Azure Cloud Services Agent Skill

Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Services development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and integrations & coding patterns. Use when managing Cloud Services guest OS upgrades, Key Vault certs, .csdef/.cscfg configs, autoscale, or migrations, and other Azure Cloud Services related development tasks. Not for Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure App Service (use azure-app-service), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure Functions (use azure-functions).

2k tokens

context cost

the whole folder, loaded on every use

files

instructions only

copies elsewhere

how many repositories repackaged it

681

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/MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-cloud-services

The instruction itself

10 sections, as written by the author

Azure Cloud Services Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Cloud Services. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and integrations & coding patterns. 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), use read_file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., security.md), use read_file on the linked reference file

> IMPORTANT for Agent: If metadata.generated_at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp_microsoftdocs tools 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_fetch with query string from=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown.
Fallback: Use fetch_webpage with query string from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.

Category Index

| Category | Lines | Description |

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

| Troubleshooting | L35-L39 | Diagnosing and fixing common migration errors when moving classic Cloud Services to Cloud Services (extended support), including deployment, configuration, and compatibility issues. |

| Best Practices | L40-L44 | Guidance on designing and configuring autoscale rules for Cloud Services, including metrics, thresholds, and patterns to optimize performance, reliability, and cost. |

| Decision Making | L45-L53 | Guidance on planning Cloud Services guest OS upgrades, comparing Cloud Services vs VM Scale Sets, and migrating classic/non-VNet Cloud Services to extended support and VNets. |

| Limits & Quotas | L54-L60 | VM instance size limits/capacities and timelines, impacts, and constraints related to Guest OS family retirements for Azure Cloud Services. |

| Security | L61-L66 | Using Key Vault for certificates in Cloud Services and understanding Azure Guest OS security updates, support lifecycle, and retirement policies |

| Configuration | L67-L85 | Configuring Cloud Services roles and deployments: .csdef/.cscfg schemas, networking, load balancers, diagnostics, RDP, Key Vault, extensions, alerts, and SKU/instance overrides |

| Integrations & Coding Patterns | L86-L91 | Automating Azure Cloud Services (extended support) with PowerShell: creating deployments, retrieving service details, and resetting or redeploying cloud service instances. |

Troubleshooting

| Topic | URL |

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

| Resolve common errors when migrating to Cloud Services extended support | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/in-place-migration-common-errors |

Best Practices

| Topic | URL |

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

| Configure autoscaling rules for Cloud Services deployments | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/configure-scaling |

Decision Making

| Topic | URL |

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

| Plan Azure Cloud Services Guest OS upgrade path | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/cloud-services-guestos-update-matrix |

| Compare Cloud Services and Virtual Machine Scale Sets features | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/feature-support-analysis |

| Plan migration from Cloud Services classic to extended support | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/in-place-migration-overview |

| Understand technical requirements for Cloud Services migration | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/in-place-migration-technical-details |

| Plan migration of non-VNet Cloud Services into VNets | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/non-vnet-migration |

Limits & Quotas

| Topic | URL |

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

| VM size options and capacities for Cloud Services instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/available-sizes |

| Guest OS Family 1 retirement dates and deployment impact | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/cloud-services-guestos-family-1-retirement |

| Guest OS Families 2–4 retirement timelines and impact | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/cloud-services-guestos-family-2-3-4-retirement |

Security

| Topic | URL |

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

| Securely store and use certificates with Key Vault in Cloud Services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/certificates-and-key-vault |

| Understand support and retirement policy for Azure Guest OS | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/cloud-services-guestos-retirement-policy |

Configuration

| Topic | URL |

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

| Understand Cloud Services model, config, and package files | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/cloud-services-model-and-package |

| Configure monitoring alerts for Cloud Services instances | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/enable-alerts |

| Enable Key Vault VM extension for Cloud Services roles | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/enable-key-vault-virtual-machine |

| Configure Remote Desktop extension for Cloud Services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/enable-rdp |

| Configure Azure diagnostics extension for Cloud Services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/enable-wad |

| Configure extensions for Azure Cloud Services (extended support) | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/extensions |

| Override Cloud Services SKU and instance count via allowModelOverride | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/override-sku |

| Reference schema for Cloud Services configuration (.cscfg) | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-cscfg-file |

| Configure NetworkConfiguration for Cloud Services deployments | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-cscfg-networkconfiguration |

| Configure role settings in Cloud Services .cscfg | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-cscfg-role |

| Reference schema for Cloud Services definition (.csdef) | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-csdef-file |

| Configure LoadBalancerProbe in Cloud Services definitions | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-csdef-loadbalancerprobe |

| Configure NetworkTrafficRules in Cloud Services definitions | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-csdef-networktrafficrules |

| Define and configure WebRole schema for Cloud Services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-csdef-webrole |

| Define and configure WorkerRole schema for Cloud Services | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/schema-csdef-workerrole |

Integrations & Coding Patterns

| Topic | URL |

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

| Use PowerShell to create Cloud Services (extended support) | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/sample-create-cloud-service |

| Use PowerShell to retrieve Cloud Service details | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/sample-get-cloud-service |

| Use PowerShell to reset Cloud Services deployments | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-services-extended-support/sample-reset-cloud-service |

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17k tokens

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take microsoftdocs/azure-cloud-services 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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