Investigate and Track Addition of Azure Skills Plugin (@microsoft/azure-skills)

[arnaudlh]

Summary

Investigate integration of the @microsoft/azure-skills plugin into the git-ape platform engineering framework, ensuring behavioral consistency across all supported runtimes.

Today, git-ape is packaged as a Copilot CLI plugin with custom agents and skills under .github/ (see plugin.json and the Included Components section of the README). Bringing in @microsoft/azure-skills needs to be evaluated against this existing skill surface to avoid duplication and drift.

Notably, @microsoft/azure-skills ships multi-runtime manifests (.claude-plugin, .cursor-plugin, gemini-extension.json, plugin.json, .mcp.json) which is directly relevant to the runtime-consistency goal.

Context / Current State

• git-ape plugin manifest: plugin.json
• Existing git-ape skills under .github/skills/:
  azure-naming-research, azure-resource-availability, azure-security-analyzer, azure-deployment-preflight, azure-role-selector, azure-cost-estimator, azure-drift-detector, azure-integration-tester, azure-resource-visualizer, git-ape-onboarding (see README.md#L129-L141).
• Agents under .github/agents/ orchestrate these skills (see README.md#L229-L246).
• Execution modes (README.md#L212-L214):
  • Interactive — VS Code Copilot Chat with az login
  • Headless — Copilot Coding Agent + CI workflows (git-ape-plan.yml, git-ape-deploy.yml, git-ape-destroy.yml, git-ape-verify.yml)

Candidate Skills from @microsoft/azure-skills

Full inventory from microsoft/azure-skills/skills/, mapped to the git-ape deployment lifecycle:

Strong candidates (fill gaps in git-ape today)

Upstream skill	Purpose (candidate fit)	git-ape stage
azure-prepare	Prerequisite / environment prep	Complements /prereq-check
azure-validate	Template / config validation	Stage 2 (Template & Analysis)
azure-deploy	Deployment execution	Stage 3 (Resource Deployer)
azure-diagnostics	Post-deploy diagnostics / troubleshooting	Stage 4 (Validate) — new capability
azure-upgrade	Resource/SDK upgrade guidance	Operations — new capability
azure-cloud-migrate	Migration to Azure	Onboarding — new capability
azure-compliance	Compliance checks	Security gate — complements azure-security-analyzer
azure-enterprise-infra-planner	Landing-zone / enterprise infra planning	Stage 1 (Requirements) — new capability
entra-app-registration	Entra app/SP creation	Onboarding — overlaps with git-ape-onboarding OIDC flow (docs/ONBOARDING.md)

Direct overlap (evaluate replace vs. coexist)

Upstream skill	Existing git-ape skill	Action to decide
azure-cost	azure-cost-estimator	Keep upstream, deprecate local?
azure-rbac	azure-role-selector	Merge or delegate
azure-quotas	azure-resource-availability (SKU/quota)	Split responsibilities
azure-resource-visualizer	azure-resource-visualizer	Name collision — must resolve
azure-resource-lookup	(partial: IaC Exporter agent)	Complementary

Workload-specific skills (opt-in per deployment)

Upstream skill	Use case in git-ape
azure-compute	VM / compute deployments
azure-kubernetes	AKS deployments
azure-storage	Storage accounts
azure-messaging	Service Bus / Event Grid / Event Hubs
azure-kusto	ADX / Kusto workloads
azure-ai	Azure AI services
azure-aigateway	AI gateway pattern
microsoft-foundry	Foundry-based agent workloads
azure-hosted-copilot-sdk	Hosted Copilot SDK apps
appinsights-instrumentation	App Insights wiring → pairs with azure-integration-tester

Investigation Tasks

1. Scope & overlap analysis

• Validate the tables above against the final upstream skill contracts.
• For each direct-overlap skill, decide: adopt upstream, keep local, or delegate (local skill calls upstream).
• Resolve the azure-resource-visualizer name collision.

2. Packaging & plugin manifest

• Determine distribution: upstream ships plugin.json, .mcp.json, .claude-plugin, .cursor-plugin, gemini-extension.json — pick the right surface for git-ape (Copilot CLI plugin and/or MCP).
• Define how it's declared in plugin.json and .github/plugin/marketplace.json.
• Assess impact on copilot plugin install Azure/git-ape (README.md#L45-L71).

3. Runtime consistency

Validate identical behavior across all three runtimes:

Runtime	Entry point	Things to verify
Local (VS Code Copilot Chat)	@git-ape ... in chat	Skill discovery, az login auth, Azure MCP interaction (AZURE_MCP_SETUP.md)
Local in CLI (copilot CLI)	copilot plugin install Azure/git-ape	Skill invocation parity, auth via az/gh, prereq-check compatibility
Copilot Coding Agent (headless)	GitHub issue → PR → git-ape-*.yml workflows	OIDC auth (not az login), non-interactive skill execution, workflow integration

4. Authentication & permissions

• Confirm upstream skills work with az login (interactive) and OIDC-based auth in Actions (see docs/ONBOARDING.md#L290-L314).
• Verify RBAC (Contributor / User Access Administrator) compatibility.
• Check entra-app-registration co-existence with existing onboarding script.

5. Prerequisite & environment parity

• Update /prereq-check for any new dependencies.
• Extend .devcontainer/ and Codespaces (docs/CODESPACES.md#L66-L81) as needed.

6. Orchestration impact

• Slot new skills into the deployment flow (README.md#L147-L167); re-evaluate the security gate with azure-compliance.
• Preserve invocation syntax (/skill-name) and agent delegation patterns.

Acceptance Criteria

• Finalized overlap/gap matrix (replace / coexist / adopt) for every upstream skill.
• Decision recorded: dependency vs. embed vs. partial adoption.
• PoC integration validated in all three runtimes (local VS Code, local CLI, Copilot Coding Agent).
• Auth verified with both az login and OIDC.
• Name collision on azure-resource-visualizer resolved.
• No regression in git-ape-plan → git-ape-deploy → git-ape-verify → git-ape-destroy.
• Updates to plugin.json, marketplace.json, README, and prereq-check as needed.
• Follow-up implementation issues filed.

References

• Upstream plugin: https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills (skills dir: https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills/tree/main/skills)
• git-ape plugin manifest: plugin.json
• git-ape README: README.md
• Azure MCP setup: docs/AZURE_MCP_SETUP.md
• Onboarding / OIDC: docs/ONBOARDING.md
• Codespaces: docs/CODESPACES.md