Agent Skills

Skills, custom agents, AGENTS.md templates, and MCP configurations for AI coding agents working with Azure SDKs and Microsoft AI Foundry.

Blog post: Context-Driven Development: Agent Skills for Microsoft Foundry and Azure

Quick Start

npx skills add microsoft/agent-skills

Select the skills you need from the wizard. Skills are installed to your chosen agent's directory (e.g., .github/skills/ for GitHub Copilot) and symlinked if you use multiple agents.

Alternative installation methods

Manual installation (git clone)

# Clone and copy specific skills
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/agent-skills.git
cp -r agent-skills/.github/skills/azure-cosmos-db-py your-project/.github/skills/

# Or use symlinks for multi-project setups
ln -s /path/to/agent-skills/.github/skills/mcp-builder /path/to/your-project/.github/skills/mcp-builder

# Share skills across different agent configs in the same repo
ln -s ../.github/skills .opencode/skills
ln -s ../.github/skills .claude/skills

Context7

Browse and install skills via context7.com/microsoft/agent-skills:

npx ctx7 skills install /microsoft/agent-skills azure-ai-projects-py

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Coding agents like Copilot CLI are powerful, but they lack domain knowledge about your SDKs. The patterns are already in their weights from pretraining. All you need is the right activation context to surface them.

Important

Use skills selectively. Loading all skills causes context rot: diluted attention, wasted tokens, conflated patterns. Only copy skills essential for your current project.

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What's Inside

Resource	Description
126 Skills	Domain-specific knowledge for Azure SDK and Foundry development
Custom Agents	Role-specific agents (backend, frontend, infrastructure, planner)
AGENTS.md	Template for configuring agent behavior in your projects
MCP Configs	Pre-configured servers for docs, GitHub, browser automation
Live Docs	Context7-indexed Foundry documentation, updated daily

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Skill Catalog

126 skills in .github/skills/ — flat structure with language suffixes for automatic discovery

Language	Count	Suffix
Core	5	—
Python	42	-py
.NET	29	-dotnet
TypeScript	24	-ts
Java	26	-java

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Core

5 skills — tooling, infrastructure, language-agnostic

Skill	Description
azd-deployment	Deploy to Azure Container Apps with Azure Developer CLI (azd). Bicep infrastructure, remote builds, multi-service deployments.
github-issue-creator	Convert raw notes, error logs, or screenshots into structured GitHub issues.
mcp-builder	Build MCP servers for LLM tool integration. Python (FastMCP), Node/TypeScript, or C#/.NET.
podcast-generation	Generate podcast-style audio with Azure OpenAI Realtime API. Full-stack React + FastAPI + WebSocket.
skill-creator	Guide for creating effective skills for AI coding agents.

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Python

42 skills • suffix: -py

Foundry & AI (8 skills)

Skill	Description
agent-framework-azure-ai-py	Agent Framework SDK — persistent agents, hosted tools, MCP servers, streaming.
azure-ai-contentsafety-py	Content Safety SDK — detect harmful content in text/images with multi-severity classification.
azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py	Content Understanding SDK — multimodal extraction from documents, images, audio, video.
azure-ai-evaluation-py	Evaluation SDK — quality, safety, and custom evaluators for generative AI apps.
hosted-agents-v2-py	Hosted Agents SDK — container-based agents with ImageBasedHostedAgentDefinition, custom images, tools.
azure-ai-projects-py	High-level Foundry SDK — project client, versioned agents, evals, connections, OpenAI-compatible clients.
azure-search-documents-py	AI Search SDK — vector search, hybrid search, semantic ranking, indexing, skillsets.
m365-agents-py	Microsoft 365 Agents SDK — aiohttp hosting, AgentApplication routing, streaming, Copilot Studio client.

