Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official azure-monitorapplensresource-healthapp-serviceazure-functionsakskubernetesservice-bus

Azure Production Diagnostics

Systematically investigate Azure production failures, identify root causes, and guide safe remediation.

FollowSkills review · FSRS-2.0
Use with care
52/ 100 5-point scale 2.6 / 5
1 2 3 4 5 6
1Trust16 / 25 · 3.2/5

The skill explicitly defaults to read-only diagnostics, and its AKS guidance forbids restarting, deleting, scaling, upgrading, or reconfiguring unless the user explicitly requests remediation. However, other service guides directly provide commands for scaling, changing registry identity, enabling auto-heal, binding certificates, and changing configuration, without uniform step-by-step confirmation, least-privilege guidance, sensitive-log redaction, data-flow disclosure, or rollback plans, so points are deducted.

2Reliability8 / 20 · 2.0/5

It provides a systematic flow covering symptoms, resource health, logs, metrics, and recent changes, and tells the agent to stop and ask when AKS identity is missing. However, it depends on Azure CLI, multiple MCP tools, kubectl, Docker, Kudu, and specific log tables; installation, authentication, permission, version-compatibility, and complete tool-failure feedback are underdocumented. Some commands and queries lack sufficient applicability notes. The score stays within the static-review ceiling because execution was not performed and edge coverage is limited.

3Adaptability10 / 15 · 3.3/5

Triggers cover common Azure production-diagnostics scenarios across App Service, Container Apps, Functions, AKS, Event Hubs, and Service Bus, while AKS inputs and stop conditions are relatively clear. However, the scope is very broad, non-fit cases, input/output formats, service-version differences, Chinese-language interaction, and mainland-China network or regional reachability are not addressed. Some core paths depend on Azure online services and MCP, so points are deducted.

4Convention8 / 15 · 2.7/5

The skill has triggers, a quick flow, service routing, reference directories, and command examples. Metadata includes MIT licensing, Microsoft authorship, and version 1.1.6; the repository also supplies a license, security policy, CI, and work-in-progress maintenance signals. However, there is no changelog, explicit maintenance owner or update path, dependency/install guidance, FAQ, compatibility matrix, or complete limitations disclosure. Progressive disclosure and troubleshooting remain incomplete if referenced documents or MCP tools are unavailable, so points are deducted.

5Effectiveness6 / 15 · 2.0/5

For common Azure diagnostic tasks it supplies reusable CLI, KQL, and MCP templates, evidence ordering, and an output checklist, offering clear value over manual discovery. However, commands use many placeholders, correctness depends on environment, permissions, diagnostic configuration, and tool versions, and remediation suggestions require human review without representative result samples or static verification evidence. The score follows the static ceiling and is reduced for limited completeness and direct usability.

6Verifiability4 / 10 · 2.0/5

The material contains concrete commands, KQL, input requirements, evidence ordering, and several safety constraints; the repository also includes generic CI, evaluation workflows, and test code. However, the supplied tests do not demonstrate this azure-diagnostics skill's key paths. The workflows mainly cover generic evaluation and infrastructure, with no skill-specific tests, real outputs, independent corroboration, or versioned change evidence, so only limited static auditability is awarded.

Evidence confidence:Low Reviewed Jul 20, 2026 Reviewed revision 9ccaf7c3704a
Before you use it
  • Do not treat scaling, configuration, certificate, identity, or auto-heal commands as default executable actions; confirm targets, permissions, blast radius, backups, and rollback first.
  • Azure CLI, MCP, kubectl, log tables, and regional capabilities vary by environment; validate all placeholders, query results, and remediation suggestions manually.
  • Logs, configuration, connection strings, and diagnostic output may contain sensitive data; the documentation lacks redaction, data-minimization, and data-transfer guidance.
  • Mainland-China network, Azure-region, and MCP reachability are unspecified, and there are no Chinese trigger or interaction examples.
See the full review method →

What does this skill do, and when should you use it?

Azure Diagnostics is one skill in the azure-skills plugin within Microsoft's Agent Skills repository. It focuses on troubleshooting Azure production incidents across App Service, Container Apps, Function Apps, AKS, Event Hubs, and Service Bus. Its workflow covers symptoms, resource health, logs, metrics, and recent changes, with optional AppLens, Azure Monitor, and Resource Health MCP support. AKS and Azure Messaging incidents are routed to dedicated troubleshooting documents.

It identifies symptoms, checks Azure resource health, reviews activity and application logs, analyzes metrics and KQL results, investigates recent changes, and documents findings and attempted remediation. The skill supplies Azure CLI examples for resource inspection, activity logs, Container Apps logs, and Application Insights trace queries. It also specifies invocation patterns for AppLens, Azure Monitor, and Resource Health MCP tools.

