Azure Skills for Claude Code: The Complete Guide to microsoft/azure-skills
microsoft/azure-skills is Microsoft's official repo of 27 Azure skills for Claude Code, covering deploy, AKS, diagnostics, compliance, cost, and Azure AI Foundry. Combined they have 9,775,059 installs, with microsoft-foundry alone at 446,557 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026). This guide maps every skill to the Azure job it does.
By Skillselion, an Ellelion LLC publication · Updated July 11, 2026 · 4 min read · Stats verified against the live catalog
Microsoft publishes an official repository of Claude Code skills for Azure: microsoft/azure-skills. It contains 27 skills with 9,775,059 combined installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), and it is the standard way to give Claude Code working knowledge of Azure deployments, AKS, diagnostics, compliance scans, cost queries, and Azure AI Foundry. If you run anything on Azure and use Claude Code, this is the one repo to know.
Key takeaways
- microsoft/azure-skills is published by Microsoft itself: 27 skills, 9,775,059 combined installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026).
- The most installed skill in the family is microsoft-foundry at 446,557 installs, which drives Azure AI Foundry agents from Claude Code.
- The skills group into four jobs: deploy and infrastructure, AI platform, day-2 operations, and governance (compliance, cost, identity).
- Install any one with
npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills --skill <name>; you do not need all 27. - They are Azure-specific by design. On AWS, GCP, or bare-metal stacks they add nothing.
What is the microsoft/azure-skills repo?
It is a Microsoft-published GitHub repository of Claude Code skills: folders of SKILL.md instructions plus scripts that Claude loads when a task matches. Each skill encodes official Microsoft guidance for one Azure job, so Claude runs real az CLI workflows instead of guessing at flag names from training data. Provenance matters here: these ship from the microsoft GitHub org, the same source as the Azure CLI docs, not from a third-party curator.
Which Azure skills handle deployment and infrastructure?
Six skills cover the path from empty repo to running workload:
- azure-deploy, 442,997 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), safely executes production deployments of already-prepared applications. Its sibling
azure-prepare(442,755 installs) generates the infrastructure files, Dockerfiles, and azure.yaml first, andazure-validate(442,111 installs) runs deep pre-deployment checks on config, RBAC roles, and managed identities. - azure-compute, 385,437 installs, gives accurate VM and VMSS recommendations, pricing, and troubleshooting.
- azure-kubernetes, 271,363 installs, patches Kubernetes YAML manifests so they pass AKS Automatic compatibility checks before you deploy.
- azure-enterprise-infra-planner, 278,475 installs, turns a high-level workload description into a complete enterprise-grade Azure infrastructure plan with networking.
A typical flow chains three of them: azure-prepare scaffolds, azure-validate checks, azure-deploy ships.
How do you drive Azure AI Foundry from Claude Code?
With the microsoft-foundry skill: 446,557 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), the most installed skill in the family. It lets you deploy, evaluate, and continuously improve Azure AI Foundry agents from a single Claude Code session, so model deployment and agent iteration happen in the same place you write the code. If someone on your team asks how to use Microsoft Foundry with Claude Code, this skill is the answer.
Three more skills round out the AI platform group: azure-ai (443,331 installs) wires Azure AI Content Safety, Document Intelligence, Speech, and Search into agents; azure-aigateway (441,746 installs) configures Azure API Management as a governed gateway in front of LLMs and MCP servers; airunway-aks-setup (191,444 installs) takes a bare AKS cluster to a running model-serving endpoint with AI Runway and KAITO.
Which skills cover day-2 operations?
- azure-diagnostics, 442,873 installs, systematically diagnoses production issues using official Microsoft runbooks. Pair it with azure-kusto (441,687 installs) for KQL queries against Azure Data Explorer and appinsights-instrumentation (441,915 installs) for observability wiring.
- azure-quotas, 311,927 installs, checks quota headroom before you deploy or scale, which is the boring check that prevents the 3 a.m. capacity failure.
- azure-upgrade, 304,423 installs, assesses and upgrades hosting plans, SKUs, and legacy SDK dependencies.
- azure-cloud-migrate, 375,380 installs, migrates Google App Engine applications to Azure App Service, and azure-reliability (125,199 installs) adds zone redundancy or multi-region failover to Functions apps.
What about governance, cost, and identity?
