[IEvangelist]

Summary

Keep dotnet/dotnet-docker as the README source of truth and refresh the stable Aspire Dashboard documentation through its Cottle templates and three generated outputs (GitHub, Docker Hub, and Microsoft Artifact Registry).

• Replace dashboard-only .NET announcements, unrelated repository catalogs, release-policy boilerplate, and the duplicated configuration manual with a concise standalone quickstart and curated Aspire documentation.
• Preserve browser-token authentication, bind the example's published ports to loopback, distinguish unauthenticated OTLP ingestion from frontend authentication, and explain instrumentation, in-memory telemetry, and resource-service requirements.
• Add standalone Python/Node.js tutorials and the official C# sample, retain applicable container support/security/legal policy links, and reference the Aspire MIT license.
• Link preview builds to the active aspire/nightly/dashboard page.

Scope and coordination

No stable namespace migration. Stable remains mcr.microsoft.com/dotnet/aspire-dashboard:13. Image manifests, tags, Dockerfiles, stable Docker Hub publication, metadata filenames, and unrelated .NET generated documentation are unchanged. The user reviewed and approved the generated README content before this commit and push.

This is the stable-source part of a coordinated documentation cleanup. Companion draft #7379 targets nightly, preserving its single README.dashboard.portal.md MAR output following maintainer feedback. Later changes in microsoft/mcr and microsoft/mcrdocs will retire only obsolete legacy-nightly documentation after source publication and consumer checks.

This draft does not publish documentation or retire any live portal listing. No merge, README/image publication, downstream configuration change, or artifact deletion is included.

Validation

• pwsh .\eng\readme-templates\Get-GeneratedReadmes.ps1 -Branch main
• pwsh .\eng\readme-templates\Get-GeneratedReadmes.ps1 -Validate -Branch main
• git diff --check
• Verified the exact seven-template/three-generated-file change allowlist and required content in all three dashboard outputs, with no unrelated generated-file changes.
• Verified published stable :13, curated documentation/sample/license links, and both channel About URLs (GET; MAR does not support HEAD consistently).

Following initial CI feedback, a formatting-only follow-up restores one blank line before the dashboard tag listing and changes the localhost frontend autolink to inline code. Generator consistency alone does not validate Markdown or remote links. Additional local checks passed:

• CI-pinned markdownlint-cli@0.39.0 with .github/linters/.markdown-lint.yml on the generated GitHub README.
• Supplemental lint on the generated Docker Hub and MAR outputs, disabling only their pre-existing host-specific heading conventions (MD025 and MD041) at the command line. These outputs are excluded by the existing CI workflow; the same heading diagnostics were confirmed on the original main baseline. No lint configuration was changed.
• Pinned becheran/mlc:1.2.0 against all three generated outputs using the repository's existing link exclusions and redirect policy: 72 links, 69 OK, 3 excluded short links, zero warnings or errors.
• Exact output comparison confirms the follow-up changes only the separator and localhost Markdown formatting, not the approved words, addresses, or unrelated generated output.

These are local results, not a claim that the new CI run has passed. No image build or runtime test was needed for this documentation-only change.

[IEvangelist]

/azp run

[azure-pipelines]

Azure Pipelines:
Successfully started running 2 pipeline(s).
2 pipeline(s) were filtered out due to trigger conditions.

[lbussell]

/azp run dotnet-docker-pr

[azure-pipelines]

Azure Pipelines:
Successfully started running 1 pipeline(s).

[IEvangelist]

Closing this standalone main README PR. We’ll finalize the Aspire Dashboard changes on
ightly first, including keeping the README template content identical across branches, then port the recent Aspire changes back to main together in one PR after #7379 and #7400 merge.