Build, deploy, evaluate, optimize, fine-tune, and manage Microsoft Foundry agents, models, and resources end to end. USE FOR: foundry, azd ai agent, azd provision/deploy, hosted agent scaffold/develop/run/deploy/troubleshoot, prompt agent create, create agent, update agent, add tool to agent, invoke

Microsoft Foundry Skill This skill helps developers work with Microsoft Foundry resources, covering model discovery and deployment, complete dev lifecycle of AI agent, evaluation workflows, and troubleshooting. Pre Execution Requirements Follow each applicable subsection below before starting its corresponding action or workflow. Dependency Check and Setup MANDATORY: As the first step after this skill loads, run the dependency check and setup script below from this skill's root and wait for it to finish before continuing. The script checks first and installs only missing dependencies; it does not reinstall dependencies that are already available. You MUST complete this check before reading or entering any sub skill, workflow, or workflow specific reference. Strictly follow the script output for subsequent actions. Workflow Guidance MANDATORY: Before executing ANY workflow specific steps, you MUST read the corresponding sub skill document. Do not call workflow specific MCP tools for a workflow without reading its skill document. This applies even if you already know the MCP tool parameters — the skill document contains required workflow steps, pre checks, and validation logic that must be followed. This rule applies on every new user message that triggers a different workflow, even if the skill is already loaded. Foundry MCP MANDATORY: Before using Foundry MCP operations, call the Azure MCP foundry tool and inspect the available Foundry MCP tools and related parameters. Treat this as the discovery/help step for MCP based workflows. azd MANDATORY: Before executing ANY azd command, you MUST read [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) and strictly follow the shared rules defined in it, especially the AZURE DEV USER AGENT setting rules. Sub Skills This skill includes specialized sub skills for specific workflows. When a sub skill matches the task, strictly follow its workflow: Sub Skill When to Use Reference deploy Deploy hosted agents to Foundry, smoke test a deployment, create or update prompt agents, and manage agent versions and multi environment deploys. [deploy](foundry agent/deploy/deploy.md) cicd Set up a CI/CD deployment pipeline for a Foundry agent. [cicd](foundry agent/cicd/cicd.md) invoke Send messages to an agent, single or multi turn conversations [invoke](foundry agent/invoke/invoke.md) routine Schedule or event trigger Foundry agents with routines; use azd for CRUD, enable/disable, manual dispatch, and viewing past runs, or define routines in azure.yaml . [routine](foundry agent/routine/routine.md) invocations ws Build, deploy, and connect to hosted agents that speak the invocations ws duplex WebSocket protocol — voice agents, real time streams, and signaling for out of band media transports. [invocations ws](foundry agent/invocations ws/invocations ws.md) observe Evaluate agent quality, run batch evals, analyze failures, optimize prompts, improve agent instructions, compare versions, set up CI/CD monitoring, and enable continuous production evaluation [observe](foundry agent/observe/observe.md) trace Query traces, analyze latency/failures, correlate eval results to specific responses via App Insights customEvents [trace](foundry agent/trace/trace.md) troubleshoot View hosted agent logs, query telemetry, diagnose failures [troubleshoot](foundry agent/troubleshoot/troubleshoot.md) validate Use only when the user explicitly asks to use this validation sub skill or to validate Microsoft Foundry hosted agent code against best practices. Never invoke it proactively or add it to another workflow. [validate](foundry agent/validate/validate.md) create (quick start) Create a new hosted Foundry agent from scratch end to end — scaffold, provision or use an existing Foundry project, deploy, and smoke test. Do not use for any work on existing code. For anything not covered by the quickstart, use create . [create/quick start hosted.md](foundry agent/create/quick start hosted.md) create Use when the standard end to end happy path (quick start) doesn't fit. Create a new Foundry agent, update code of an existing agent, continue development of an existing agent, wire connections at scaffold time, use advanced setup or A2A (Agent2Agent), or recover from a failed quickstart run. [create](foundry agent/create/create hosted.md) agent optimizer Make existing Python hosted agent code optimization ready, configure eval.yaml, run Agent Optimizer jobs, apply candidates locally, and deploy through azd after review. [agent optimizer](foundry agent/agent optimizer/agent optimizer.md) eval datasets Harvest production traces into evaluation datasets, manage dataset versions and splits, track evaluation metrics over time, detect regressions, and maintain full lineage from trace to deployment. Use for: create dataset from traces, dataset versioning, evaluation trending, regression detection, dataset comparison, eval lineage. [eval datasets](foundry agent/eval datasets/eval datasets.md) project/create Creating a new Microsoft Foundry project for hosting agents and models. Use when onboarding to Foundry or setting up new infrastructure. [project/create/create foundry project.md](project/create/create foundry project.md) resource/create Creating Azure AI Services multi service resource (Foundry resource) using Azure CLI. Use when manually