This group maps to the compliance and adoption questions enterprise teams actually search for:
- azure-compliance, 441,845 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), runs automated compliance scans, security posture checks, and Key Vault expiration audits before deployment.
- azure-cost, 246,813 installs, queries historical spend, forecasts bills, and flags savings.
- azure-rbac (441,835 installs) finds the least-privilege role for any identity and generates ready-to-run CLI commands; entra-app-registration (441,994 installs) handles Entra ID app registration and OAuth 2.0 flows; entra-agent-id (165,632 installs) provisions distinct Entra identities per AI agent.
Which Azure skill do you need?
| Task | Skill |
|---|---|
| Ship an app to Azure | azure-prepare, then azure-validate, then azure-deploy |
| Run Azure AI Foundry agents | microsoft-foundry |
| Fix a production incident | azure-diagnostics + azure-kusto |
| Pass a compliance or security audit | azure-compliance |
| Explain or forecast the Azure bill | azure-cost |
| Deploy to AKS without manifest errors | azure-kubernetes |
| Pick the right VM SKU | azure-compute |
| Scope least-privilege access | azure-rbac |
| Plan enterprise infrastructure | azure-enterprise-infra-planner |
| Migrate from Google App Engine | azure-cloud-migrate |
How do you install these skills?
Each skill installs individually, so pull only what your stack needs:
npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills --skill azure-deploy
npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills --skill microsoft-foundryThe skills invoke the Azure CLI, so run az login first. Full walkthrough, including scoping to one project versus all projects: how to install a Claude skill.
When should you NOT use the Azure skills?
Skip the family entirely if your workloads run on AWS, GCP, Fly.io, Vercel, or your own hardware: every skill assumes an Azure subscription and the az CLI, and on other stacks it is dead weight in your context. Also skip azure-cloud-migrate unless you are literally moving off Google App Engine; it is that specific. If you need live API access to services rather than encoded workflows, an MCP server may fit better; Claude skills vs MCP covers when each wins.
For how these rank against every other skill family, see the leaderboard or browse the full skills catalog. Install counts come from the skills.sh registry via the Skillselion catalog, snapshot July 2026.
Common questions
What is the microsoft/azure-skills repository?
microsoft/azure-skills is Microsoft's official GitHub repository of Claude Code skills for Azure. It contains 27 skills with 9,775,059 combined installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), covering deployment, AKS, diagnostics, compliance, cost management, identity, and Azure AI Foundry. Because it ships from the microsoft GitHub org, the workflows encode official Microsoft guidance rather than third-party interpretations.
Which Azure skill for Claude Code is the most popular?
microsoft-foundry, with 446,557 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), is the most installed skill in the microsoft/azure-skills family. Close behind are azure-ai at 443,331 installs and azure-deploy at 442,997 installs. Install counts come from the skills.sh registry via the Skillselion catalog.
Do I need to install all 27 Azure skills?
No. Each skill installs individually with `npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills --skill <name>`, so pull only the ones matching your work. A typical web team takes azure-prepare, azure-validate, and azure-deploy; an AI team adds microsoft-foundry; a platform team adds azure-diagnostics, azure-quotas, and azure-compliance. Installing all 27 mostly adds noise to skill selection.
Can Claude Code run Azure compliance checks?
Yes. The azure-compliance skill, 441,845 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026), runs automated compliance scans, security posture checks, and Key Vault expiration audits from Claude Code before you deploy. For access governance, azure-rbac finds least-privilege roles, and azure-cost handles spend audits and forecasts.
What is the microsoft-foundry skill?
microsoft-foundry lets Claude Code deploy, evaluate, and continuously improve Azure AI Foundry agents from a single session. Instead of switching between the Foundry portal and your editor, you drive model deployment and agent iteration through Claude. At 446,557 installs (skills.sh registry, July 2026) it is the most installed skill in Microsoft's Azure family.
Do the Azure skills work with AWS or GCP?
No. Every skill in microsoft/azure-skills assumes an Azure subscription and the az CLI; on AWS, GCP, or self-hosted stacks they add context weight without value. Look for provider-specific skill families for other clouds on the Skillselion leaderboard, or use an MCP server when you need live API access instead of encoded workflows.
Ranked by Skillselion - an independent directory of AI-coding tools, not affiliated with Anthropic, OpenAI or Cursor. Tool rankings reflect real adoption (installs, then GitHub stars) from the skills.sh registry and GitHub, last updated July 11, 2026.