Azure Redis Management for .NET
Helps .NET developers provision and operate Azure Cache for Redis through Azure Resource Manager.
The skill clearly separates management-plane and data-plane use, recommends DefaultAzureCredential, TLS 1.2, and disabling the non-SSL port, and documents environment variables. Points are deducted because examples print and concatenate access keys, connection strings, and SAS URLs, while omitting least-privilege guidance, secret storage, redaction, user confirmation, rollback, and safeguards before delete, reboot, import, or export operations.
Resource hierarchy, installation, authentication, CRUD, and several management workflows are presented coherently, with limited ARM exception handling and SKU caveats. Points are deducted because static review cannot verify compilation or API correctness, error handling is narrow, and abnormal paths such as timeouts, polling, authorization failures, partial success, and actionable diagnostics are largely unspecified. The static calibration caps this at 10.
The name, description, trigger terms, and management-plane/data-plane boundary are reasonably clear, covering common Redis management scenarios. Points are deducted because non-fit cases, input constraints, permission prerequisites, and output expectations are not fully specified, and there is no Chinese-language guidance or evidence of mainland-China network reachability; regional Azure availability is not addressed.
The document includes installation, environment variables, authentication, hierarchy, core workflows, SKU tables, type references, best practices, error handling, pitfalls, related SDKs, MIT licensing, author, and version metadata. Points are deducted for the absence of a changelog, explicit maintenance owner or update path, compatibility verification, FAQs, and per-API authoritative citations; the version information may become stale.
The skill covers core management tasks including creation, retrieval, updates, deletion, keys, firewall rules, patch schedules, import/export, and reboot, with directly adaptable C# examples. Points are deducted because the examples are not statically accompanied by execution evidence, and production workflows lack complete permission setup, recovery, polling, and secret-management treatment, leaving substantial user review and modification. The static calibration caps this at 7.
The skill provides package, version, and API-version claims plus one Microsoft Learn authentication reference; the repository also shows generic CI, evaluation workflows, and harness tests. Points are deducted because the supplied material does not demonstrate dedicated tests, compilation results, or independent corroboration for this Redis skill's key paths, and the repository tests shown do not establish coverage of this path. The static calibration caps this at 5.
- Do not expose PrimaryKey or SecondaryKey in logs, terminal output, or connection strings; use Key Vault or equivalent secret management and keep SAS URLs out of prompts, source, and logs.
- Delete, reboot, key regeneration, import/export, and firewall changes can cause interruption, data risk, or loss of access; require confirmation and prepare backups, rollback, and a change window.
- Compile and validate the examples against the actual target SDK and framework, and verify current Azure Redis API, SKU, regional constraints, and required RBAC permissions.
What does this skill do, and when should you use it?
This Agent Skill targets the management plane of Azure Cache for Redis in .NET projects. It covers cache lifecycle operations, access keys, firewall rules, patch schedules, data import and export, and forced reboots. Premium SKU workflows include clustering, geo-replication, VNet support, persistence, and patch scheduling. It does not handle Redis data-plane operations such as key-value access, pub/sub, or Lua scripts; those should use StackExchange.Redis. The Skill is part of Microsoft's agent-skills monorepo, which bundles 190 separate skills, is MIT-licensed, and is under active development.
Guides an Agent to use Azure.ResourceManager.Redis and Azure.Identity with ArmClient to navigate subscriptions, resource groups, and RedisResource objects. It provides examples for creating, retrieving, updating, and deleting caches; retrieving and regenerating access keys; creating, listing, and deleting firewall rules; configuring Premium patch schedules; importing and exporting RDB data; forcing reboots; and understanding resource types for private endpoint connections, linked servers, and access policies. It also documents DefaultAzureCredential, environment variables, TLS 1.2, disabling the non-SSL port, long-running asynchronous operations, and RequestFailedException handling.
- A .NET infrastructure developer needs to provision or update Azure Cache for Redis programmatically.
- A platform engineer needs to configure Redis IP firewall rules, access keys, and secure transport settings.
- A Premium-SKU team needs maintenance scheduling, clustering, persistence, or geo-replication guidance.
- An application team needs to create a cache through ARM before using StackExchange.Redis for runtime data access.
- An Azure SDK user wants DefaultAzureCredential, idempotent CreateOrUpdateAsync patterns, and ARM error handling examples.
What are this skill's strengths and limitations?
- Covers Redis resource lifecycle, access keys, firewall rules, and several ARM management workflows.
- Includes copyable C# examples, hierarchy navigation, and error-handling patterns.
- Clearly separates management-plane and data-plane SDK responsibilities.
- The README lists 14 test scenarios for this Skill.
- Targets .NET 8.0 and .NET Standard 2.0.
- Does not cover Redis key-value access, pub/sub, streams, or Lua scripts.
- Several capabilities require Premium SKU, and Premium cannot be downgraded to Standard or Basic.
- Cache creation may take 15–20 minutes.
- The source does not provide an independent maintenance history or complete test results for this Skill.
- The source does not document detailed compatibility behavior for every Agent client.
How do you install this skill?
Place the Skill folder in the target Agent's Skill directory. For GitHub Copilot, the repository documents npx skills add microsoft/skills, followed by selecting the Skill in the installation wizard. You can also clone the repository and copy .github/plugins/azure-sdk-dotnet/skills/azure-resource-manager-redis-dotnet/. Add the project packages with dotnet add package Azure.ResourceManager.Redis and dotnet add package Azure.Identity. The source does not specify a single installation directory for every Agent client.
How do you use this skill?
With the Skill enabled, give the coding Agent a management-plane request such as: “Create an East US Standard Redis cache with Azure.ResourceManager.Redis, enforce TLS 1.2, and add a firewall rule.” For data-plane requests such as reading keys or using pub/sub, use StackExchange.Redis instead. When using DefaultAzureCredential, configure AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID, AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS, and, when applicable, the service-principal environment variables.
How does this skill compare with similar options?
StackExchange.Redis is a complementary alternative rather than a direct replacement: Azure.ResourceManager.Redis manages the Azure Cache for Redis resource, while StackExchange.Redis connects to the cache and performs data-plane operations.