  1. An App Service engineer investigating high CPU, deployment failures, crashes, slow responses, TLS, or custom-domain issues.
  2. A Function App developer diagnosing invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors, cold starts, or missing app settings.
  3. An AKS operations team investigating pending pods, CrashLoop failures, unavailable nodes, CoreDNS, networking, ingress, or upgrade problems.
  4. A Container Apps engineer diagnosing image-pull failures, cold starts, health probes, or port mismatches.
  5. An Event Hubs or Service Bus SDK developer investigating AMQP connection failures, lost message locks, dead letters, or connectivity errors.

What are this skill's strengths and limitations?

Pros
  • Covers common production failure modes across several major Azure services.
  • Provides a concrete diagnostic sequence plus Azure CLI, KQL, and MCP usage patterns.
  • Separates AKS and Azure Messaging incidents through explicit routing guidance.
  • The SKILL.md identifies Microsoft as author, version 1.1.6, and MIT as the license.
Limitations
  • Its scope is Azure production troubleshooting rather than general cloud or local-application debugging.
  • AppLens and the other MCP tools are conditional on availability and require suitable environment access.
  • Several detailed guides are referenced under files not included in the supplied material, so their depth cannot be assessed here.
  • The source does not provide independent test coverage or a complete Azure permissions checklist for this individual skill.

How do you install this skill?

The repository README documents this collection command: npx skills add microsoft/skills. Select the required skills in the wizard; skills are installed in the chosen agent directory, such as .github/skills/ for GitHub Copilot. It also documents Copilot CLI plugin installation: /plugin marketplace add microsoft/skills, followed by /plugin install azure-skills@skills. The supplied material does not document a standalone installation command for azure-diagnostics.

How do you use this skill?

With the skill loaded, submit a concrete diagnostic request such as “troubleshoot app service” or “AKS pod is pending, investigate the root cause.” The prescribed sequence is to identify symptoms, check resource health, review logs, analyze metrics, and investigate recent changes. Route AKS incidents to AKS Troubleshooting and Event Hubs or Service Bus SDK issues to Messaging Troubleshooting. For MCP calls, provide the resource ID, workspace ID, and KQL query as applicable; for CLI commands, replace RESOURCE_ID, RG, APP, and APP-INSIGHTS with real values.

FAQ

Does the skill automatically repair Azure resources?
The source describes diagnosis, documentation, and remediation recommendations; it does not explicitly state that repairs are executed automatically.
Which Azure tools does it require?
The examples use Azure CLI and define AppLens, Azure Monitor, and Resource Health MCP calls. MCP usage is conditional on availability.
Is it suitable for AKS incidents?
Yes, it provides AKS diagnostic routing, but active AKS intake, evidence gathering, and remediation guidance are routed to the dedicated AKS Troubleshooting document.
Will installing the repository load every skill?
The README recommends selecting only the needed skills during installation and warns that loading all skills can dilute context.

More skills from this repository

All from microsoft/agent-skills

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Reliability Advisor

Assess and improve reliability for Azure Functions and App Service.

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Cloud Migration Assistant

Assess cross-cloud workloads and convert them for Azure services.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Upgrade

Assess and automate Azure plan, SKU, service, and legacy Java SDK upgrades.

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

AI Runway AKS Deployment Guide

Turn an existing AKS cluster into a validated environment for running AI models.

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

AKS Automatic Readiness

Assess Kubernetes workloads for AKS Automatic compatibility and identify migration blockers before you switch.

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure AKS Production Planner

Plan secure, scalable Azure Kubernetes clusters for production workloads.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Messaging SDK Troubleshooter

Diagnose Azure Event Hubs and Service Bus SDK failures across connectivity, authentication, and message processing.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor Query for Python

Generate Python code for querying Azure Monitor logs and metrics.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Event Grid for .NET

Practical .NET guidance for publishing, receiving, and processing Azure Event Grid events.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor Custom Log Ingestion

Guides Python agents to send custom logs to Log Analytics through the Logs Ingestion API.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor Query for Java

Query Azure Monitor logs and resource metrics from Java applications.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry Exporter

Build a controlled Python OpenTelemetry pipeline that exports traces, metrics, and logs to Application Insights.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor Log Ingestion for Java

Guides Java applications in sending structured custom logs to Azure Monitor through DCRs.

Automation & Ops ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Deployment Validator

Preflight Azure deployments by checking configuration, infrastructure, permissions, prerequisites, and builds.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry for Python

Connect Python applications to Application Insights with one-line OpenTelemetry setup.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor Telemetry for Java

Guides Java teams in exporting OpenTelemetry data to Azure Monitor.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Monitor OpenTelemetry for TypeScript

Add Application Insights observability to Node.js services with OpenTelemetry.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Entra Authentication Events for .NET

Customize Entra ID authentication flows with Azure Functions.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Service Bus for TypeScript

Build enterprise messaging workflows with Azure Service Bus.

Dev & Engineering ✓ Microsoft · Official

Azure Bot Service ARM SDK for .NET

Helps .NET developers provision Azure Bots and configure their channels through ARM.

Related skills