GitHub Copilot for Azure

GitHub Copilot for Azure is a set of extensions for Visual Studio, VS Code, and Claude Code designed to streamline the process of developing for Azure. You can ask it questions about your Azure services or get help with tasks related to Azure management and development, all from within your IDE.

Learn more about GitHub Copilot for Azure, and get the extension:

• VS Code
• Visual Studio 2022
• Visual Studio 2026 - included "in the box" as part of the "Azure & AI" workload
• Claude - coming soon

Usage

Prerequisites

Before installing the plugin, ensure the following tools are installed:

Git

Git is required to add the marketplace plugin. If it is not installed, you will see an error like:
Failed to add marketplace: Failed to fetch GitHub marketplace microsoft/azure-skills: Error: spawn git ENOENT

Windows (winget):

winget install --id Git.Git -e --source winget

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install git

Node.js

Node.js is required for the Azure MCP server. If it is not installed, you may see errors such as:

• Windows: 'npx' is not recognized as an internal or external command
• macOS/Linux: npx: command not found
• Or the MCP server may fail silently with npx failed to connect to azure

Windows (winget):

winget install --id OpenJS.NodeJS.LTS -e --source winget

macOS (Homebrew):

brew install node

Installation

VS Code

The GitHub Copilot for Azure extension installs skills when the extension activates. At that point, you may see a toast notification like the following (if you don't see it, you can use the manual commands below):

To manually install skills from the Command Palette, the following commands are available:

• @azure: Install Azure Skills Globally — installs to your home directory (for example ~ on macOS/Linux or %UserProfile% on Windows), available in all workspaces
• @azure: Install Azure Skills Locally — installs to the current workspace folder, workspace-scoped
• @azure: Uninstall Azure Skills Globally — removes globally installed skills

Copilot CLI

To install the Azure plugin into Copilot CLI and Claude:

1. Add the marketplace with /plugin marketplace add microsoft/azure-skills
2. Install the plugin with /plugin install azure@azure-skills
3. Update the plugin with /plugin update azure@azure-skills

Sovereign Cloud Configuration

By default, the Azure MCP server connects to the Azure Public Cloud. If you use a sovereign cloud (Azure China Cloud or Azure US Government), you need to configure the MCP server to use the appropriate cloud environment.

Copilot CLI

After installing the plugin from the marketplace, the skills are installed in ~/.copilot/installed-plugins/ on macOS/Linux (or %USERPROFILE%\.copilot\installed-plugins\ on Windows). Edit the <skill_installation_dir>/azure-skills/azure/.mcp.json file in the installed plugin directory to add the --cloud argument:

Note: If you are developing locally using copilot --plugin-dir ./output, edit output/.mcp.json in your local build output instead.

Azure China Cloud:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start", "--cloud", "AzureChinaCloud"]
    }
    // Keep the other MCP server configurations in this file as they are.
  }
}

Azure US Government:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start", "--cloud", "AzureUSGovernment"]
    }
    // Keep the other MCP server configurations in this file as they are.
  }
}

Before starting the MCP server, ensure your local CLI tools are authenticated against the correct cloud:

Cloud	Azure CLI	Azure PowerShell	Azure Developer CLI
China	az cloud set --name AzureChinaCloud && az login	Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureChinaCloud	azd config set cloud.name AzureChinaCloud && azd auth login
US Government	az cloud set --name AzureUSGovernment && az login	Connect-AzAccount -Environment AzureUSGovernment	azd config set cloud.name AzureUSGovernment && azd auth login

For more details, see Connect to sovereign clouds in the Azure MCP Server documentation.

Client Support Matrix

Client	Skills	MCP Servers	Hooks	Marketplace	Manifest	Status
Copilot CLI	✅	✅	✅ Custom (plugin/hooks/copilot-hooks.json)	✅ .plugin/	.plugin/plugin.json	✅ Onboarded
Claude Code	✅	✅	✅ hooks/hooks.json (no custom hooks)	.claude-plugin/marketplace.json (exists only in azure-skills repo)	✅ plugin/.claude-plugin/plugin.json	✅ Onboarded
VS Code Extension	✅ (.agents folder)	✅	✅ hooks/hooks.json (.agents folder)	Extension-based	Extension-based	✅ Onboarded
IntelliJ	✅ (.agents folder)	✅	❌ Not supported by client	Extension-based	Extension-based	✅ Skills Onboarded 🔜 Hooks Support ETA - End of April 2026
Gemini CLI	✅	✅	❌ Not supported by us	No marketplace	gemini-extension.json	✅ Onboarded
Cursor	✅	✅	plugin/hooks/cursor-hooks.json	.cursor-plugin/marketplace.json (exists only in azure-skills repo)	✅ plugin/.cursor-plugin/plugin.json	✅ Onboarded. Hooks testing - WIP
Codex	🔜 Working with OpenAI	🔜	❌ Not supported by client	🔜	TBD	🔜 WIP
Eclipse	❌ Not supported by client	✅	❌ Not supported by client	Extension-based	Extension-based	⚠️ MCP only

Contributing

You can use this repository to:

• Upvote a feature or request a new one.
• Search for potential work-arounds to problems you’re having.
• Provide feedback on using GitHub Copilot for Azure.
• Add features to our Copilot CLI and Claude plugins.

See CONTRIBUTING.md for detailed guidelines on how to contribute, including local development setup.