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Azure Diagnostics

Azure Diagnostics Skill

by Microsoft microsoft/azure-skills skills/azure-diagnostics

Microsoft's official skill for troubleshooting Azure production issues: App Service, Container Apps, Functions, AKS, VMs and messaging, using AppLens, Azure Monitor, resource health and KQL.

GitHub Docs
DevOps & Infrastructure
Released
v1.2.14
MIT

Install

Install with the skills CLI

One command for Claude Code, Codex, Cursor, GitHub Copilot, Gemini CLI, Windsurf and dozens of other agents. Needs Node.js; the skill is fetched straight from microsoft/azure-skills.

$ npx skills add microsoft/azure-skills --skill azure-diagnostics

Run it in a terminal. The CLI finds the agents installed on your machine, asks which ones to add the skill to, and whether to install it into the folder you ran it from or for all your projects.

Other ways to install

Copy the whole skill folder — SKILL.md and any scripts or references beside it — into ~/.claude/skills/azure-diagnostics/, where Claude Code picks it up in every project. Only git is needed.

tmp=$(mktemp -d) && \
  git clone --depth 1 --branch main https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills.git "$tmp" && \
  mkdir -p ~/.claude/skills && \
  cp -R "$tmp"/skills/azure-diagnostics ~/.claude/skills/azure-diagnostics

No scripts or references next to it? Saving the SKILL.md alone as ~/.claude/skills/azure-diagnostics/SKILL.md works too.

Using another agent? Its personal skills folder
Codex
~/.agents/skills/
Cursor
~/.cursor/skills/
GitHub Copilot
~/.copilot/skills/
Gemini CLI
~/.gemini/skills/
Windsurf
~/.codeium/windsurf/skills/
OpenCode
~/.config/opencode/skills/
Open folder on GitHub

About

  • Five-step diagnosis flow from symptoms to recent changes
  • Per-service guides for App Service, Container Apps, Functions, AKS, VMs and messaging
  • Evidence-only mode that never touches Azure
  • Uses AppLens via MCP and bundled diagnostic scripts

Azure Diagnostics is part of Microsoft's official Azure skills collection. It teaches an agent a systematic way to debug production problems on Azure: identify the symptom, check resource health, review logs, analyse metrics, then look at what changed recently.

It carries troubleshooting guides per service. Container Apps cover image pull failures, cold starts, health probes and target-port mismatches; App Service covers high CPU, deployment failures, crashes, slow responses and TLS or custom domains; Function Apps cover invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors and telemetry that stops after a configuration or connection-string change. AKS incidents (cluster access, nodes, kube-system and CoreDNS, pending pods, crash loops, ingress, upgrades) route to a dedicated AKS document, VM RDP and SSH connectivity, NSG and firewall blocks and credential resets route to a compute guide, and Event Hubs and Service Bus SDK errors such as AMQP failures and lost message locks route to a messaging guide.

The rules favour safe triage. When you supply logs and ask for evidence-only analysis, the agent diagnoses from them without touching Azure; for live collection it prefers the bundled diagnostic scripts over ad hoc calls, uses AppLens through MCP when available, and documents findings and remediation. MIT-licensed.

SKILL.md

The instructions your agent loads, as published by Microsoft.

SKILL.md
name
azure-diagnostics
description
Debug Azure production issues using AppLens, Azure Monitor, resource health, and safe triage, including evidence-only diagnosis without live access. WHEN: debug production issues, troubleshoot app service, app service high CPU, app service deployment failure, troubleshoot container apps, container app 503 or target port mismatch, troubleshoot functions, function telemetry missing or stopped after a config/connection-string change, troubleshoot AKS, VM RDP, Linux SSH, VM black screen, can't connect to VM, reset VM password, NSG or firewall blocking, kubectl cannot connect, kube-system/CoreDNS failures, pod pending, crashloop, node not ready, upgrade failures, analyze logs, KQL, insights, image pull failures, cold start issues, health probe failures, resource health, root cause of errors, troubleshoot event hubs, troubleshoot service bus, messaging SDK error, AMQP connection failure, message lock lost, lock renewal during long-running processing, service bus dead letter.
license
MIT
metadata
author: Microsoft version: "1.2.14"

Azure Diagnostics

AUTHORITATIVE GUIDANCE — MANDATORY COMPLIANCE

This document is the official source for debugging and troubleshooting Azure production issues. Follow these instructions to diagnose and resolve common Azure service problems systematically.
Triggers

Activate this skill when user wants to:

