Beyond Localhost: Implementing Production-Grade Entra ID Auth in .NET Aspire

Short summary

Deploy production-grade Microsoft Entra ID authentication in .NET Aspire by using three separate app registrations (API, React frontend, Scalar UI testing client) instead of a single registration. Configure your Next.js frontend with provider-agnostic environment variables and Aspire's AppHost to keep local development environments in sync with production. Critical: explicitly request API scopes in your frontend auth configuration to receive API-usable access tokens, not generic ones that trigger 401 rejections.

• •Three-registration architecture separates concerns for security and maintainability
• •Provider-agnostic environment variables enable switching between Keycloak and Entra ID with config only
• •Explicitly request API scopes in frontend auth to avoid generic 401-rejection tokens

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