AI Services (8 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-ai-ml-py	ML SDK v2 — workspaces, jobs, models, datasets, compute, pipelines.
azure-ai-textanalytics-py	Text Analytics — sentiment, entities, key phrases, PII detection, healthcare NLP.
azure-ai-transcription-py	Transcription SDK — real-time and batch speech-to-text with timestamps, diarization.
azure-ai-translation-document-py	Document Translation — batch translate Word, PDF, Excel with format preservation.
azure-ai-translation-text-py	Text Translation — real-time translation, transliteration, language detection.
azure-ai-vision-imageanalysis-py	Vision SDK — captions, tags, objects, OCR, people detection, smart cropping.
azure-ai-voicelive-py	Voice Live SDK — real-time bidirectional voice AI with WebSocket, VAD, avatars.
azure-speech-to-text-rest-py	Speech to Text REST API — transcribe short audio (≤60 seconds) via HTTP without Speech SDK.

Data & Storage (7 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-cosmos-db-py	Cosmos DB patterns — FastAPI service layer, dual auth, partition strategies, TDD.
azure-cosmos-py	Cosmos DB SDK — document CRUD, queries, containers, globally distributed data.
azure-data-tables-py	Tables SDK — NoSQL key-value storage, entity CRUD, batch operations.
azure-storage-blob-py	Blob Storage — upload, download, list, containers, lifecycle management.
azure-storage-file-datalake-py	Data Lake Gen2 — hierarchical file systems, big data analytics.
azure-storage-file-share-py	File Share — SMB file shares, directories, cloud file operations.
azure-storage-queue-py	Queue Storage — reliable message queuing, task distribution.

Messaging & Events (4 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-eventgrid-py	Event Grid — publish events, CloudEvents, event-driven architectures.
azure-eventhub-py	Event Hubs — high-throughput streaming, producers, consumers, checkpointing.
azure-messaging-webpubsubservice-py	Web PubSub — real-time messaging, WebSocket connections, pub/sub.
azure-servicebus-py	Service Bus — queues, topics, subscriptions, enterprise messaging.

Identity & Security (2 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-identity-py	Identity SDK — DefaultAzureCredential, managed identity, service principals.
azure-keyvault-py	Key Vault — secrets, keys, and certificates management.

Monitoring (4 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-monitor-ingestion-py	Monitor Ingestion — send custom logs via Logs Ingestion API.
azure-monitor-opentelemetry-exporter-py	OpenTelemetry Exporter — low-level export to Application Insights.
azure-monitor-opentelemetry-py	OpenTelemetry Distro — one-line App Insights setup with auto-instrumentation.
azure-monitor-query-py	Monitor Query — query Log Analytics workspaces and Azure metrics.

Integration & Management (5 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-appconfiguration-py	App Configuration — centralized config, feature flags, dynamic settings.
azure-containerregistry-py	Container Registry — manage container images, artifacts, repositories.
azure-mgmt-apicenter-py	API Center — API inventory, metadata, governance.
azure-mgmt-apimanagement-py	API Management — APIM services, APIs, products, policies.
azure-mgmt-botservice-py	Bot Service — create and manage Azure Bot resources.

Patterns & Frameworks (4 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-mgmt-fabric-py	Fabric Management — Microsoft Fabric capacities and resources.
fastapi-router-py	FastAPI routers — CRUD operations, auth dependencies, response models.
foundry-iq-py	Foundry IQ — agentic retrieval with knowledge bases and Foundry Agent Service.
pydantic-models-py	Pydantic patterns — Base, Create, Update, Response, InDB model variants.