  • Debug or troubleshoot production issues
  • Diagnose errors in Azure services
  • Analyze application logs or metrics
  • Fix image pull, cold start, or health probe issues
  • Investigate why Azure resources are failing
  • Find root cause of application errors
  • Troubleshoot App Service issues (high CPU, deployment failures, crashes, slow responses, TLS/custom domains)
  • Respond to prompts like "troubleshoot app service", "app service high CPU", or "app service deployment failure"
  • Troubleshoot Azure Function Apps (invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors)
  • Find the App Insights or Log Analytics workspace linked to a Function App
  • Troubleshoot AKS clusters, nodes, pods, ingress, or Kubernetes networking issues
  • Troubleshoot Azure VM connectivity issues (RDP/SSH failures, port 3389/22 timeouts, NSG or firewall blocking, credential resets)
  • Troubleshoot Azure Messaging SDK issues (Event Hubs, Service Bus connection failures, AMQP errors, message lock issues)
  • Root-cause a symptom that looks like a healthy-runtime-but-wrong-destination problem (e.g., telemetry/messages stop flowing to the expected resource after a config change) — invoke this skill for the matrix even when MCP tools could answer the surface question alone
Rules
  1. Start with systematic diagnosis flow
  2. Use supplied evidence first. If the user requests evidence-only analysis or prohibits live Azure access, do not query or modify Azure. Diagnose from the supplied logs, metrics, and timeline; identify assumptions and provide optional verification steps.
  3. Use AppLens (MCP) for AI-powered diagnostics when available
  4. Check resource health before deep-diving into logs
  5. Select appropriate troubleshooting guide based on service type
  6. Document findings and attempted remediation steps
  7. Prefer bundled diagnostic scripts over ad hoc calls for permitted live collection when identifiers are known. If supplied evidence suffices or live access is prohibited, don't run them; otherwise run the applicable script first.
  8. Route AKS incidents to the dedicated AKS troubleshooting document
  9. Keep baseline AKS diagnostics available even when the optional aks-skills

add-on is absent, declined, or unsupported by the host

---

Quick Diagnosis Flow
  1. Identify symptoms - What's failing?
  2. Check resource health - Is Azure healthy?
  3. Review logs - What do logs show?
  4. Analyze metrics - Performance patterns?
  5. Investigate recent changes - What changed?

---

Troubleshooting Guides by Service
ServiceCommon IssuesReference
Container AppsImage pull failures, cold starts, health probes, port mismatches[container-apps/](references/container-apps/README.md)
App ServiceHigh CPU, deployment failures, crashes, slow responses, TLS/custom domains[app-service/](references/app-service/README.md)
Function AppsApp details, invocation failures, timeouts, binding errors, cold starts, missing app settings[functions/](references/functions/README.md)
AKSCluster access, nodes, kube-system, scheduling, crash loops, ingress, DNS, upgrades[AKS Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/aks/aks-troubleshooting.md)
ComputeVM RDP/SSH connectivity, NSG/firewall blocks, credential resets, VM agent/tooling issues[VM Connectivity Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/compute/vm-troubleshooting.md)
MessagingEvent Hubs & Service Bus SDK errors, AMQP failures, message lock, connectivity[Messaging Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/messaging/README.md)

---

Routing
  • Keep Container Apps and Function Apps diagnostics in this parent skill.
  • Route active AKS incidents, AKS-specific intake, evidence gathering, and remediation guidance to [AKS Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/aks/aks-troubleshooting.md).
  • Route Azure VM RDP/SSH connectivity, NSG/firewall, credential reset, and VM agent troubleshooting to [VM Connectivity Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/compute/vm-troubleshooting.md).
  • Route Azure Messaging SDK troubleshooting (Event Hubs, Service Bus) to [Messaging Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/messaging/README.md).

---

Quick Reference
Common Diagnostic Commands
# Check resource health
az resource show --ids RESOURCE_ID
# View activity log
az monitor activity-log list -g RG --max-events 20
# Container Apps logs
az containerapp logs show --name APP -g RG --follow
# Function App logs (query App Insights traces)
az monitor app-insights query --apps APP-INSIGHTS -g RG \
  --analytics-query "traces | where timestamp > ago(1h) | order by timestamp desc | take 50"
AppLens (MCP Tools)

For AI-powered diagnostics, use:

mcp_azure_mcp_applens
  intent: "diagnose issues with <resource-name>"
  command: "diagnose"
  parameters:
    resourceId: "<resource-id>"

Provides:
- Automated issue detection
- Root cause analysis
- Remediation recommendations
Azure Monitor (MCP Tools)

For querying logs and metrics:

mcp_azure_mcp_monitor
  intent: "query logs for <resource-name>"
  command: "logs_query"
  parameters:
    workspaceId: "<workspace-id>"
    query: "<KQL-query>"

See [kql-queries.md](references/kql-queries.md) for common diagnostic queries.

---

Check Azure Resource Health
Using MCP
mcp_azure_mcp_resourcehealth
  intent: "check health status of <resource-name>"
  command: "get"
  parameters:
    resourceId: "<resource-id>"
Using CLI
# Check specific resource health
az resource show --ids RESOURCE_ID

# Check recent activity
az monitor activity-log list -g RG --max-events 20

---

References
  • [KQL Query Library](references/kql-queries.md)
  • [Azure Resource Graph Queries](references/azure-resource-graph.md)
  • [App Service Troubleshooting](references/app-service/README.md)
  • [Function Apps Troubleshooting](references/functions/README.md)
  • [VM Connectivity Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/compute/vm-troubleshooting.md)
  • [Messaging Troubleshooting](troubleshooting/messaging/README.md)
Install

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