Azure Web Application Firewall

microsoftdocs/azure-web-application-firewall

Expert knowledge for Azure Web Application Firewall development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. Use when configuring Front Door/App Gateway WAF rules, rate limits, geo/bot controls, logging, or Sentinel integration, and other Azure Web Application Firewall related development tasks. Not for Azure Application Gateway (use azure-application-gateway), Azure Front Door (use azure-front-door), Azure Firewall (use azure-firewall), Azure DDos Protection (use azure-ddos-protection).

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Install

one command, takes just this skill from the repository

npx skills add https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-web-application-firewall

The instruction itself

11 sections, as written by the author

Azure Web Application Firewall Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Web Application Firewall. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, limits & quotas, security, configuration, integrations & coding patterns, and deployment. 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 | L36-L40 | Diagnosing and fixing Azure WAF issues on Front Door and Application Gateway, including rule matches, false positives, blocked requests, and configuration or logging problems. |

| Best Practices | L41-L48 | Best practices for configuring, tuning, and hardening WAF on Front Door and Application Gateway, including geomatch rules, exclusions, and security posture improvements. |

| Decision Making | L49-L54 | Guidance on planning and migrating from legacy WAF configs to full WAF policies, and managing the lifecycle, upgrades, and versions of Azure WAF managed rule sets. |

| Limits & Quotas | L55-L60 | Details on WAF limits like max request/body size, file upload constraints, rule engine behavior under high load, and how to configure or tune these limits on Application Gateway. |

| Security | L61-L70 | Configuring and governing WAF security: IP restrictions, DRS rule groups, exclusions/exceptions, hardening settings, and enforcing policies with Azure Policy. |

| Configuration | L71-L111 | Configuring WAF policies and rules for Front Door and Application Gateway: custom/managed rules, rate limiting, geo-filtering, bot/CAPTCHA, exclusions, logging, and sensitive data protection. |

| Integrations & Coding Patterns | L112-L122 | Using WAF with other Azure services: integrating logs with Sentinel/Log Analytics, automating incident response, investigating events, and protecting APIM/Azure OpenAI via Front Door WAF. |

| Deployment | L123-L129 | How to deploy and manage Application Gateway WAF v2 using Bicep, ARM templates, Terraform, and upgrade existing WAF configurations to WAF policies. |

Troubleshooting

| Topic | URL |

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

| Troubleshoot Azure Front Door WAF behavior and rules | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-faq |

Best Practices

| Topic | URL |

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

| Implement WAF best practices in Azure Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-best-practices |

| Tune Azure Front Door WAF rules and exclusions | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-tuning |

| Apply best practices for WAF on Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/best-practices |

| Apply geomatch WAF rules to strengthen web app security | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/geomatch-custom-rules-examples |

Decision Making

| Topic | URL |

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

| Migrate Azure Application Gateway WAF configs to full policies | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/migrate-policy |

| Plan Azure WAF managed ruleset lifecycle and upgrades | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ruleset-support-policy |

Limits & Quotas

| Topic | URL |

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

| Understand Azure Application Gateway WAF limits and behavior | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-waf-faq |

| Configure WAF request and file upload size limits on Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-waf-request-size-limits |

Security

| Topic | URL |

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

| Configure IP restriction rules in Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-configure-ip-restriction |

| Understand Azure WAF Front Door DRS rule groups | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-drs |

| Configure WAF exclusion lists for Azure Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-exclusion |

| Configure WAF exception lists for Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-exceptions |

| Harden Azure WAF with security configurations | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/secure-web-application-firewall |

| Enforce WAF governance using Azure Policy | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/shared/waf-azure-policy |

