Skills

Chapter 24 of 37

Azure Resource Lookup

List, find, and show Azure resources across subscriptions or resource groups.

2 minutes · 495 words · 9 sections

List, find, and discover Azure resources of any type across subscriptions and resource groups. Use Azure Resource Graph (ARG) for fast, cross-cutting queries when dedicated MCP tools don’t cover the resource type.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to:

List resources of any type (VMs, web apps, storage accounts, container apps, databases, etc.)
Show resources in a specific subscription or resource group
Query resources across multiple subscriptions or resource types
Find orphaned resources (unattached disks, unused NICs, idle IPs)
Discover resources missing required tags or configurations
Get a resource inventory spanning multiple types
Find resources in a specific state (unhealthy, failed provisioning, stopped)
Answer “what resources do I have?“ or “show me my Azure resources“
List web apps, websites, or App Services

⚠️ Warning: App Service / Web Apps have no dedicated MCP list command. Prompts like “list websites”, “list web apps”, or “list app services” must route through this skill to use Azure Resource Graph.

💡 Tip: For single-resource-type queries, first check if a dedicated MCP tool can handle it (see routing table below). If none exists, use Azure Resource Graph.

Quick Reference

Property	Value
Query Language	KQL (Kusto Query Language subset)
CLI Command	`az graph query -q "<KQL>" -o table`
Extension	`az extension add --name resource-graph`
MCP Tool	`extension_cli_generate` with intent for `az graph query`
Best For	Cross-subscription queries, orphaned resources, tag audits

MCP Tools

Tool	Purpose	When to Use
`extension_cli_generate`	Generate `az graph query` commands	Primary tool — generate ARG queries from user intent
`mcp_azure_mcp_subscription_list`	List available subscriptions	Discover subscription scope before querying
`mcp_azure_mcp_group_list`	List resource groups	Narrow query scope

Workflow

Step 1: Check for a Dedicated MCP Tool

For single-resource-type queries, check if a dedicated MCP tool can handle it:

Resource Type	MCP Tool	Coverage
Virtual Machines	`compute`	✅ Full — list, details, sizes
Storage Accounts	`storage`	✅ Full — accounts, blobs, tables
Cosmos DB	`cosmos`	✅ Full — accounts, databases, queries
Key Vault	`keyvault`	⚠️ Partial — secrets/keys only, no vault listing
SQL Databases	`sql`	⚠️ Partial — requires resource group name
Container Registries	`acr`	✅ Full — list registries
Kubernetes (AKS)	`aks`	✅ Full — clusters, node pools
App Service / Web Apps	`appservice`	❌ No list command — use ARG
Container Apps	—	❌ No MCP tool — use ARG
Event Hubs	`eventhubs`	✅ Full — namespaces, hubs
Service Bus	`servicebus`	✅ Full — queues, topics

If a dedicated tool is available with full coverage, use it. Otherwise proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Generate the ARG Query

Use extension_cli_generate to build the az graph query command:

mcp_azure_mcp_extension_cli_generate
  intent: "query Azure Resource Graph to <user's request>"
  cli-type: "az"

See Azure Resource Graph Query Patterns (opens in a new tab) for common KQL patterns.

Step 3: Execute and Format Results

Run the generated command. Use --query (JMESPath) to shape output:

az graph query -q "<KQL>" --query "data[].{name:name, type:type, rg:resourceGroup}" -o table

Use --first N to limit results. Use --subscriptions to scope.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Fix
`resource-graph extension not found`	Extension not installed	`az extension add --name resource-graph`
`AuthorizationFailed`	No read access to subscription	Check RBAC — need Reader role
`BadRequest` on query	Invalid KQL syntax	Verify table/column names; use `=~` for case-insensitive type matching
Empty results	No matching resources or wrong scope	Check `--subscriptions` flag; verify resource type spelling

Constraints

✅ Always use =~ for case-insensitive type matching (types are lowercase)
✅ Always scope queries with --subscriptions or --first for large tenants
✅ Prefer dedicated MCP tools for single-resource-type queries
❌ Never use ARG for real-time monitoring (data has slight delay)
❌ Never attempt mutations through ARG (read-only)

Install this repository

$ npx skills add microsoft/azure-skills

» /plugin marketplace add microsoft/azure-skills

Skills install per repository, not per chapter — the CLI has no documented per-skill form, so we do not print one.

