azure-policy
Expert knowledge for Azure Policy development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when building, debugging, or optimizing Azure Policy applications. Not for Azure Blueprints (use azure-blueprints), Azure Role-based access control (use azure-rbac), Azure Resource Manager (use azure-resource-manager), Azure Security (use azure-security).
From azurenpx claudepluginhub atc-net/atc-agentic-toolkitThis skill uses the workspace's default tool permissions.
Azure Policy Skill
This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Policy. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.
How to Use This Skill
IMPORTANT for Agent: This file may be large. Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections, then use
read_filewith specific line ranges (e.g.,L136-L144) to read the sections needed for the user's question This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content. Usemcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetchto retrieve full articles.
- Fallback: Use the built-in
WebFetchtool if the Microsoft Learn MCP server is not available.
Category Index
| Category | Lines | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Troubleshooting | L35-L41 | Diagnosing and fixing Azure Policy non-compliance, common policy evaluation/deployment errors, and Machine Configuration deployment and remediation issues. |
| Best Practices | L42-L57 | Designing effective Azure Policy definitions: effects, logical/value operators, arrays, tags, initiatives, parameters, and testing/behavior of Machine/Guest Configuration. |
| Decision Making | L58-L64 | Guidance for planning migrations from Azure Automation DSC, DSC extension, and Automanage Best Practices to Azure Policy/Machine Configuration, including mapping features and migration steps. |
| Security | L65-L125 | Using Azure Policy and Machine Configuration for security baselines and mapping to compliance frameworks (CIS, NIST, ISO, PCI, FedRAMP, HIPAA, regional regs) across Azure and Azure Government. |
| Configuration | L126-L141 | Authoring, assigning, storing, and securing Machine Configuration (guest configuration) packages and policies, plus prerequisites, networking, remediation, and compliance result analysis. |
| Integrations & Coding Patterns | L142-L147 | Using Azure Resource Graph to query Azure Policy compliance data and guest configuration state across resources for reporting, auditing, and large-scale policy analysis |
| Deployment | L148-L157 | How to deploy and assign Machine Configuration packages via ARM/Bicep/Terraform/REST, publish packages to storage, and use safe deployment practices with Azure Policy. |
Troubleshooting
| Topic | URL |
|---|---|
| Troubleshoot Azure Machine Configuration deployments | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/machine-configuration/overview/04-operations-troubleshooting |
| Diagnose causes of Azure Policy non-compliance | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/how-to/determine-non-compliance |
| Troubleshoot common Azure Policy errors and issues | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/troubleshoot/general |
Best Practices
Decision Making
| Topic | URL |
|---|---|
| Plan migration from Azure Automation DSC to Machine Configuration | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/machine-configuration/whats-new/migrating-from-azure-automation |
| Plan migration from DSC extension to Machine Configuration | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/machine-configuration/whats-new/migrating-from-dsc-extension |
| Plan migration from Automanage Best Practices to Azure Policy | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/how-to/migrate-from-automanage-best-practices |
Security
Configuration
Integrations & Coding Patterns
| Topic | URL |
|---|---|
| Query Azure Policy data with Azure Resource Graph | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/samples/resource-graph-samples |
| Query guest configuration state via Resource Graph | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/governance/policy/samples/resource-graph-samples-guest-configuration |