provisioning AI Services resources with granular control. [resource/create/create foundry resource.md](resource/create/create foundry resource.md) private network Answer questions about Foundry network isolation and deploy Foundry with VNet isolation (BYO VNet, Managed VNet, hybrid). Covers architecture concepts, template selection, deployment, and post deployment validation. [resource/private network/private network.md](resource/private network/private network.md) models/deploy model Unified model deployment with intelligent routing. Handles quick preset deployments, fully customized deployments (version/SKU/capacity/RAI), and capacity discovery across regions. Routes to sub skills: preset (quick deploy), customize (full control), capacity (find availability). [models/deploy model/SKILL.md](models/deploy model/SKILL.md) quota Managing quotas and capacity for Microsoft Foundry resources. Use when checking quota usage, troubleshooting deployment failures due to insufficient quota, requesting quota increases, or planning capacity. [quota/quota.md](quota/quota.md) rbac Managing RBAC permissions, role assignments, managed identities, and service principals for Microsoft Foundry resources. Use for access control, auditing permissions, and CI/CD setup. [rbac/rbac.md](rbac/rbac.md) finetuning Fine tune models on Microsoft Foundry — SFT distillation, DPO preference optimization, RFT with graders and tool calling. Dataset preparation, grader calibration, training, checkpoint selection, deployment, evaluation. Use for: fine tune, SFT, DPO, RFT, training data, grader, distillation, fine tuned model, large file upload. [finetuning/SKILL.md](finetuning/SKILL.md) azd guidance Provide shared azd knowledge and guidance for managing Foundry agents. Read this first for any workflows related to azd. [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) 💡 Tip: For a complete onboarding flow: project/create (public) or private network (VNet isolation) → models/deploy model → agent workflows ( create → deploy → invoke ). 💡 Fine Tuning: Use finetuning for all model customization — SFT distillation, DPO preference optimization, and RFT with graders. Includes quickstart, grader calibration, and training curve analysis. 💡 Model Deployment: Use models/deploy model for all deployment scenarios — it intelligently routes between quick preset deployment, customized deployment with full control, and capacity discovery across regions. 💡 Prompt Optimization: For requests like "optimize my prompt" or "improve my agent instructions," load [observe](foundry agent/observe/observe.md) and use the prompt optimize MCP tool through that eval driven workflow. Infrastructure Lifecycle Match user intent to the correct infrastructure workflow. User Intent Workflow "Create Foundry" / "Set up Foundry" (ambiguous) Use AskUserQuestion : (a) just an AI Services resource, (b) a project with public access, or (c) a project with network isolation? Route: (a) → [resource/create](resource/create/create foundry resource.md), (b) → [project/create](project/create/create foundry project.md), (c) → [private network](resource/private network/private network.md) Set up Foundry with VNet isolation [private network](resource/private network/private network.md) Create a Foundry project (public) [project/create](project/create/create foundry project.md) Create a bare Foundry resource [resource/create](resource/create/create foundry resource.md) Agent Development Lifecycle Match user intent to the correct agent workflow. Read each sub skill in order before executing. User Intent Workflow (read in order) Create a new hosted agent end to end (scaffold + deploy + test) [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → [quick start hosted](foundry agent/create/quick start hosted.md) (self contained end to end) Anything beyond the standard quickstart (existing code, migration, re hosting, deployment customization, scaffold time connections, A2A (Agent2Agent), recovery) [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → [create](foundry agent/create/create hosted.md) → [deploy](foundry agent/deploy/deploy.md) → [invoke](foundry agent/invoke/invoke.md) Optimize existing Python hosted agent [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → [agent optimizer](foundry agent/agent optimizer/agent optimizer.md) → scaffold/review → eval.yaml → optimize → apply candidate → deploy → invoke Deploy an agent (code already exists) [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → deploy (includes eval suite setup) → invoke → observe (evaluate/optimize) Update/redeploy an agent after code changes [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → deploy (includes eval suite setup) → invoke → observe (evaluate/optimize) Set up a CI/CD deployment pipeline for a hosted agent [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → cicd Invoke/test/chat with an agent [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → invoke Schedule/event trigger an agent, or CRUD/enable/disable/dispatch a routine [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → routine Optimize / improve agent prompt or instructions observe (Step 4: Optimize) Evaluate and optimize agent (full loop) observe Enable continuous evaluation monitoring observe (Step 6: CI/CD & Monitoring) Troubleshoot an agent issue [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → invoke → troubleshoot Fix a broken agent (troubleshoot + redeploy) [dependency check and setup]( dependency check and setup) → [azd guidance](foundry agent/azd guidance/azd guidance.md) → invoke → troubleshoot → apply fixes → deploy → invoke

microsoft-foundry