GitHub Models Playground

An educational .NET Aspire application demonstrating how to integrate GitHub Models (AI) with a blog summarization service and interactive chat capabilities. This project showcases modern cloud-native development practices using .NET 10, Aspire orchestration, and AI-powered content processing.

📋 Overview

This project demonstrates:

GitHub Models Integration: Using GitHub's AI models (GPT-4o-mini) through the Aspire framework
Blog Content Summarization: Fetching and summarizing blog content using AI
Interactive AI Chat: Direct chat interface with GitHub's AI models
Distributed Application Architecture: Leveraging .NET Aspire for orchestration
Service Discovery: Automatic service discovery between components
OpenTelemetry Integration: Built-in observability with metrics, logs, and traces
Modern .NET Practices: Minimal APIs, dependency injection, interface-based design, and configuration management

🏗️ Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│              GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost             │
│                  (Orchestrator)                         │
│  ┌─────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────────┐  │
│  │   External  │  │ GitHub Model │  │  API Service  │  │
│  │   Service   │  │  (GPT-4o)    │  │               │  │
│  └─────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                            ↓
                 ┌──────────────────────┐
                 │    API Service       │
                 │  ┌────────────────┐  │
                 │  │ IBlogService   │  │
                 │  │ IBlogSummarizer│  │
                 │  │ IChatClient    │  │
                 │  └────────────────┘  │
                 └──────────────────────┘
                            ↓
                 ┌──────────────────────┐
                 │   External Blog      │
                 │   (aspire.dev)       │
                 └──────────────────────┘

Components

GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService
- ASP.NET Core minimal API
- Exposes /summarize endpoint for blog content summarization
- Exposes /chat endpoint for interactive AI conversations
- Interface-based design for improved testability
GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost
- .NET Aspire orchestrator
- Manages service references and dependencies
- Configures GitHub Models connection
GitHubModelsPlayground.ServiceDefaults
- Shared service configurations
- OpenTelemetry setup
- Health checks and resilience patterns

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

.NET 10 SDK or later
Azure Developer CLI (azd)
GitHub Personal Access Token with access to GitHub Models
Azure Subscription (for deployment)

Local Development

Clone the repository

git clone https://github.com/fkucukkara/github-models-playground.git
cd github-models-playground

Set up GitHub Models access

Configure your GitHub Personal Access Token (PAT):
```
cd src/GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost
dotnet user-secrets set "GitHub:Token" "your-github-pat-token-here"
```
How to get a GitHub PAT:
- Go to GitHub Settings > Developer settings > Personal access tokens
- Generate a new token with access to GitHub Models
Run locally
```
cd src/GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost
dotnet run
```
The Aspire Dashboard will open automatically in your browser.

Deploy to Azure

This project uses Azure Developer CLI (azd) for seamless deployment to Azure Container Apps.

Initialize azd (first time only)
```
azd init
```
Provision and deploy
```
azd up
```
This single command will:
- Provision Azure resources (Container Apps, Container Registry, etc.)
- Build and containerize the application
- Deploy to Azure Container Apps
- Configure environment variables

Set GitHub token for Azure deployment

azd env set GITHUB_TOKEN "your-github-pat-token-here"
azd deploy

Deployment Architecture

The application deploys to Azure Container Apps with:

Automatic scaling based on load
Managed identity for secure access
Built-in observability with Application Insights
HTTPS endpoint automatically provisioned

Using the API

Once running, you can test the API endpoints:

Summarize Blog Content

# Example: Summarize a blog post from aspire.dev
curl "http://localhost:5000/summarize?slug=whats-new/aspire-13/"

Response:

"This is a two-sentence summary of the blog content generated by AI..."

Chat with AI

# Example: Send a message to the AI chat endpoint
curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/chat" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Hello, what can you tell me about .NET Aspire?"}'

Response:

{
  "response": ".NET Aspire is a cloud-native application framework that simplifies building distributed applications..."
}

Using the .http file

The project includes a GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService.http file for easy testing in Visual Studio:

Open the file in Visual Studio
Click "Send Request" above any endpoint
View responses directly in the editor

Exploring the Aspire Dashboard

After starting the application:

Navigate to the Aspire Dashboard (typically http://localhost:15888)
View:
- Resources: All running services and their status
- Logs: Centralized logging from all services
- Traces: Distributed tracing information
- Metrics: Performance metrics and telemetry

📚 Project Structure

GitHubModelsPlayground/
├── src/
│   ├── GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService/
│   │   ├── Services/
│   │   │   ├── BlogService.cs              # HTTP client for fetching blog content
│   │   │   ├── IBlogService.cs             # Interface for blog service
│   │   │   ├── BlogSummarizer.cs           # AI-powered summarization service
│   │   │   └── IBlogSummarizer.cs          # Interface for summarization service
│   │   ├── Program.cs                      # API configuration and endpoints
│   │   ├── appsettings.json                # Application configuration
│   │   ├── GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService.http  # HTTP request examples
│   │   └── GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService.csproj
│   ├── GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost/
│   │   ├── AppHost.cs                      # Aspire orchestration setup
│   │   ├── appsettings.json                # Host configuration
│   │   └── GitHubModelsPlayground.AppHost.csproj
│   └── GitHubModelsPlayground.ServiceDefaults/
│       ├── Extensions.cs                   # Shared service extensions
│       └── GitHubModelsPlayground.ServiceDefaults.csproj
├── .gitignore
├── LICENSE
├── README.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
└── GitHubModelsPlayground.slnx             # Solution file