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.NET

29 skills • suffix: -dotnet

Foundry & AI (8 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-ai-agents-persistent-dotnet	Agents Persistent SDK — agent CRUD, threads, runs, streaming, function calling.
azure-ai-document-intelligence-dotnet	Document Intelligence — extract text, tables from invoices, receipts, IDs, forms.
azure-ai-openai-dotnet	Azure OpenAI — chat, embeddings, image generation, audio, assistants.
azure-ai-projects-dotnet	AI Projects SDK — Foundry project client, agents, connections, evals.
azure-ai-voicelive-dotnet	Voice Live — real-time voice AI with bidirectional WebSocket.
azure-mgmt-weightsandbiases-dotnet	Weights & Biases — ML experiment tracking via Azure Marketplace.
azure-search-documents-dotnet	AI Search — full-text, vector, semantic, hybrid search.
m365-agents-dotnet	Microsoft 365 Agents SDK — ASP.NET Core hosting, AgentApplication routing, Copilot Studio client.

Data & Storage (6 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-mgmt-fabric-dotnet	Fabric ARM — provision, scale, suspend/resume Fabric capacities.
azure-resource-manager-cosmosdb-dotnet	Cosmos DB ARM — create accounts, databases, containers, RBAC.
azure-resource-manager-mysql-dotnet	MySQL Flexible Server — servers, databases, firewall, HA.
azure-resource-manager-postgresql-dotnet	PostgreSQL Flexible Server — servers, databases, firewall, HA.
azure-resource-manager-redis-dotnet	Redis ARM — cache instances, firewall, geo-replication.
azure-resource-manager-sql-dotnet	SQL ARM — servers, databases, elastic pools, failover groups.

Messaging (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-eventgrid-dotnet	Event Grid — publish events, CloudEvents, EventGridEvents.
azure-eventhub-dotnet	Event Hubs — high-throughput streaming, producers, processors.
azure-servicebus-dotnet	Service Bus — queues, topics, sessions, dead letter handling.

Identity & Security (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-identity-dotnet	Identity SDK — DefaultAzureCredential, managed identity, service principals.
azure-security-keyvault-keys-dotnet	Key Vault Keys — key creation, rotation, encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify.
microsoft-azure-webjobs-extensions-authentication-events-dotnet	Entra Auth Events — custom claims, token enrichment, attribute collection.

Compute & Integration (6 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-maps-search-dotnet	Azure Maps — geocoding, routing, map tiles, weather.
azure-mgmt-apicenter-dotnet	API Center — API inventory, governance, versioning, discovery.
azure-mgmt-apimanagement-dotnet	API Management ARM — APIM services, APIs, products, policies.
azure-mgmt-botservice-dotnet	Bot Service ARM — bot resources, channels (Teams, DirectLine).
azure-resource-manager-durabletask-dotnet	Durable Task ARM — schedulers, task hubs, retention policies.
azure-resource-manager-playwright-dotnet	Playwright Testing ARM — workspaces, quotas.

Monitoring & Partner (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-mgmt-applicationinsights-dotnet	Application Insights — components, web tests, workbooks.
azure-mgmt-arizeaiobservabilityeval-dotnet	Arize AI — ML observability via Azure Marketplace.
azure-mgmt-mongodbatlas-dotnet	MongoDB Atlas — manage Atlas orgs as Azure ARM resources.

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TypeScript

24 skills • suffix: -ts

Foundry & AI (8 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-ai-contentsafety-ts	Content Safety — moderate text/images, detect harmful content.
azure-ai-document-intelligence-ts	Document Intelligence — extract from invoices, receipts, IDs, forms.
azure-ai-projects-ts	AI Projects SDK — Foundry client, agents, connections, evals.
m365-agents-ts	Microsoft 365 Agents SDK — AgentApplication routing, Express hosting, streaming, Copilot Studio client.
azure-ai-translation-ts	Translation — text translation, transliteration, document batch.
azure-ai-voicelive-ts	Voice Live — real-time voice AI with WebSocket, Node.js or browser.
azure-search-documents-ts	AI Search — vector/hybrid search, semantic ranking, knowledge bases.
frontend-ui-dark-ts	Frontend UI Dark — Vite + React + Tailwind + Framer Motion dark-themed UI design system.

