Azure CLI

Azure CLI (az)

Official CLI for Microsoft Azure. Manage all Azure services from the terminal.

• Official repo: https://github.com/Azure/azure-cli
• Docs: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/cli/azure/

Authentication

az login                    # Browser-based login
az login --use-device-code  # Device code flow (headless)
az account show             # Show current subscription
az account list --output table
az account set --subscription SUB_ID

Common Commands

Resource Groups

az group list --output table
az group create --name my-rg --location eastus
az group delete --name my-rg --yes

App Service

az webapp list --output table
az webapp create --resource-group my-rg --plan my-plan --name my-app --runtime "NODE:20-lts"
az webapp deploy --resource-group my-rg --name my-app --src-path ./app.zip
az webapp log tail --resource-group my-rg --name my-app
az webapp config appsettings set --resource-group my-rg --name my-app --settings KEY=value

Functions

az functionapp list --output table
az functionapp create --resource-group my-rg --consumption-plan-location eastus --runtime node --name my-func --storage-account mystorage
func azure functionapp publish my-func

Virtual Machines

az vm list --output table
az vm create --resource-group my-rg --name my-vm --image Ubuntu2204 --admin-username azureuser --generate-ssh-keys
az vm start --resource-group my-rg --name my-vm
az vm stop --resource-group my-rg --name my-vm

Storage

az storage account list --output table
az storage blob upload --account-name mystorage --container-name mycontainer --file ./data.txt --name data.txt
az storage blob list --account-name mystorage --container-name mycontainer --output table

Agent Best Practices

• Use --output json with --query (JMESPath) for structured output
• Use --no-wait for long-running operations to avoid blocking
• Always check az account show to confirm active subscription
• Use --yes flag to skip confirmation prompts in automation
• Use az find "keyword" to discover commands
• Use az interactive for command exploration (human use)

Example Workflows

Deploy a web app

az webapp up --resource-group my-rg --name my-app --runtime "NODE:20-lts" --sku F1

List all resources in a resource group

az resource list --resource-group my-rg --output json --query '[].{name:name, type:type}'