🔑 Key Concepts

1. GitHub Models Integration

The application uses GitHub's hosted AI models through the Aspire framework:

var aiModel = builder.AddGitHubModel("ai-model", GitHubModel.OpenAI.OpenAIGpt4oMini);

2. Service Discovery

Services are referenced and discovered automatically:

var apiService = builder.AddProject<Projects.GitHubModelsPlayground_ApiService>("apiservice")
    .WithReference(blogService)
    .WithReference(aiModel);

3. AI-Powered Summarization

The BlogSummarizer uses the AI chat client to generate summaries:

var response = await chatClient.GetResponseAsync(prompt);

4. Interface-Based Design

The application follows SOLID principles with interface-based dependency injection:

// Service registration
builder.Services.AddHttpClient<IBlogService, BlogService>();
builder.Services.AddScoped<IBlogSummarizer, BlogSummarizer>();

// Endpoint usage
app.MapGet("/summarize", async (IBlogService blogService, IBlogSummarizer blogSummarizer) =>
{
    // Implementation...
});

This approach provides:

Improved testability - Easy to mock dependencies for unit testing
Loose coupling - Depend on abstractions, not concrete implementations
Flexibility - Swap implementations without changing consumers
Clear contracts - Interfaces document expected behavior

5. Resilience and Observability

Built-in patterns through ServiceDefaults:

Automatic retries with exponential backoff
Circuit breaker patterns
Distributed tracing
Health checks

🛠️ Configuration

Application Settings

appsettings.json (ApiService)

{
  "Logging": {
    "LogLevel": {
      "Default": "Information",
      "Microsoft.AspNetCore": "Warning"
    }
  },
  "AllowedHosts": "*"
}

Environment Variables

Variable	Description	Required
`GITHUB_TOKEN`	GitHub Personal Access Token	Yes
`OTEL_EXPORTER_OTLP_ENDPOINT`	OpenTelemetry endpoint	No

🧪 Testing

Using the .http File

The project includes GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService.http for easy endpoint testing:

Open src/GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService/GitHubModelsPlayground.ApiService.http in Visual Studio
Click "Send Request" above any endpoint
View the response in the editor

Manual Testing

Start the application
Access the OpenAPI documentation at http://localhost:5000/openapi (in development mode)
Test both endpoints with different inputs

Example Requests

Summarize Blog Posts:

# Test with different blog posts
curl "http://localhost:5000/summarize?slug=whats-new/aspire-13/"
curl "http://localhost:5000/summarize?slug=blog/aspire-ga"

Chat with AI:

# Simple greeting
curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/chat" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Hello, how are you?"}'

# Technical question
curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/chat" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "Explain the benefits of using .NET Aspire for cloud-native applications"}'

# Code-related question
curl -X POST "http://localhost:5000/chat" \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "What are the key differences between minimal APIs and controllers in ASP.NET Core?"}'

API Endpoints

Endpoint	Method	Description	Parameters
`/summarize`	GET	Summarize blog content from aspire.dev	`slug` (query string)
`/chat`	POST	Interactive chat with GitHub Models AI	`message` (JSON body)
`/health`	GET	Health check endpoint	None

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GitHub Models Playground

📋 Overview

🏗️ Architecture

Components

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Local Development

Deploy to Azure

Deployment Architecture

Using the API

Summarize Blog Content

Chat with AI

Using the .http file

Exploring the Aspire Dashboard

📚 Project Structure

🔑 Key Concepts

1. GitHub Models Integration

2. Service Discovery

3. AI-Powered Summarization

4. Interface-Based Design

5. Resilience and Observability

🛠️ Configuration

Application Settings

Environment Variables

🧪 Testing

Using the .http File

Manual Testing

Example Requests

API Endpoints

FilesExpand file tree

README.md

Latest commit

History

README.md

File metadata and controls

GitHub Models Playground

📋 Overview

🏗️ Architecture

Components

🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Local Development

Deploy to Azure

Deployment Architecture

Using the API

Summarize Blog Content

Chat with AI

Using the .http file

Exploring the Aspire Dashboard

📚 Project Structure

🔑 Key Concepts

1. GitHub Models Integration

2. Service Discovery

3. AI-Powered Summarization

4. Interface-Based Design

5. Resilience and Observability

🛠️ Configuration

Application Settings

Environment Variables

🧪 Testing

Using the .http File

Manual Testing

Example Requests

API Endpoints