Data & Storage (5 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-cosmos-ts	Cosmos DB — document CRUD, queries, bulk operations.
azure-postgres-ts	PostgreSQL — connect to Azure Database for PostgreSQL with pg, pooling, Entra ID auth.
azure-storage-blob-ts	Blob Storage — upload, download, list, SAS tokens, streaming.
azure-storage-file-share-ts	File Share — SMB shares, directories, file operations.
azure-storage-queue-ts	Queue Storage — send, receive, peek, visibility timeout.

Messaging (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-eventhub-ts	Event Hubs — high-throughput streaming, partitioned consumers.
azure-servicebus-ts	Service Bus — queues, topics, sessions, dead-letter handling.
azure-web-pubsub-ts	Web PubSub — WebSocket real-time features, group chat, notifications.

Identity, Security & Integration (4 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-appconfiguration-ts	App Configuration — settings, feature flags, Key Vault references.
azure-identity-ts	Identity SDK — DefaultAzureCredential, managed identity, browser login.
azure-keyvault-keys-ts	Key Vault Keys — create, encrypt/decrypt, sign, rotate keys.
azure-keyvault-secrets-ts	Key Vault Secrets — store and retrieve application secrets.

Monitoring & Frontend (4 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-microsoft-playwright-testing-ts	Playwright Testing — scale browser tests, CI/CD integration.
azure-monitor-opentelemetry-ts	OpenTelemetry — tracing, metrics, logs with Application Insights.
react-flow-node-ts	React Flow nodes — custom nodes with TypeScript, handles, Zustand.
zustand-store-ts	Zustand stores — TypeScript, subscribeWithSelector, state/action separation.

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Java

26 skills • suffix: -java

Foundry & AI (8 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-ai-agents-persistent-java	Agents Persistent — threads, messages, runs, streaming.
azure-ai-anomalydetector-java	Anomaly Detector — univariate/multivariate time-series analysis.
azure-ai-contentsafety-java	Content Safety — text/image analysis, blocklist management.
azure-ai-formrecognizer-java	Form Recognizer — extract text, tables, key-value pairs from documents.
azure-ai-projects-java	AI Projects — Foundry project management, connections, datasets.
azure-ai-vision-imageanalysis-java	Vision SDK — captions, OCR, object detection, tagging.
azure-ai-voicelive-java	Voice Live — real-time voice conversations with WebSocket.

Communication (5 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-communication-callautomation-java	Call Automation — IVR, call routing, recording, DTMF, TTS.
azure-communication-callingserver-java	CallingServer (legacy) — deprecated, use callautomation for new projects.
azure-communication-chat-java	Chat SDK — threads, messaging, participants, read receipts.
azure-communication-common-java	Common utilities — token credentials, user identifiers.
azure-communication-sms-java	SMS SDK — notifications, alerts, OTP delivery, bulk messaging.

Data & Storage (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-cosmos-java	Cosmos DB — NoSQL operations, global distribution, reactive patterns.
azure-data-tables-java	Tables SDK — Table Storage or Cosmos DB Table API.
azure-storage-blob-java	Blob Storage — upload, download, containers, streaming.

Messaging (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-eventgrid-java	Event Grid — publish events, pub/sub patterns.
azure-eventhub-java	Event Hubs — high-throughput streaming, event-driven architectures.
azure-messaging-webpubsub-java	Web PubSub — WebSocket messaging, live updates, chat.

Identity & Security (3 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-identity-java	Identity SDK — DefaultAzureCredential, managed identity, service principals.
azure-security-keyvault-keys-java	Key Vault Keys — RSA/EC keys, encrypt/decrypt, sign/verify, HSM.
azure-security-keyvault-secrets-java	Key Vault Secrets — passwords, API keys, connection strings.

