| name | azure-defaults |
| description | **UTILITY SKILL** — Provides Azure defaults for regions, tags, CAF naming, AVM-first policy, security, and unique suffixes. WHEN: "Azure naming", "CAF", "resource tags", "AVM module", "security baseline", "region default". EXCLUDES artifact templates and live pricing lookups. |
| compatibility | Works with Claude Code, GitHub Copilot, VS Code, and any Agent Skills compatible tool. |
| license | MIT |
| metadata | {"author":"jonathan-vella","version":"2.0","category":"azure-infrastructure"} |
Azure Defaults Skill
IaC-flavoured mirror of the canonical Azure defaults declared in
.github/copilot-instructions.md.
Deep-dive content lives in references/ — load on demand.
Canonical source rule: if the tables below disagree with
copilot-instructions.md,
the canonical declaration wins. This skill restates them for IaC-output
convenience only.
Quick Reference (Load First)
Default Regions
| Service | Default Region | Reason |
|---|
| All resources | swedencentral | EU GDPR-compliant |
| Static Web Apps | westeurope | Not available in swedencentral |
| Failover | germanywestcentral | EU paired alternative |
Required Tags (Azure Policy Enforced)
These 9 lowercase tags are the APEX baseline — they mirror the
org-wide resource-group tag-deny policy (every key must exist on the RG
or the deployment is denied). Use lowercase keys (mixing owner +
Owner triggers AmbiguousPolicyEvaluationPaths). Always defer to
04-governance-constraints.md for the project's actual required list —
discovered policy always wins.
| Tag | Required | Example Values |
|---|
environment | Yes | dev, staging, prod |
owner | Yes | team-platform@… |
costcenter | Yes | cc-12345 |
application | Yes | mindthehack |
workload | Yes | apex-aks |
sla | Yes | production, dev |
backup-policy | Yes | daily-35d, none |
maint-window | Yes | sat-02:00-04:00 |
technical-contact | Yes | alerts@… |
Unique Suffix Pattern
Generate ONCE, pass to ALL modules:
var uniqueSuffix = uniqueString(resourceGroup().id)
Security Baseline (5-Line Summary)
| Setting | Value | Applies To |
|---|
| HTTPS-only | true | Storage, all |
| TLS minimum | 'TLS1_2' | All services |
| Public blob access | false | Storage |
| Public network (prod) | 'Disabled' | Data services |
| Authentication | Managed Identity | Prefer over keys |
For AVM pitfalls and deprecation patterns, read
references/security-baseline-full.md.
Cost Monitoring Baseline
Non-negotiable for prod. Governance (04-governance-constraints.json
cost_monitoring.*) always wins. Budget thresholds: 5 notifications
(actual 80/100/125 + forecast 100/125). Required: budget + Action Group
(AVM, create-or-reuse via preflight) + subscription-scoped anomaly alert.
Opt-out via cost_monitoring_mode ∈ {enforced, minimal, deferred}
(minimal/deferred non-prod only).
For the full contract, AVM lookup, governance precedence, and exception
schema, read references/cost-alerts-baseline.md.
For stack-specific snippets, read
references/cost-alerts-bicep.md or
references/cost-alerts-terraform.md.
VNet Planning Baseline
Interactive. Architect Phase 6b (between 6a SKU confirmation and Step 7
pricing) runs the gate whenever either trigger holds:
(a) any services[].requires[] row contains vnet-integration or
private-endpoints, OR (b) any services[].service_name is in the
vnet-attached whitelist (App Gateway, AKS, VM/VMSS, APIM internal,
Bastion, Azure Firewall, VPN/ER Gateway, NAT Gateway, App Gateway for
Containers). Default address space 10.0.0.0/16 (greenfield;
at least /22). Recommendation style: a single subnet table followed
by per-row Apply edit / Skip / Done askMe loop. Opt-out via
vnet_planning_mode ∈ {guided, fast, deferred} (deferred blocked
for prod). Governance network_constraints always wins.
For the full contract — trigger contract, askQuestions templates,
subnet sizing matrix per workload with Microsoft Learn citations,
CIDR math, existing-VNet validation, AVM modules — read
references/vnet-planning.md.
Deprecated Services (Do NOT Recommend for Greenfield)
Never recommend deprecated services (Azure AD B2C, Redis Enterprise E50,
CDN WAF classic, App Gateway v1, CDN Standard Microsoft) for greenfield.
Full retirement table + replacement guidance:
references/deprecated-services.md.
Engine / Runtime Version Currency
For any managed service with a selectable engine or runtime version
(MySQL / PostgreSQL, Redis, AKS Kubernetes version, Cosmos API, App
Service runtime), pin the latest GA LTS version and confirm it
against the service's version-support policy at plan time. Two failure
modes to avoid:
- Retiring versions carried over from an older template (e.g. MySQL
8.0, whose standard support ends 2026-04-30). The version literal is
a creative decision — resolve it live, don't copy it from a prior
project.
- Innovation / preview releases (e.g. MySQL
9.x) for durable data
workloads. Innovation releases exclude HA, replicas, and automated
backups and have a short server lifecycle.
Example: MySQL Flexible Server → version: '8.4' (GA LTS → 8.4.x), not
the retiring 8.0 or the innovation 9.x. A major-version change on an
existing server is a separate concern — see
iac-common/known-deploy-issues.md.
