How to deploy to Azure with GitHub Copilot or Claude Code using Azure Skills and the Azure MCP Server

Description and use

The Azure Skills plugin enables GitHub Copilot and Claude Code to automatically prepare, validate, and deploy applications to Azure while enforcing guardrails and respecting Azure RBAC permissions.

Problem

Deploying applications to Azure using AI coding assistants requires a reliable, automated workflow that can prepare, validate, and deploy code while respecting security and resource constraints.

Outcome

The plugin streamlines Azure deployments, reduces manual errors, and enforces guardrails that prevent destructive actions while allowing the agent to perform actions permitted by the user's Azure RBAC permissions.

Workflow

• Install Azure MCP Server extension or add the plugin via CLI
• Confirm installation by prompting the agent to list resource groups
• Invoke "Prepare this app for Azure" to generate .azure/deployment-plan.md
• Approve the plan and allow the agent to create azure.yaml and infra files
• Run "Validate my Azure deployment files" to execute checks and record proof
• Deploy the application with "Deploy this project to Azure Container Apps"
• Verify endpoints and role assignments, then receive deployment URLs

Evidence

The plugin bundles two layers that Microsoft describes as the brain and the hands. The first layer is a set of Azure skills, which are folders with a SKILL.md file holding workflows, decision trees and rules that the agent loads when your request matches the skill's description.

Source

The three deployment skills are designed as a chain, and each one refuses to run if the previous one didn't finish.

Source

The skill also carries some security decisions of its own. For example, it forbids generating administratorLogin or administratorLoginPassword in SQL Server Bicep files and requires Entra-only authentication instead.

Source