microsoft/aspire · error · InvalidOperationException

("rad deploy failed with exit code " or "rad deploy failed…

Error message

{errorMessage} ("rad deploy failed with exit code {exitCode}" or "rad deploy failed with exit code {exitCode}: {stderrText}")

What it means

After launching `rad deploy`, the step waits for exit. A non-zero exit code means the Radius deployment failed; the step composes an error message (with or without captured stderr), logs it, reports it to the publishing context, and throws an InvalidOperationException.

Solutions

1. Read the stderr portion of the message — it contains rad's actual deployment error; fix that root cause.
2. Run `rad deploy <app.bicep>` manually against the same environment to see full output.
3. Verify the environment's recipes and parameters match what the generated app.bicep requests.
4. Fix any ASPIRERADIUS diagnostic errors (e.g. removed secrets) that would make the Bicep invalid before deploying.

Example fix

// before
// rad deploy failed with exit code 1: recipe 'redis' not found in environment

// after (shell)
rad recipe list   # confirm available recipes, then align the resource's recipe name
builder.AddRedis("cache").WithRecipe("redis-recipe");

// Pre-deploy sanity checks: environment reachable and Bicep exists
var bicepPath = Path.Combine(outputDir, "app.bicep");
if (!File.Exists(bicepPath)) throw new InvalidOperationException("Run publish before deploy.");
// and confirm recipes referenced by the model exist:
// rad recipe list --environment <env>

try { await deployStep.ExecuteAsync(context, ct); }
catch (InvalidOperationException ex) when (ex.Message.StartsWith("rad deploy failed"))
{
    // The stderr portion of the message holds rad's actual error — surface it
    logger.LogError(ex, "Radius deployment failed; see embedded stderr for root cause.");
}

When it happens

Trigger: rad deploy exits non-zero: invalid or rejected app.bicep, recipe/parameter mismatches, Radius control plane errors, Kubernetes resource creation failures, or missing credentials — with stderrText present when stderr was captured.

Common situations: Bicep referencing a recipe that does not exist in the environment; quota or RBAC failures in the target cluster; the app.bicep generated from callbacks (e.g. removed secrets) being rejected by Radius; network/auth failures to the control plane.

Understand the failure class

Background: "API error: {status}" and "HTTP 401/403/404/429/5xx" errors: non-2xx HTTP responses explained — this error's family across 27 libraries.

Related errors

• Bicep file not found at
• rad credential register failed with exit code
• A ConfigureRadiusInfrastructure callback renamed container
• A ConfigureRadiusInfrastructure callback replaced container
• A ConfigureRadiusInfrastructure callback replaced port

AI-assisted analysis of microsoft/aspire@25830f84bd (2026-09-16). Data as JSON: /api/errors/2a0c76903f9b5886. Report an issue: GitHub.

Appendix: source

Thrown at src/Aspire.Hosting.Radius/Publishing/RadiusDeploymentPipelineStep.cs:637

                throw;
            }

            var exitCode = process.ExitCode;

            logger.LogInformation("rad deploy exited with code {ExitCode} for environment '{EnvironmentName}'", exitCode, _environment.Name);

            if (exitCode != 0)
            {
                var stderrText = stderrBuilder.ToString().Trim();
                var errorMessage = string.IsNullOrEmpty(stderrText)
                    ? $"rad deploy failed with exit code {exitCode}"
                    : $"rad deploy failed with exit code {exitCode}: {stderrText}";

                logger.LogError("rad deploy failed for environment '{EnvironmentName}': {ErrorMessage}", _environment.Name, errorMessage);
                context.ReportingStep.Log(LogLevel.Error, errorMessage);

                throw new InvalidOperationException(errorMessage);
            }

            await deployTask.CompleteAsync(
                $"Radius deployment complete for '{_environment.Name}'",
                cancellationToken: cancellationToken).ConfigureAwait(false);
        }
        catch (Exception ex) when (ex is not InvalidOperationException and not OperationCanceledException)
        {
            logger.LogError(ex, "Unexpected error during rad deploy for environment '{EnvironmentName}'", _environment.Name);
            context.ReportingStep.Log(LogLevel.Error, ex.Message);
            throw;
        }
        finally
        {
            DeleteDeployParametersFile(parametersFilePath, logger);
        }
    }

View on GitHub (pinned to 25830f84bd)