Skill

azure-container-instances

Expert knowledge for Azure Container Instances development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. Use when configuring ACI networking, standby pools, GitHub Actions deploys, Spot containers, or GPU workloads, and other Azure Container Instances related development tasks. Not for Azure Container Apps (use azure-container-apps), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure App Service (use azure-app-service), Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines).

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This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Container Instances. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

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Last CommitApr 3, 2026

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Azure Container Instances Skill

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_file with 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. Use mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch to retrieve full articles.

Fallback: Use the built-in WebFetch tool if the Microsoft Learn MCP server is not available.

Category Index

Category	Lines	Description
Troubleshooting	L30-L35	Diagnosing ACI issues by viewing logs/events, understanding provisioning/runtime states, and troubleshooting common deployment, startup, and container runtime failures.
Best Practices	L37-L40	Guidance on designing and running ACI workloads reliably: resource sizing, networking, storage, security, scaling, image management, and operational best practices.
Decision Making	L42-L46	Guidance on cost-optimizing ACI with Spot containers and using prediction-based sizing to configure and right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools.
Architecture & Design Patterns	L48-L53	Design patterns for giving ACI containers static inbound/outbound IPs using Application Gateway, firewalls, and NAT Gateway for controlled, predictable network egress/ingress.
Limits & Quotas	L55-L61	ACI limits on CPU/memory (big containers), regional quota checks, standby pool constraints, and networking limits when using virtual networks
Security	L63-L76	Securing Azure Container Instances: TLS/HTTPS setup, image and secret protection, managed identities, RBAC, DNS safety, ACR auth, CMK encryption, and Azure Policy enforcement.
Configuration	L78-L109	Configuring ACI container groups: YAML, env vars, DNS, volumes, probes, GPUs, restart/entrypoint, standby pools, networking, lifecycle, logging, and monitoring.
Deployment	L111-L114	Using GitHub Actions to build, push, and automatically deploy container images to Azure Container Instances, including workflow YAML setup and authentication configuration.

Troubleshooting

Topic	URL
Retrieve Azure Container Instances logs and events for troubleshooting	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-get-logs
Troubleshoot common deployment and runtime issues in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-troubleshooting
Interpret Azure Container Instances provisioning and runtime states	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-state

Best Practices

Topic	URL
Apply Azure Container Instances workload best practices	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-best-practices-and-considerations

Decision Making

Topic	URL
Decide when to use ACI Spot containers for cost savings	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-spot-containers-overview
Use prediction results to right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-prediction-results

Architecture & Design Patterns

Topic	URL
Expose Azure Container Instances via Application Gateway static IP	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-application-gateway
Configure static outbound IP for Azure Container Instances with firewall	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-egress-ip-address
Configure Azure Container Instances egress via NAT Gateway	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-nat-gateway

Limits & Quotas

Topic	URL
Use Big Containers with ACI vCPU and memory limits	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/big-containers
Check ACI resource availability and quota limits by region	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-resource-and-quota-limits
FAQ and limits for Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-faq
Use Azure Container Instances with virtual networks	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-virtual-network-concepts

Security

Topic	URL
Configure automatic HTTPS for Azure Container Instances using Caddy	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-container-group-automatic-ssl
Enable TLS for Azure Container Instances with Nginx sidecar	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-container-group-ssl
Encrypt Azure Container Instances deployment data with customer-managed keys	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-encrypt-data
Secure images and secrets for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-image-security
Enable and use managed identities in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-managed-identity
Configure RBAC permissions for Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-configure-permissions
Configure ACI to pull images from ACR using service principals	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-using-azure-container-registry
Mount secret volumes in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-secret
Set ACI DNS name reuse policy to prevent subdomain takeover	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/how-to-reuse-dns-names
Use built-in Azure Policy definitions for Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/policy-reference
Use managed identities for ACI image pulls from private ACR	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/using-azure-container-registry-mi

Configuration

Topic	URL
Use config maps to manage settings in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-config-map
Configure custom DNS for Azure Container Instances container groups	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-custom-dns
Configure environment variables for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-environment-variables
Execute commands in running Azure Container Instances containers	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-exec
Deploy GPU-enabled workloads on Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-gpu
Configure init containers in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-init-container
Configure liveness probes for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-liveness-probe
Send Azure Container Instances resource logs to Azure Monitor	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-log-analytics
Configure readiness probes for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-readiness-probe
YAML configuration reference for Azure Container Instances container groups	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-reference-yaml
Configure ACI restart policies for run-once container tasks	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-restart-policy
Create standby pools for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-create
Retrieve details of Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-get-details
Understand and query health state of Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-health-state
Use standby pools to reduce Azure Container Instances scale-out latency	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-overview
Request container groups from Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-request-container
Update or delete Azure Container Instances standby pools	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-update-delete
Monitor Azure Container Instances standby pool events with Log Analytics	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pools-monitor-pool-events
Override container entrypoint command in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-start-command
Manually stop and start Azure Container Instances container groups	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-stop-start
Update running container groups in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-update
Configure ACI container groups in Azure virtual networks via CLI	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-vnet
Mount Azure Files volumes in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-azure-files
Use emptyDir volumes to share data in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-emptydir
Mount gitRepo volumes in Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-volume-gitrepo
Configure monitoring and alerts for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances
Configure monitoring and alerts for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances
Monitoring data reference for Azure Container Instances	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/monitor-azure-container-instances-reference
View Azure Container Instances logs in Log Analytics via portal	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/viewing-logs-in-portal

Deployment

Topic	URL
Automate ACI deployments with GitHub Actions workflow configuration	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-github-action