About this skill

Trigger

List, find, and show Azure resources across subscriptions or resource groups. Handles prompts like "list the websites in my subscription", "list my web apps", "show my app services", "list virtual machines", "list my VMs", "show storage accounts", "find container apps", and "what resources do I have". USE FOR: list websites, list web apps, list app services, show websites in subscription, resource inventory, find resources by tag, tag analysis, orphaned resource discovery (not for cost analysis), unattached disks, count resources by type, cross-subscription lookup, and Azure Resource Graph queries. DO NOT USE FOR: deploying/changing resources (use azure-deploy), cost optimization (use azure-cost), or non-Azure clouds.

The verbatim description from this skill’s front matter — the string an agent matches on to decide whether to load it.

Licence: MIT
Also published for: GitHub — collapsed into this chapter because the copies are the same skill.
Source: skills/azure-resource-lookup/SKILL.md

Colophon for this issue

Colophon

How this issue was made

Source

github.com/microsoft/azure-skills, branch main, last pushed 10 August 2026.

Licence

MIT — the text of every chapter is reproduced unmodified, frontmatter included, under the upstream licence.

Discovery

37 chapters found by walking the repository tree for SKILL.md, not by matching a directory convention. 6 distinct layouts observed: skills/*/SKILL.md, skills/azure-app-onboard/*/SKILL.md, skills/azure-kubernetes/*/SKILL.md, skills/microsoft-foundry/*/SKILL.md, skills/microsoft-foundry/models/deploy-model/*/SKILL.md, skills/microsoft-foundry/models/*/SKILL.md.

Duplicates collapsed

37 mirror copies folded into their canonical chapter — republished for GitHub. Copies match on content hash and on position once a leading per-agent prefix is stripped, because the same skill is routinely shipped under a dozen agent directories with a dozen different hashes.

Issue colours

Resolved from a curated brand profile — hue 251°, chroma 0.167. Two accent tones are generated per issue and each is proven against its own ground before it ships: a single accent that passes AA on both light and dark paper is arithmetically impossible.

Heading repairs

1 repair applied to this chapter so the document has one h1 and no skipped levels:

Removed “Azure Resource Lookup”, a leading h1 that duplicated the chapter title.

Spec compliance

6 editorial notes across 3 of 37 chapters. They are printed in the margin of each chapter rather than as errors here.

Deploy — 2 notes
Prepare — 2 notes
Scaffold — 2 notes

Images

Images inside a chapter come from the upstream repository. Where the author gave no alternative text we mark the image decorative rather than inventing a description — a plausible caption we made up is worse than none for the reader who depends on it.

Marketplace

A plugin manifest is published at .claude-plugin/marketplace.json by Microsoft, declaring 1 plugin. It is read for editorial metadata only — never as the skill index, which is always the repository tree.

Signal

Install counts come from skills.sh. They measure downloads, not quality, and an unranked repository is not an unread one.

Agent surfaces

The whole issue is available as one markdown document at /microsoft/azure-skills.md, and each chapter at its own .md URL.

Publication

Set by Skills Docs from the source repository. Body text is Literata at the reader’s chosen size and measure; code is Geist Mono. Nothing on this page was written by us except this paragraph.

When to Use This Skill

Use this skill when the user wants to:

List resources of any type (VMs, web apps, storage accounts, container apps, databases, etc.)
Show resources in a specific subscription or resource group
Query resources across multiple subscriptions or resource types
Find orphaned resources (unattached disks, unused NICs, idle IPs)
Discover resources missing required tags or configurations
Get a resource inventory spanning multiple types
Find resources in a specific state (unhealthy, failed provisioning, stopped)
Answer “what resources do I have?“ or “show me my Azure resources“
List web apps, websites, or App Services

⚠️ Warning: App Service / Web Apps have no dedicated MCP list command. Prompts like “list websites”, “list web apps”, or “list app services” must route through this skill to use Azure Resource Graph.

