Azure Deployment Preflight Agent Skill

Run preflight validation on ARM templates before deployment. Performs what-if analysis, permission checks, and generates a structured report with resource changes (create/modify/delete). Use before any deployment to preview changes and catch issues early.

2k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

265

stars on the repo

on the repository, not the skill itself

Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/Azure/git-ape --skill azure-deployment-preflight

The instruction itself

12 sections, as written by the author

Azure Deployment Preflight Validation

Validate ARM template deployments before execution by running what-if analysis, checking permissions, and generating a structured preflight report.

Adapted from github/awesome-copilot azure-deployment-preflight skill.

When to Use

Before deploying infrastructure to Azure
To preview what changes a deployment will make
To verify permissions are sufficient for deployment
As part of the template generation workflow (invoked by template generator)

Procedure

Step 1: Locate Template Files

Find the ARM template and parameters to validate:

# From deployment artifacts
DEPLOYMENT_ID="deploy-20260218-193500"
TEMPLATE=".azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID/template.json"
PARAMETERS=".azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID/parameters.json"

# Or from user-provided path
TEMPLATE="path/to/template.json"

Verify files exist before proceeding.

Step 1.5: Resource Availability Gate

Invoke /azure-resource-availability skill to validate all resources in the template before running what-if.

This catches issues that az deployment sub validate and what-if do NOT catch — such as:

VM SKU restrictions per subscription/region
Deprecated or LTS-only service versions (e.g., Kubernetes)
API version incompatibilities (fields that don't exist in the chosen version)
Quota limits that would be exceeded

# Parse template for resources to check
# For each resource: extract type, apiVersion, SKU, service version, region
# Pass to /azure-resource-availability

Gate behavior:

✅ PASSED → continue to Step 2
⚠️ WARNINGS → continue but include warnings in preflight report
❌ BLOCKED → STOP. Report blocking issues with alternatives. Do not proceed to what-if.

Save the availability report to .azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID/availability-report.md.

Step 2: Validate Template Syntax

Check the ARM template is valid JSON and follows schema:

# Validate template syntax
az deployment sub validate \
  --location {location} \
  --template-file "$TEMPLATE" \
  --parameters @"$PARAMETERS" \
  --output json 2>&1

What to capture:

Syntax errors with details
Schema validation warnings
Parameter validation issues

Step 3: Run What-If Analysis

Run what-if to preview resource changes without deploying:

# For subscription-level deployments (Git-Ape default)
az deployment sub what-if \
  --location {location} \
  --template-file "$TEMPLATE" \
  --parameters @"$PARAMETERS" \
  --result-format FullResourcePayloads \
  --output json 2>&1

Fallback: If permission errors occur, retry without RBAC validation:

az deployment sub what-if \
  --location {location} \
  --template-file "$TEMPLATE" \
  --parameters @"$PARAMETERS" \
  --result-format FullResourcePayloads \
  --no-prompt \
  --output json 2>&1

Note the fallback in the report.

Step 4: Parse What-If Results

Categorize resource changes from the what-if output:

| Change Type | Symbol | Meaning |

|-------------|--------|---------|

| Create | ➕ | New resource will be created |

| Delete | ➖ | Resource will be deleted |

| Modify | ✏️ | Resource properties will change |

| NoChange | ✅ | Resource unchanged |

| Ignore | ⏭️ | Resource not analyzed |

| Deploy | 🚀 | Resource will be deployed (changes unknown) |

For modified resources, capture the specific property changes:

Resource: Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts/starnwkdhk
  ~ properties.minimumTlsVersion: "TLS1_0" → "TLS1_2"
  ~ tags.Environment: "staging" → "dev"

Step 5: Generate Preflight Report

Create a structured report saved to .azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID/preflight-report.md:

# Preflight Validation Report

**Deployment ID:** {deployment-id}
**Validated:** {timestamp}
**Template:** {template-path}
**Scope:** Subscription-level

## Summary

| Check | Status |
|-------|--------|
| Template Syntax | ✅ Valid |
| Schema Compliance | ✅ Valid |
| What-If Analysis | ✅ Completed |
| Permission Check | ✅ Sufficient |

## What-If Results

### Resources to Create ({count})
| Resource Type | Name | Location |
|---------------|------|----------|
| Microsoft.Resources/resourceGroups | rg-xxx | eastus |
| Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts | stxxx | eastus |

### Resources to Modify ({count})
| Resource | Property | Current | New |
|----------|----------|---------|-----|
| stxxx | minimumTlsVersion | TLS1_0 | TLS1_2 |

### Resources to Delete ({count})
{list or "None"}

### Resources Unchanged ({count})
{count resources with no changes}

## Issues Found

### Errors
{any blocking errors}

### Warnings
{any non-blocking warnings}

## Recommendations
- {actionable suggestions}

Step 6: Return Results

Return the preflight report to the calling agent. If any errors were found, recommend the user address them before deploying.

Save report to .azure/deployments/$DEPLOYMENT_ID/preflight-report.md.

Error Handling

| Error Type | Action |

|------------|--------|

| Not logged in | Note in report, suggest az login |

| Permission denied | Fall back to no-RBAC validation, note in report |

| Template syntax error | Include all errors, mark as blocking |

| Resource group not found | Note in report (RG may be created by template) |

| API version issues | Note in report, suggest updating |

Key principle: Continue validation even when errors occur. Capture all issues in the final report.

Integration

Called by template generator after generating ARM template:

Template Generator → /azure-deployment-preflight → Preflight Report → User Confirmation

Manual invocation:

User: /azure-deployment-preflight --deployment-id deploy-20260218-193500

Agent: Running preflight validation...
[Validates template, runs what-if, generates report]

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17k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take azure/azure-deployment-preflight from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

Check the name does not clash

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