azure-advisor

Expert knowledge for Azure Advisor development including best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and integrations & coding patterns. Use when configuring Advisor alerts, workbooks, RBAC access, bulk fixes, or Resource Graph/Kusto queries, and other Azure Advisor related development tasks. Not for Azure Cost Management (use azure-cost-management), Azure Monitor (use azure-monitor), Azure Policy (use azure-policy), Azure Service Health (use azure-service-health).

471 stars

byMicrosoftDocs

View on GitHub Installation ↓

Best use case

azure-advisor is best used when you need a repeatable AI agent workflow instead of a one-off prompt.

Teams using azure-advisor should expect a more consistent output, faster repeated execution, less prompt rewriting.

When to use this skill

You want a reusable workflow that can be run more than once with consistent structure.

When not to use this skill

You only need a quick one-off answer and do not need a reusable workflow.
You cannot install or maintain the underlying files, dependencies, or repository context.

Installation

Claude Code / Cursor / Codex

$curl -o ~/.claude/skills/azure-advisor/SKILL.md --create-dirs "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills/main/skills/azure-advisor/SKILL.md"

Manual Installation

Download SKILL.md from GitHub
Place it in .claude/skills/azure-advisor/SKILL.md inside your project
Restart your AI agent — it will auto-discover the skill

How azure-advisor Compares

Feature / Agent	azure-advisor	Standard Approach
Platform Support	Not specified	Limited / Varies
Context Awareness	High	Baseline
Installation Complexity	Unknown	N/A

Frequently Asked Questions

What does this skill do?

Where can I find the source code?

You can find the source code on GitHub using the link provided at the top of the page.

Related Guides

AI Agents for Coding

Browse AI agent skills for coding, debugging, testing, refactoring, code review, and developer workflows across Claude, Cursor, and Codex.

SKILL.md Source

# Azure Advisor Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Advisor. Covers best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and integrations & coding patterns. 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](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mcp/blob/main/README.md)

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 |
|----------|-------|-------------|
| Best Practices | L34-L46 | Guidance on using Azure Advisor to assess architectures and apply cost, performance, operational excellence, and reliability recommendations, including bulk fixes and cost-savings calculations. |
| Decision Making | L47-L55 | Using Advisor workbooks and critical risk views to evaluate reliability, assess and optimize costs, and plan migrations based on service retirement and recommendation impact |
| Limits & Quotas | L56-L60 | Advisor feature availability, limits, and differences when running in Azure sovereign clouds (e.g., Azure Government, China), including which recommendations are supported. |
| Security | L61-L66 | Managing who can view or dismiss Azure Advisor recommendations using Azure RBAC, including configuring roles, permissions, and access control for Advisor. |
| Configuration | L67-L76 | Setting up and customizing Azure Advisor: creating alerts (portal, ARM, Bicep), email digests, tag-based filtering, and using workbooks for monitoring and insights. |
| Integrations & Coding Patterns | L77-L81 | Querying Azure Advisor recommendations via Azure Resource Graph, using Kusto queries and sample patterns to filter, analyze, and report on Advisor data at scale |

### Best Practices
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Run Well-Architected assessments in Azure Advisor | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-assessments |
| Optimize VM and VMSS costs using Azure Advisor | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-cost-recommendations |
| Calculate and export Azure Advisor cost savings | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-how-to-calculate-total-cost-savings |
| Improve high-usage VM performance with Azure Advisor | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-how-to-performance-resize-high-usage-vm-recommendations |
| Use Quick Fix for bulk remediation of Advisor recommendations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-quick-fix |
| Apply Azure Advisor cost recommendations across services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-reference-cost-recommendations |
| Use Azure Advisor operational excellence recommendations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-reference-operational-excellence-recommendations |
| Leverage Azure Advisor performance recommendations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-reference-performance-recommendations |
| Use Azure Advisor resiliency reviews to improve reliability | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-resiliency-reviews |

### Decision Making
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Use Azure Advisor Critical Risks for key resources | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-critical-risks |
| Assess cost impact of Azure Advisor recommendations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-how-to-evaluate-cost-implications-of-recommendations |
| Analyze and optimize Azure costs with the Advisor workbook | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbook-cost-optimization |
| Evaluate application reliability using the Advisor workbook | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbook-reliability |
| Use Advisor Service Retirement workbook for migration planning | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbook-service-retirement |

### Limits & Quotas
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Understand Azure Advisor feature limits in sovereign clouds | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-sovereign-clouds |

### Security
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Control who can dismiss Azure Advisor recommendations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-dismiss-postpone |
| Configure Azure Advisor access roles and permissions | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/permissions |

### Configuration
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Create Azure Advisor alerts with ARM templates | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-alerts-arm |
| Define Azure Advisor alert rules using Bicep | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-alerts-bicep |
| Configure Azure Advisor alerts in the Azure portal | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-alerts-portal |
| Configure periodic Azure Advisor recommendation digests | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-recommendations-digest |
| Filter Azure Advisor recommendations by resource tags | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-tag-filtering |
| Use Azure Advisor workbook templates for insights | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-workbooks |

