azure-well-architected
About azure-well-architected
azure-well-architected is a skill for teams designing, reviewing, and optimizing Azure workloads using Well-Architected guidance. It combines local quick references with remote documentation on review checklists, recommendations, service guidance, workload patterns, and assessments.
Key features
- 01Design review checklists
- 02Recommendations across five pillars
- 03Azure design principles and tradeoffs
- 04Service-specific Well-Architected guidance
- 05Workload patterns and assessment questions
Use cases
- 01Reviewing workloads for cost, reliability, and security gaps
- 02Assessing architecture tradeoffs across Azure services
- 03Designing AI, SaaS, or mission-critical workloads
- 04Evaluating workload maturity against Well-Architected pillars
MCP support
This skill can fetch Microsoft documentation through the mcp_microsoftdocs microsoft_docs_fetch tool.
Install
Copy the command and run it in a terminal.
npx skills add https:/ / github.com/ microsoftdocs/ agent-skills --skill azure-well-architectedAfter installing, type/azure-well-architectedin Claude Code to confirm it loaded.
Details
From the project READMEAzure Well Architected Skill
This skill provides expert guidance for designing, assessing, and optimizing Azure workloads using Azure Well Architected. Covers design review checklists, recommendations, design principles, tradeoffs, service guides, workload patterns, and assessment questions. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.
How to Use This Skill
IMPORTANT for Agent: Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g.,
L35-L120), useread_filewith the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g.,[security.md](security.md)), useread_fileon the linked reference file
IMPORTANT for Agent: If
metadata.generated_atis more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. Ifmcp_microsoftdocstools are not available, suggest the user install it: Installation Guide
This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content:
- Preferred: Use
mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetchwith query stringfrom=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown. - Fallback: Use
fetch_webpagewith query stringfrom=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.
Category Index
| Category | Lines | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Design Review Checklists | L35-L43 | Checklists to review Azure workloads for cost, operations, performance, reliability, and security best practices and identify gaps against Well-Architected guidance. |
| Recommendations | L44-L117 | Guidance on cost, reliability, performance, security, and operational excellence best practices for Azure workloads, including optimization, monitoring, automation, and sustainable cloud operations. |
| Design Principles | L118-L133 | High-level Azure design guidance: cost, performance, reliability, security/Zero Trust, sustainability, operational excellence, capacity resilience, and patterns for AI, HPC, and SaaS workloads. |
| Tradeoffs | L134-L143 | Guidance on weighing cost, reliability, performance, security, and operations tradeoffs in Azure architectures, including regions/AZ choices and cross-pillar design decisions. |
| Service Guides | L144-L180 | Service-specific Azure Well-Architected (WAF) guidance: design, configure, secure, and optimize individual services (App Service, AKS, SQL, networking, storage, etc.) using WAF pillars. |
| Workload Patterns | L181-L225 | Design patterns, reference architectures, and end-to-end guidance for AI, HPC, mission-critical, SaaS, and sustainable workloads on Azure, including platforms, data, ops, security, and governance. |
| Assessment Questions | L226-L237 | Guided assessments and maturity models to evaluate AI, SaaS, AVD, AVS, and other Azure workloads against WAF pillars: cost, reliability, security, performance, and operations. |
Design Review Checklists
| Topic | URL |
|---|---|
| Use Cost Optimization design review checklist for Azure | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/checklist |
| Use operational excellence design review checklist | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/operational-excellence/checklist |
| Use performance efficiency design review checklist | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/performance-efficiency/checklist |
| Use reliability design checklist for Azure workloads | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/reliability/checklist |
| Use the Security design review checklist for workloads | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/security/checklist |
Recommendations
Design Principles
Tradeoffs
| Topic | URL |
|---|---|
| Analyze cost optimization tradeoffs across WAF pillars | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/cost-optimization/tradeoffs |
| Balance regions and availability zones for reliability and cost | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/design-guides/regions-availability-zones |
| Evaluate operational excellence tradeoffs in Azure workloads | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/operational-excellence/tradeoffs |
| Analyze performance efficiency tradeoffs across WAF pillars | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/performance-efficiency/tradeoffs |
| Analyze reliability tradeoffs across WAF pillars | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/reliability/tradeoffs |
| Evaluate security tradeoffs in Azure architectures | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/well-architected/security/tradeoffs |