💡 Tip: For single-resource-type queries, first check if a dedicated MCP tool can handle it (see routing table below). If none exists, use Azure Resource Graph.

Quick Reference

Property	Value
Query Language	KQL (Kusto Query Language subset)
CLI Command	`az graph query -q "<KQL>" -o table`
Extension	`az extension add --name resource-graph`
MCP Tool	`extension_cli_generate` with intent for `az graph query`
Best For	Cross-subscription queries, orphaned resources, tag audits

MCP Tools

Tool	Purpose	When to Use
`extension_cli_generate`	Generate `az graph query` commands	Primary tool — generate ARG queries from user intent
`mcp_azure_mcp_subscription_list`	List available subscriptions	Discover subscription scope before querying
`mcp_azure_mcp_group_list`	List resource groups	Narrow query scope

Workflow

Step 1: Check for a Dedicated MCP Tool

For single-resource-type queries, check if a dedicated MCP tool can handle it:

Resource Type	MCP Tool	Coverage
Virtual Machines	`compute`	✅ Full — list, details, sizes
Storage Accounts	`storage`	✅ Full — accounts, blobs, tables
Cosmos DB	`cosmos`	✅ Full — accounts, databases, queries
Key Vault	`keyvault`	⚠️ Partial — secrets/keys only, no vault listing
SQL Databases	`sql`	⚠️ Partial — requires resource group name
Container Registries	`acr`	✅ Full — list registries
Kubernetes (AKS)	`aks`	✅ Full — clusters, node pools
App Service / Web Apps	`appservice`	❌ No list command — use ARG
Container Apps	—	❌ No MCP tool — use ARG
Event Hubs	`eventhubs`	✅ Full — namespaces, hubs
Service Bus	`servicebus`	✅ Full — queues, topics

If a dedicated tool is available with full coverage, use it. Otherwise proceed to Step 2.

Step 2: Generate the ARG Query

Use extension_cli_generate to build the az graph query command:

mcp_azure_mcp_extension_cli_generate
  intent: "query Azure Resource Graph to <user's request>"
  cli-type: "az"

See Azure Resource Graph Query Patterns (opens in a new tab) for common KQL patterns.

Step 3: Execute and Format Results

Run the generated command. Use --query (JMESPath) to shape output:

az graph query -q "<KQL>" --query "data[].{name:name, type:type, rg:resourceGroup}" -o table

Use --first N to limit results. Use --subscriptions to scope.

Error Handling

Error	Cause	Fix
`resource-graph extension not found`	Extension not installed	`az extension add --name resource-graph`
`AuthorizationFailed`	No read access to subscription	Check RBAC — need Reader role
`BadRequest` on query	Invalid KQL syntax	Verify table/column names; use `=~` for case-insensitive type matching
Empty results	No matching resources or wrong scope	Check `--subscriptions` flag; verify resource type spelling

Constraints

✅ Always use =~ for case-insensitive type matching (types are lowercase)
✅ Always scope queries with --subscriptions or --first for large tenants
✅ Prefer dedicated MCP tools for single-resource-type queries
❌ Never use ARG for real-time monitoring (data has slight delay)
❌ Never attempt mutations through ARG (read-only)

Azure Resource Lookup

When to Use This Skill

Quick Reference

MCP Tools

Workflow

Step 1: Check for a Dedicated MCP Tool

Step 2: Generate the ARG Query

Step 3: Execute and Format Results

Error Handling

Constraints

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Azure Resource Lookup

When to Use This Skill

Quick Reference

MCP Tools

Workflow

Step 1: Check for a Dedicated MCP Tool

Step 2: Generate the ARG Query

Step 3: Execute and Format Results

Error Handling

Constraints

Appendix 24.1

ReferencesMarkdown · 1 file

About this skill

Trigger

Colophon

Appendix 24.1

ReferencesMarkdown · 1 file