### Integrations & Coding Patterns
| Topic | URL |
|-------|-----|
| Query Azure Advisor data with Azure Resource Graph | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/advisor-azure-resource-graph |
| Use Resource Graph sample queries for Azure Advisor data | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/advisor/resource-graph-samples |

Related Skills

azure-well-architected

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert guidance for designing, assessing, and optimizing Azure workloads using Azure Well Architected. Covers design review checklists, recommendations, design principles, tradeoffs, service guides, workload patterns, and assessment questions. Use when designing AI, SAP, SaaS, HPC, AVD/AVS workloads, or choosing regions/AZs with cost–reliability tradeoffs, and other Azure Well Architected related development tasks.

azure-web-pubsub

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Web PubSub development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when building WebSocket/MQTT apps, using Socket.IO, geo-replication, private endpoints, or Functions bindings, and other Azure Web PubSub related development tasks. Not for Azure SignalR Service (use azure-signalr-service), Azure Event Hubs (use azure-event-hubs), Azure Service Bus (use azure-service-bus), Azure Relay (use azure-relay).

azure-web-application-firewall

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Web Application Firewall development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring Front Door/App Gateway WAF rules, rate limits, bot/CAPTCHA, Sentinel logging, or IaC deployments, and other Azure Web Application Firewall related development tasks. Not for Azure Application Gateway (use azure-application-gateway), Azure Front Door (use azure-front-door), Azure Firewall (use azure-firewall), Azure DDos Protection (use azure-ddos-protection).

azure-vpn-gateway

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure VPN Gateway development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring S2S/P2S tunnels, BGP routing, IPsec/IKE policies, Entra/RADIUS auth, or ExpressRoute VPNs, and other Azure VPN Gateway related development tasks. Not for Azure ExpressRoute (use azure-expressroute), Azure Virtual WAN (use azure-virtual-wan), Azure Virtual Network (use azure-virtual-network), Azure Virtual Network Manager (use azure-virtual-network-manager).

azure-vmware-solution

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure VMware Solution development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring AVS with HCX/NSX, vSAN/stretched clusters, Citrix/Horizon, Cloud Director, or JetStream DR, and other Azure VMware Solution related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Large Instances (use azure-large-instances), Azure Baremetal Infrastructure (use azure-baremetal-infrastructure), SAP HANA on Azure Large Instances (use azure-sap).

azure-vm-scalesets

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets development including troubleshooting, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring VMSS autoscale, upgrade modes, zones/PPGs, Spot/standby pools, or disk encryption with Key Vault, and other Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure App Service (use azure-app-service), Azure Service Fabric (use azure-service-fabric).

azure-virtual-wan

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual WAN development including troubleshooting, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when designing Virtual WAN hubs, P2S VPN, ExpressRoute/SD‑WAN connectivity, NVAs/firewalls, or Entra ID VPN access, and other Azure Virtual WAN related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Network (use azure-virtual-network), Azure VPN Gateway (use azure-vpn-gateway), Azure ExpressRoute (use azure-expressroute), Azure Traffic Manager (use azure-traffic-manager).

azure-virtual-network

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual Network development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, and configuration. Use when designing VNets, NSGs, service endpoints, VNet peering, VPN gateways, or Azure Firewall/NAT gateways, and other Azure Virtual Network related development tasks. Not for Azure Networking (use azure-networking), Azure Virtual Network Manager (use azure-virtual-network-manager), Azure Virtual WAN (use azure-virtual-wan), Azure VPN Gateway (use azure-vpn-gateway).

azure-virtual-network-manager

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual Network Manager development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and integrations & coding patterns. Use when managing AVNM IPAM pools, network groups, cross-tenant connectivity, security admin rules, or ARG queries, and other Azure Virtual Network Manager related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Network (use azure-virtual-network), Azure Virtual WAN (use azure-virtual-wan), Azure Network Watcher (use azure-network-watcher), Azure Networking (use azure-networking).

azure-virtual-machines

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual Machines development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when choosing VM sizes, configuring scale sets, using Trusted Launch, encrypting disks, or automating via CLI/ARM, and other Azure Virtual Machines related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Machine Scale Sets (use azure-vm-scalesets), SQL Server on Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-sql-virtual-machines), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure App Service (use azure-app-service).

azure-virtual-desktop

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Virtual Desktop development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when working with FSLogix profiles, MSIX/App Attach, autoscale/Start VM on Connect, Teams optimization, or SSO/MFA, and other Azure Virtual Desktop related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Dev Box (use azure-dev-box).

azure-video-indexer

471

from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure AI Video Indexer development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when using Video Indexer APIs/widgets, live camera indexing, custom speech/brand models, or Azure OpenAI integrations, and other Azure AI Video Indexer related development tasks. Not for Azure AI services (use microsoft-foundry-tools), Azure AI Vision (use azure-ai-vision).