. Add Eventing¶
Publish and subscribe to domain events using Azure Service Bus.
| What you'll do | Create an event publisher or subscribe to events from other services |
| Guide (Publishing) | Event Service |
| Guide (Subscribing) | Event Subscriptions |
| Foundry example | Event Orchestration Example |
| Difficulty | Intermediate |
5. Configure Feature Flags¶
Control feature rollout at runtime without redeploying your application.
| What you'll do | Define feature flags and gate endpoints or UI behind them |
| Guide | Feature Flags |
| Foundry example | foundry/dotnet/feature-flags/ |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
6. Deploy Your App¶
Generate pipeline YAML from your AppHost with aspire publish, then run the pipelines in Azure DevOps to deploy to Azure.
| What you'll do | Use aspire publish to generate Azure DevOps pipeline YAML, then trigger your pipelines to deploy |
| Guide | Aspire Publish |
| Guide (Zero-downtime) | Blue-Green Deployments |
| Difficulty | Advanced |
7. Observe in Production¶
Monitor your application with OpenTelemetry traces, metrics, and logs in Dynatrace.
| What you'll do | Verify telemetry is flowing and use dashboards for troubleshooting |
| Reference (OpenTelemetry) | OpenTelemetry |
| Reference (Dynatrace) | Dynatrace |
| Reference (Diagnostics) | Diagnostic IDs |
| Difficulty | Beginner |
💡 Tips¶
- Start with authentication if your API will be accessed by users or other services — it's easier to add early than retrofit later.
- Feature flags are low-effort and can be added at any point in your development lifecycle.
- Observability is automatic — Forge applications emit OpenTelemetry data by default via Aspire. Focus on learning how to read the dashboards rather than configuration.
📚 Related Documentation¶
- Your First Forge Application — The tutorial that brought you here
- Development Guides — All development how-to guides
- Security Guides — Authentication and authorization
- Tools Reference — Platform tool documentation