Monitoring & Integration (5 skills)

Skill	Description
azure-appconfiguration-java	App Configuration — settings, feature flags, snapshots.
azure-compute-batch-java	Batch SDK — large-scale parallel and HPC jobs.
azure-monitor-ingestion-java	Monitor Ingestion — custom logs via Data Collection Rules.
azure-monitor-opentelemetry-exporter-java	OpenTelemetry Exporter — traces, metrics, logs to Azure Monitor. (Deprecated)
azure-monitor-query-java	Monitor Query — Kusto queries, Log Analytics, metrics. (Deprecated)

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Repository Structure

AGENTS.md                # Agent configuration template

.github/
├── skills/              # All 126 skills (flat structure)
├── prompts/             # Reusable prompt templates
├── agents/              # Agent persona definitions
├── scripts/             # Automation scripts (doc scraping)
├── workflows/           # GitHub Actions (daily doc updates)
└── copilot-instructions.md

docs/                    # Generated llms.txt files (daily workflow) - GitHub Pages hosted
├── llms.txt             # Links + summaries
└── llms-full.txt        # Full content

skills/                  # Symlinks for backward compatibility
├── python/              # -> ../.github/skills/*-py
├── dotnet/              # -> ../.github/skills/*-dotnet
├── typescript/          # -> ../.github/skills/*-ts
└── java/                # -> ../.github/skills/*-java

.vscode/
└── mcp.json             # MCP server configurations

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MCP Servers

Reference configurations in .vscode/mcp.json:

Category	Servers
Documentation	microsoft-docs, context7, deepwiki
Development	github, playwright, terraform, eslint
Utilities	sequentialthinking, memory, markitdown

For full MCP server implementations for Azure services, see microsoft/mcp.

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Additional Resources

Agents

Role-specific agent personas in .github/agents/:

Agent	Expertise
backend.agent.md	FastAPI, Pydantic, Cosmos DB, Azure services
frontend.agent.md	React, TypeScript, React Flow, Zustand, Tailwind
infrastructure.agent.md	Bicep, Azure CLI, Container Apps, networking
planner.agent.md	Task decomposition, architecture decisions
presenter.agent.md	Documentation, demos, technical writing
scaffolder.agent.md	Full-stack Azure AI Foundry app scaffolding

Use AGENTS.md as a template for configuring agent behavior in your own projects.

Prompts

Reusable prompt templates in .github/prompts/:

Prompt	Purpose
scaffold-foundry-app.prompt.md	Full-stack Azure AI Foundry app scaffolder — Vite + React + Fluent UI dark theme frontend, FastAPI + Pydantic backend, azd + Bicep infrastructure for Container Apps with remote builds
code-review.prompt.md	Structured code review with security, performance, and maintainability checks
create-store.prompt.md	Zustand store creation with TypeScript and subscribeWithSelector
create-node.prompt.md	React Flow custom node creation with handles and Zustand integration
add-endpoint.prompt.md	FastAPI endpoint creation with Pydantic models and proper typing

Project Scaffolder

The scaffold-foundry-app prompt + scaffolder agent provide a complete project scaffolding system for Azure AI Foundry applications:

Frontend Stack:

• Vite + React 18 + TypeScript (strict mode)
• Fluent UI v9 with dark theme
• Framer Motion for animations
• Tailwind CSS (JIT) for utility styles
• pnpm package manager

Backend Stack:

• FastAPI with async patterns
• Pydantic v2 for validation
• pytest + pytest-asyncio for testing
• Ruff for linting/formatting
• uv for dependency management

Infrastructure:

• Azure Developer CLI (azd) with remoteBuild: true
• Bicep templates for Azure Container Apps
• Managed Identity for secure authentication
• Azure Container Registry for images

# Use with GitHub Copilot Chat
@workspace /scaffold-foundry-app Create a chat application with Azure OpenAI

# Or invoke the scaffolder agent directly
@scaffolder Build a document analysis app with Foundry agents

Live Documentation

Context7 indexes this repo's Foundry documentation with semantic search. Updated daily via GitHub workflow:

1. Scrapes the latest Azure AI Foundry TOC from Microsoft Learn
2. Generates llms.txt and llms-full.txt, hosted at microsoft.github.io/agent-skills
3. Creates a PR if documentation has changed

These files follow the llms.txt specification for LLM-friendly documentation.