Configuration

| Topic | URL |

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

| Configure CAPTCHA challenges in Azure Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/captcha-challenge |

| Configure WAF exception lists for Azure Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/front-door-exceptions |

| Configure custom block responses for Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-configure-custom-response-code |

| Define custom WAF rules for Azure Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-custom-rules |

| Configure Azure Front Door WAF custom and managed rules | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-custom-rules-powershell |

| Set up WAF exclusion rules on Azure Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-exclusion-configure |

| Configure geo-filtering rules in Azure Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-geo-filtering |

| Configure monitoring and logging for Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-monitor |

| Enable and configure bot protection in Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-policy-configure-bot-protection |

| Configure Azure Front Door WAF policy-level settings | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-policy-settings |

| Configure rate limiting policies in Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-rate-limit |

| Create and tune WAF rate-limit rules on Front Door | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-rate-limit-configure |

| Create a geo-filtering WAF policy with PowerShell | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-front-door-tutorial-geo-filtering |

| Configure log scrubbing on Azure Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-sensitive-data-protection-configure-frontdoor |

| Enable sensitive data protection for Front Door WAF logs | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/waf-sensitive-data-protection-frontdoor |

| Reference for Application Gateway WAF CRS and DRS rules | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-crs-rulegroups-rules |

| Customize Application Gateway WAF rules using Azure CLI | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-customize-waf-rules-cli |

| Customize Application Gateway WAF rules in Azure portal | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-customize-waf-rules-portal |

| Customize Application Gateway WAF rules with PowerShell | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-customize-waf-rules-powershell |

| Configure WAF exclusion lists on Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-waf-configuration |

| Configure and analyze Application Gateway WAF metrics | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/application-gateway-waf-metrics |

| Associate WAF policies with existing Application Gateways | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/associate-waf-policy-existing-gateway |

| Configure bot protection rules for Azure Application Gateway WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/bot-protection |

| Configure custom block response codes and pages for Application Gateway WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/configure-custom-response-code |

| Create WAF v2 custom rules with Azure PowerShell | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/configure-waf-custom-rules |

| Create and attach WAF policies to Azure Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/create-waf-policy-ag |

| Configure HTTP DDoS ruleset for Application Gateway WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/ddos-ruleset |

| Use Application Gateway WAF Insights dashboards | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/insights |

| Configure per-site WAF policies with PowerShell | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/per-site-policies |

| Understand and scope WAF policies on Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/policy-overview |

| Create rate-limiting custom rules for Application Gateway WAF v2 | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/rate-limiting-configure |

| Configure rate limiting for Azure Application Gateway WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/rate-limiting-overview |

| Configure sensitive data protection in WAF logs | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/waf-sensitive-data-protection |

| Set up WAF log scrubbing on Application Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/waf-sensitive-data-protection-configure |

| Enable and manage logging for Azure WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/web-application-firewall-logs |

| Manage WAF policies centrally with Azure Firewall Manager | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/shared/manage-policies |

| Use JavaScript challenge for bot mitigation in WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/waf-javascript-challenge |

Integrations & Coding Patterns

| Topic | URL |

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

| Automate WAF incident response with Microsoft Sentinel | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/automated-detection-response-with-sentinel |

| Protect APIM-hosted APIs with Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/protect-api-hosted-apim-by-waf |

| Secure Azure OpenAI endpoints using Front Door WAF | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/afds/protect-azure-open-ai |

| Analyze Application Gateway WAF logs with Log Analytics | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/log-analytics |

| Investigate Azure WAF events with Security Copilot | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/waf-copilot |

| Detect new web threats using WAF and Sentinel | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/waf-new-threat-detection |

| Integrate Azure WAF logs with Microsoft Sentinel | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/waf-sentinel |

Deployment

| Topic | URL |

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

| Deploy Azure Application Gateway WAF v2 using Bicep | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/quick-create-bicep |

| Deploy Azure Application Gateway WAF v2 via ARM template | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/quick-create-template |

| Upgrade Azure Application Gateway WAF configuration to policy | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/ag/upgrade-ag-waf-policy |

| Provision Application Gateway WAF v2 with Terraform | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/web-application-firewall/quickstart-web-application-firewall-terraform |

How to use it

Copy the folder

Take microsoftdocs/azure-web-application-firewall from the repository into ~/.claude/skills for personal use, or into .claude/skills inside a project.

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