Microsoftdocs Agent Skills

Included skill

Azure Deployment Environments

Expert knowledge for Azure Deployment Environments development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring ADE catalogs, RBAC/managed identities, Git/ARM catalogs, custom images, or CI/CD environment automation, and other Azure Deployment Environments related development tasks. Not for Azure DevTest Labs (use azure-devtest-labs), Azure Dev Box (use azure-dev-box), Azure Integration Environments (use azure-integration-environments), Azure Managed Applications (use azure-managed-applications).

Source: /skills/azure-deployment-environments/SKILL.md

Azure Deployment Environments Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Deployment Environments. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

How to Use This Skill

IMPORTANT for Agent: Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., L35-L120), use read_file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., [security.md](security.md)), use read_file on the linked reference file

IMPORTANT for Agent: If metadata.generated_at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp_microsoftdocs tools are not available, suggest the user install it: Installation Guide

This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content:

  • Preferred: Use mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch with query string from=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown.
  • Fallback: Use fetch_webpage with query string from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.

Category Index

Category Lines Description
Troubleshooting L37-L41 Diagnosing and resolving custom image deployment failures in Azure Deployment Environments, including common error patterns, logs to inspect, and remediation steps.
Best Practices L42-L46 Guidance on organizing and structuring Azure Deployment Environments catalogs, including repo layout, template grouping, naming, and governance for scalable, maintainable catalogs.
Decision Making L47-L51 Guidance on planning for Azure Deployment Environments entering maintenance mode, including impact, timelines, alternatives, and migration/transition considerations.
Architecture & Design Patterns L52-L56 Guidance on designing resilient, scalable Azure Deployment Environments architectures, including fault tolerance, high availability, redundancy, and best practices for robust environment design.
Limits & Quotas L57-L61 Requesting and managing quota increases for Azure Deployment Environments resource limits, including how to handle capacity constraints and raise support requests.
Security L62-L69 RBAC and identity setup for Deployment Environments: planning and assigning roles, configuring managed identities, and authenticating to the REST APIs.
Configuration L70-L81 Defining ADE environments and types, configuring Git catalogs and ARM provisioning, using the devcenter CLI, auto-deletion, and environment variables for custom images.
Integrations & Coding Patterns L82-L88 Using Azure Developer CLI and ADE CLI to create environments, build custom container images, and manage custom image workflows for Azure Deployment Environments
Deployment L89-L93 Using Azure Deployment Environments with CI/CD tools (Azure Pipelines, GitHub Actions) to automate environment creation, updates, and deployments from templates.

Troubleshooting

Topic URL
Diagnose custom image deployment failures in Azure Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/troubleshoot-custom-image-logs-errors

Best Practices

Topic URL
Structure Azure Deployment Environments catalogs efficiently https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/best-practice-catalog-structure

Decision Making

Topic URL
Plan for Azure Deployment Environments maintenance mode https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/maintenance-mode

Architecture & Design Patterns

Topic URL
Design resilient Azure Deployment Environments architectures https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/concept-reliability-deployment-environments

Limits & Quotas

Topic URL
Request quota increases for ADE resource limits https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-request-quota-increase

Security

Topic URL
Plan Azure RBAC roles for Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/concept-deployment-environments-role-based-access-control
Authenticate to Azure Deployment Environments REST APIs https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-authenticate
Configure managed identity for Azure Deployment Environments dev center https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-managed-identity
Assign RBAC roles for Azure Deployment Environments access https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-manage-deployment-environments-access

Configuration

Topic URL
Define Azure Deployment Environments with environment.yaml schema https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/concept-environment-yaml
Configure Git-based catalogs for Azure Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-catalog
Configure dev center environment types in Azure Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-devcenter-environment-types
Configure project-level environment types in Azure Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-project-environment-types
Install and use the devcenter Azure CLI extension https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-install-devcenter-cli-extension
Configure automatic deletion for ADE environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-schedule-environment-deletion
Provision dev center and project via ARM template https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/quickstart-create-dev-center-project-azure-resource-manager
Reference ADE CLI environment variables for custom images https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/reference-deployment-environment-variables

Integrations & Coding Patterns

Topic URL
Create ADE environments using Azure Developer CLI https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-azure-developer-cli-deployment-environments
Use custom container images with Azure Deployment Environments https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/how-to-configure-extensibility-model-custom-image
Use ADE CLI commands for custom image workflows https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/reference-deployment-environment-cli

Deployment

Topic URL
Integrate ADE with Azure Pipelines for CI/CD https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/tutorial-deploy-environments-in-cicd-azure-devops
Deploy Azure environments via GitHub CI/CD pipelines https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/deployment-environments/tutorial-deploy-environments-in-cicd-github