Azure Storage Tables with Aspire on Local PC

In this exercise, I focused on only one Azure resource: Azure Storage Tables. My goal was simple: run Table Storage locally with the emulator,
connect a console client project to it through .NET Aspire, and validate that the client can create a table and read/write an entity end-to-end.

How it looks like

This is the ASPIRE project

How I wired Azure Storage Tables in Aspire AppHost

In AzureEmulators/AppHost.cs, I added Azure Storage as an emulator and then enabled the Tables endpoint.
Then I connected the client project with WithReference(azureStorageTables) and WaitFor(azureStorageTables).

Azure Storage emulator resource: AzureStorage1
Tables resource: AzureStorageTables1
Client project reference: azureStorageTablesClient1

var azureStorageTables = builder.AddAzureStorage("AzureStorage1")
          .RunAsEmulator()
         .AddTables("AzureStorageTables1")
         ;
var azureStorageTablesProj = builder
    .AddProject<Projects.AzureStorageTables>("azureStorageTablesClient1")
    .WithReference(azureStorageTables)
    .WaitFor(azureStorageTables)
    ;

What my AzureStorageTables project does

In AzureStorageTables/Program.cs, I implemented a startup flow to validate Table Storage connectivity and basic CRUD behavior.

I scan environment variables and pick AzureStorageTables1_CONNECTIONSTRING.
I configure TableClientOptions with a custom pipeline policy that removes the Authorization header.
I create a TableServiceClient and get a table client for AndreiTable.
I call CreateIfNotExistsAsync() to ensure the table exists.
I upsert one entity with PartitionKey AndreiPartition and RowKey AndreiRow.
I read the entity back and print its fields to verify persistence.

Code from my console client project

using Azure.Core;
using Azure.Core.Pipeline;
using Azure.Data.Tables;
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;

Console.WriteLine("Hello, AzureStorageClient!");
string connectionStringAzurewStorage = "";
foreach (var item in Environment.GetEnvironmentVariables().Cast<DictionaryEntry>())
{
    if (item.Key?.ToString()?.Contains("AzureStorageTables1_CONNECTIONSTRING",StringComparison.InvariantCultureIgnoreCase) == true)
    {
        Console.WriteLine($"{item.Key}: {item.Value}");
        connectionStringAzurewStorage = item.Value?.ToString() ?? string.Empty;
    }
}

TableClientOptions tce = new ();
tce.AddPolicy(new RemoveAuthorizationHeaderPolicy(), HttpPipelinePosition.PerCall);
TableServiceClient client = new(connectionStringAzurewStorage, tce);
var tableClient = client.GetTableClient("AndreiTable");
await tableClient.CreateIfNotExistsAsync();
var entity = new TableEntity("AndreiPartition", "AndreiRow")
{
    {"FirstName", "Andrei" },
};
await tableClient.UpsertEntityAsync(entity);
var resp = await tableClient.GetEntityAsync<TableEntity>("AndreiPartition", "AndreiRow");
Console.WriteLine($"Retrieved entity: PartitionKey={resp.Value.PartitionKey}, RowKey={resp.Value.RowKey}, FirstName={resp.Value.GetString("FirstName")}");
internal sealed class RemoveAuthorizationHeaderPolicy : HttpPipelinePolicy
{
    public override void Process(HttpMessage message, ReadOnlyMemory<HttpPipelinePolicy> pipeline)
    {
        message.Request.Headers.Remove("Authorization");
        ProcessNext(message, pipeline);
    }

    public override ValueTask ProcessAsync(HttpMessage message, ReadOnlyMemory<HttpPipelinePolicy> pipeline)
    {
        message.Request.Headers.Remove("Authorization");
        return ProcessNextAsync(message, pipeline);
    }
}

Output logs from my client project

Waiting for resource 'AzureStorage1' to enter the 'Running' state.
Waiting for resource 'AzureStorageTables1' to enter the 'Running' state.
Waiting for resource ready to execute for 'AzureStorageTables1'.
Waiting for resource 'AzureStorage1' to become healthy.
Finished waiting for resource 'AzureStorageTables1'.
Waiting for resource ready to execute for 'AzureStorage1'.
Finished waiting for resource 'AzureStorage1'.
[sys] Starting process...: Cmd = C:\Program Files\dotnet\dotnet.exe, Args = ["watch", "--non-interactive", "--no-hot-reload", "--project", "D:\\eu\\GitHub\\aspireExtensions\\src\\samples\\13.4\\AzureEmulators\\AzureStorageTables\\AzureStorageTables.csproj", "--configuration", "Debug", "--no-launch-profile"]
 dotnet watch ⌚ Waiting for changes
Hello, AzureStorageClient!
AZURESTORAGETABLES1_CONNECTIONSTRING: DefaultEndpointsProtocol=http;AccountName=devstoreaccount1;AccountKey=Eby8vdM02xNOcqFlqUwJPLlmEtlCDXJ1OUzFT50uSRZ6IFsuFq2UVErCz4I6tq/K1SZFPTOtr/KBHBeksoGMGw==;TableEndpoint=http://127.0.0.1:64407/devstoreaccount1;
Retrieved entity: PartitionKey=AndreiPartition, RowKey=AndreiRow, FirstName=Andrei
 dotnet watch ⌚ Exited
 dotnet watch ⏳ Waiting for a file to change before restarting ...

What is achieved

I can run Azure Storage Tables locally without provisioning a cloud storage account.
I get dependency wiring from Aspire between AppHost and AzureStorageTables client.
I proved table lifecycle and data operations by creating a table, upserting an entity, and reading it back.
I added a custom HTTP pipeline policy for emulator compatibility.