CAF Naming Conventions
| Resource | Abbr | Pattern | Max |
|---|
| Resource Group | rg | rg-{project}-{env} | 90 |
| Virtual Network | vnet | vnet-{project}-{env} | 64 |
| Subnet | snet | snet-{purpose}-{env} | 80 |
| NSG | nsg | nsg-{purpose}-{env} | 80 |
| Key Vault | kv | kv-{short}-{env}-{suffix} | 24 |
| Storage Account | st | st{short}{env}{suffix} | 24 |
| App Service Plan | asp | asp-{project}-{env} | 40 |
| App Service | app | app-{project}-{env} | 60 |
| SQL Server | sql | sql-{project}-{env} | 63 |
| SQL Database | sqldb | sqldb-{project}-{env} | 128 |
| Static Web App | stapp | stapp-{project}-{env} | 40 |
| Log Analytics | log | log-{project}-{env} | 63 |
| App Insights | appi | appi-{project}-{env} | 255 |
For extended abbreviations and length-constraint examples, read
references/naming-full-examples.md.
Azure Verified Modules (AVM)
- ALWAYS check AVM availability first
- ALWAYS pin to the latest published stable version — resolve live
at plan time; never reuse a pin from a prior project or training data
- Use AVM defaults for SKUs when available
- NEVER write raw Bicep/TF for a resource that has an AVM module
For module paths, the live-lookup procedure (MCR for Bicep,
registry.terraform.io for Terraform, MCP equivalents), the validator
(npm run validate:avm-versions:freeze — MUST run before
apex-recall complete-step 4), and the structured pin_policy schema
for stale-pin exceptions, read
references/avm-modules.md.
Rules
All baseline rules (region, tags, security, cost monitoring, deprecated
services) are stated in Quick Reference above — that is the canonical
form. The invariants below are gate-level / non-negotiable:
- AVM-first — never write raw Bicep/TF for a resource that has an AVM module
- Pin AVM live at plan time — stale pins require
pin_policy.mode = "exception" in 04-iac-contract.json; enforced by npm run validate:avm-versions:freeze
- Tag casing is case-sensitive — never emit both
owner and Owner (AmbiguousPolicyEvaluationPaths error)
- Unique suffix — generate
uniqueString(resourceGroup().id) ONCE per deployment
- Governance wins —
04-governance-constraints.md overrides any default in this skill (tags, regions, SKUs, cost monitoring)
- VNet planning is interactive — never auto-pick CIDRs without confirmation.
Trigger: any
services[].requires[] ∈ {vnet-integration, private-endpoints} OR
services[].service_name in vnet-attached whitelist. Governance
network_constraints overrides defaults. Contract:
references/vnet-planning.md.
Steps
- Read Quick Reference — region, tags, suffix, security baseline
- Cross-check governance —
04-governance-constraints.md overrides defaults
- Pick AVM modules — resolve the latest stable version live (see
references/avm-modules.md)
- Apply naming + tags — CAF table above; load
references/naming-full-examples.md for length-constrained resources
- Apply security baseline — see Quick Reference; load
references/security-baseline-full.md when AVM parameters surface deprecation
- Run the VNet planning gate — when the trigger contract holds (see VNet Planning Baseline above). Skip when
decisions.vnet_planning_mode = deferred (sandbox only). Contract: references/vnet-planning.md
- Apply cost monitoring — see Quick Reference; load
references/cost-alerts-baseline.md for the full cost contract
- Validate —
npm run validate:iac-security-baseline + lint:bicep / terraform fmt && validate
Output Rules & Checklist
| Rule | Requirement |
|---|
| Exact text | Use template H2 text verbatim |
| Exact order | Required H2s in template-defined order |
| Anchor rule | Extra sections only AFTER last required H2 |
| No omissions | All template H2s must appear in output |
| Attribution | > Generated by {agent} agent | {YYYY-MM-DD} |
Before saving: confirm output path is agent-output/{project}/, all 4
required tags are present, uniqueSuffix is wired into globally-unique
names, and region defaults match the table above.
Reference Index
Load these on demand — do NOT read all at once:
| Reference | When to Load |
|---|
references/naming-full-examples.md | Generating names for length-constrained resources |
references/avm-modules.md | Looking up AVM module paths or versions |
references/security-baseline-full.md | Debugging AVM parameter issues or checking deprecations |
references/arm-mcp-pricing-guidance.md | Direct ARM MCP cost and pricing evidence |
references/pricing-guidance.md | Historical custom pricing tool reference |
references/cost-estimate-parent-contract.md | Parent-side delegation contract for cost-estimate-subagent (loaded by 03 + 08) |
references/service-matrices.md | Mapping user requirements to Azure service tiers |
references/waf-criteria.md | Scoring WAF pillar assessments |
references/governance-discovery.md | Discovering Azure Policy constraints |
references/policy-effect-decision-tree.md | Translating policy effects into plan/code actions |
references/adversarial-review-protocol.md | Running challenger-review-subagent passes |
references/azure-cli-auth-validation.md | Validating Azure CLI auth before deployments |
references/terraform-conventions.md | Generating Terraform (HCL) code |
references/research-workflow.md | Following the standard 4-step research pattern |
references/tag-strategy.md | Choosing the greenfield CAF tag fallback (no policy) |
references/workflow-gates.md | Looking up cross-agent gate protocols (SKU/budget/etc.) |
references/cost-alerts-baseline.md | Full cost-monitoring contract (scope matrix, modes, governance) |
references/cost-alerts-bicep.md | Bicep snippets for budget + Action Group + scheduledActions |