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Testing Skills

The test harness validates that skills produce correct code patterns using the GitHub Copilot SDK. It evaluates generated code against acceptance criteria defined for each skill.

# Install test dependencies (from tests directory)
cd tests
pnpm install

# List skills with test coverage
pnpm harness --list

# Run tests for a specific skill (mock mode for CI)
pnpm harness azure-ai-projects-py --mock --verbose

# Run with Ralph Loop (iterative improvement)
pnpm harness azure-ai-projects-py --ralph --mock --max-iterations 5 --threshold 85

# Run unit tests
pnpm test

Test Coverage Summary

126 skills with 1134 test scenarios — all skills have acceptance criteria and test scenarios.

Language	Skills	Scenarios	Top Skills by Scenarios
Core	5	51	scaffold-foundry-app (11), podcast-generation (8), skill-creator (8)
Python	42	341	azure-ai-projects-py (12), pydantic-models-py (12), azure-ai-translation-text-py (11)
.NET	29	290	azure-resource-manager-sql-dotnet (14), azure-resource-manager-redis-dotnet (14), azure-servicebus-dotnet (13)
TypeScript	24	257	azure-storage-blob-ts (17), azure-servicebus-ts (14), azure-microsoft-playwright-testing-ts (13)
Java	26	195	azure-storage-blob-java (12), azure-identity-java (12), azure-data-tables-java (11)

Adding Test Coverage

See tests/README.md for instructions on adding acceptance criteria and scenarios for new skills.

Ralph Loop & Sensei Patterns

The test harness implements iterative quality improvement patterns inspired by Sensei:

Ralph Loop — An iterative code generation and improvement system that:

1. Generate code for a given skill/scenario
2. Evaluate against acceptance criteria (score 0-100)
3. Analyze failures and build LLM-actionable feedback
4. Re-generate with feedback until quality threshold is met
5. Report on quality improvements across iterations

Sensei-style Scoring — Skills are evaluated on frontmatter compliance:

Score	Requirements
Low	Basic description only
Medium	Description > 150 chars, has trigger keywords
Medium-High	Has "USE FOR:" triggers AND "DO NOT USE FOR:" anti-triggers
High	Triggers + anti-triggers + compatibility field

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Contributing

Adding New Skills

New skills must follow the full workflow to ensure quality and discoverability:

Prerequisites:

• SDK package name (e.g., azure-ai-agents, Azure.AI.OpenAI)
• Microsoft Learn documentation URL or GitHub repository
• Target language (py/dotnet/ts/java)

Workflow:

1. Create skill in .github/skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md

   • Naming: azure-<service>-<language> (e.g., azure-ai-projects-py)
   • Include YAML frontmatter with name and description
   • Reference official docs via microsoft-docs MCP

2. Categorize with symlink in skills/<language>/<category>/

   # Example: Python AI agent skill in foundry category
   cd skills/python/foundry
   ln -s ../../../.github/skills/azure-ai-projects-py projects

   Categories: foundry, data, messaging, monitoring, identity, security, integration, compute, container

3. Create acceptance criteria in .github/skills/<skill>/references/acceptance-criteria.md

   • Document correct/incorrect import patterns
   • Document authentication patterns
   • Document async variants

4. Create test scenarios in tests/scenarios/<skill>/scenarios.yaml

   • Test basic usage, error handling, advanced features
   • Include mock responses for CI

5. Verify tests pass

   cd tests && pnpm harness <skill-name> --mock --verbose

6. Update README.md — Add to the appropriate language section in the Skill Catalog

Full guide: See .github/skills/skill-creator/SKILL.md

Other Contributions

• Improve existing prompts and agents
• Share MCP server configurations
• Fix bugs in test harness

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License

MIT