Azure CLI adds local AI agent debugging
Microsoft’s Azure Developer CLI (azd) got an update that makes it easier to run and debug AI agents locally, with GitHub Copilot integration and container app job support—helping developers prototype agent workflows before pushing to cloud environments. The change streamlines local iteration for containerized, agentic features. (devblogs.microsoft.com)
The Azure SDK team published a March 30, 2026 roundup noting azd shipped seven releases in March 2026 — specifically versions 1.23.7 through 1.23.13. (devblogs.microsoft.com) The azure.ai.agents extension is available as v0.1.14-preview and introduces azd ai agent run and azd ai agent invoke to start agents and send messages from the terminal. (devblogs.microsoft.com) azd ai agent run auto-detects project languages (Python, Node.js, etc.), installs dependencies, and preserves session and conversation identifiers for multi-turn testing. (devblogs.microsoft.com) The azd ai agent command set also includes azd ai agent show to display container status and azd ai agent monitor to stream container logs in real time. (devblogs.microsoft.com) azd init gained a “Set up with GitHub Copilot (Preview)” flow that checks for a dirty working directory, prompts for Model Context Protocol (MCP) server tool consent, and adds an AI-assisted troubleshooting flow with the categories explain, guidance, troubleshoot, and skip. (devblogs.microsoft.com) The repo release notes show 1.23.13 released on March 26, 2026 and add changes such as making azd auth status --output json include an expiresOn field to serve as an auth validation endpoint for AI agents, plus targeted Container Apps deployment error suggestions and editor schema metadata. (github.com)
