Deploy a Foundry Agent

Provision Azure resources when needed, deploy the agent, and smoke-test it. For hosted agents (custom container or code), use azd deploy. For prompt agents (LLM + instructions, no custom code), use the Foundry MCP agent_update tool.

Quick Reference

Property	Value
Hosted (recommended)	azd provision when needed, code deploy via azd deploy (codeConfiguration present), then verify and invoke
Hosted (container)	azd provision when needed, container deploy via azd deploy (remote builds require a Dockerfile and ACR; local builds also require Docker; no codeConfiguration: in the azure.yaml service block)
Prompt MCP	agent_definition_schema_get, agent_update, agent_get, agent_delete
Versioning	Each successful azd deploy creates an immutable agent version
Endpoint-only patch	azd ai agent endpoint update (no new version)
Local dev	create-hosted, local-run

Hosted vs Prompt

• Shipping Python / .NET code -> Hosted (azd workflow below).
• Updating only model / instructions / tools -> Prompt (MCP workflow below).

Deploy Mode Selection -- Hosted agents

Follow the user's explicit deploy mode preference or the existing project configuration. Otherwise, use code deploy through azd by default (no Docker/ACR required): the agent's azure.yaml service block must contain codeConfiguration:, so azd deploy will zip the source and let Foundry build it. If azd deploy prints Packaging container for an agent that does not need container-specific behavior, add or fix codeConfiguration and retry.

When the agent depends on Dockerfile behavior, system packages, or a pre-built image, or when the user explicitly asks to build or deploy a container image, mentions Container/Docker Image/Azure Container Registry (ACR), or supplies a pre-built image, use container deploy.

Before running azd deploy, inspect the agent's service block in azure.yaml.

Service block state	Deployment path
codeConfiguration: present	Code deploy through azd deploy; no Docker/ACR build.
No codeConfiguration: with language: docker	Container deploy through azd deploy.

codeConfiguration: example in the azure.yaml service block:

services: