Azure Provider

Agent Cloud supports deploying to four Azure services depending on your project type. This guide covers the setup and what each deployment target provides.

Prerequisites

Install Azure CLI

# macOS
brew install azure-cli

# Linux (Debian/Ubuntu)
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Windows
# Download from https://learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli-windows

Authenticate

# Log in (opens a browser)
az login

# If you have multiple subscriptions, set the active one
az account set --subscription YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID

# Verify
az account show

Verify Setup

az --version
az account show

Or use Agent Cloud:

cloud-agent status --cloud azure

Required Permissions

Your Azure account needs the following role assignments on the target subscription or resource group:

For Container Apps

• Contributor role on the resource group
• AcrPush role if using Azure Container Registry

For Azure Functions

• Contributor role on the resource group
• Storage Account Contributor for the function’s backing storage

For Static Web Apps

• Contributor role on the resource group

For App Service

• Contributor role on the resource group

In most cases, the Contributor role at the subscription level is sufficient for all deployment targets.

Deployment Targets

Container Apps (APIs and Web Apps)

Used for: Express, NestJS, FastAPI, Next.js, and any containerized application.

Agent Cloud will:

1. Create a resource group (if needed)
2. Create an Azure Container Apps environment
3. Build and deploy your container using az containerapp up or by pushing to Azure Container Registry
4. Configure ingress for HTTP traffic

What you get:

• Fully managed container hosting with automatic HTTPS
• Scale to zero (pay only when handling requests)
• Built-in support for microservices and Dapr
• Per-second billing with a generous free grant

Estimated cost: $0-30/month (free grant: 180,000 vCPU-seconds, 360,000 GiB-seconds per month).

Azure Functions (Serverless Functions)

Used for: Lightweight APIs, webhooks, event handlers, and scheduled tasks.

Agent Cloud will:

1. Create a resource group (if needed)
2. Create a Storage Account for function state
3. Create a Function App with the appropriate runtime (Node.js, Python, etc.)
4. Deploy your function code

What you get:

• Pay-per-execution pricing (free tier: 1M executions/month)
• Automatic scaling
• Integration with Azure services (Event Grid, Service Bus, etc.)
• HTTP trigger with a *.azurewebsites.net URL

Estimated cost: $0-10/month for low-traffic functions.

Static Web Apps (Static Sites)

Used for: HTML/CSS/JS sites, React SPAs, Astro, Gatsby, and other static builds.

Agent Cloud will:

1. Create an Azure Static Web App resource
2. Upload your build output
3. Configure routing for SPA fallback

What you get:

• Free hosting for static content
• Global CDN distribution
• Built-in staging environments
• Custom domain support with free SSL
• API support via integrated Azure Functions

Estimated cost: $0/month on the free tier (100GB bandwidth, 2 custom domains).

App Service (Full Web Apps)

Used for: Server-rendered web applications and APIs that need a traditional hosting model.

Agent Cloud will:

1. Create a resource group (if needed)
2. Create an App Service plan (B1 tier by default)
3. Create a Web App with the appropriate runtime stack
4. Deploy your application code

What you get:

• Managed PaaS with built-in load balancing
• Deployment slots for zero-downtime deploys
• Custom domain and SSL support
• Integrated monitoring via Application Insights

Estimated cost: $13-55/month depending on the plan tier.

How Agent Cloud Chooses

Project Type	Primary Service	Fallback
API (Node.js, Python, Go)	Container Apps	App Service
Web App (Next.js, React SSR)	Container Apps	App Service
Static Site (HTML, SPA)	Static Web Apps	—
Container (Dockerfile)	Container Apps	App Service

Resource Groups

Azure organizes resources into resource groups. Agent Cloud creates a resource group named after your project (e.g., my-app-rg) in the default region. All resources for a deployment go into the same resource group, making cleanup straightforward.

Cleanup

cloud-agent cleanup --cloud azure

This deletes the resource group and all resources within it (Container Apps, Functions, Static Web Apps, storage accounts, etc.). Because Azure uses resource groups, cleanup is typically a single operation.

Troubleshooting

“Please run ‘az login’ to set up account” — You need to authenticate. Run az login and follow the browser prompt.

“The subscription is not registered to use namespace Microsoft.App” — Register the Container Apps provider: az provider register --namespace Microsoft.App

“Insufficient permissions” — Make sure your account has the Contributor role on the target subscription or resource group.

“Storage account name already taken” — Azure storage account names must be globally unique. Agent Cloud generates names based on your project, but conflicts can occur. Try deploying with a different --app-name.