Configure and consume template sources
The Azure Developer CLI is designed around a powerful template system that streamlines deploying and provisioning Azure resources. While developing with azd, you have the option to either build your own template, or choose from a configurable list of existing templates. In this article, you learn how to work with template lists and configure your local azd installation to support different template list sources.
Understand template sources
An azd template source points to a JSON configuration file that describes a list of available templates and their essential metadata, such as the title, description, and location of the template source code (usually a GitHub repo). When you enable a template source, the templates it defines are made available to azd through other commands. For example, the template source JSON snippet below defines two templates:
[
{
"title": "Starter - Bicep",
"description": "A starter template with Bicep as infrastructure provider",
"preview": "./templates/images/test.png",
"website": "https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev",
"author": "Azure Dev",
"source": "https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azd-starter-bicep",
"tags": ["bicep", "msft"]
},
{
"title": "Starter - Terraform",
"description": "A starter template with Terraform as infrastructure provider",
"preview": "./templates/images/test.png",
"website": "https://github.com/Azure/azure-dev",
"author": "Azure Dev",
"source": "https://github.com/Azure-Samples/azd-starter-terraform",
"tags": ["terraform", "msft"]
}
}
azd allows you to enable multiple template source at a time. The following template source options are currently available to choose from:
- awesome-azd - A list of the templates from the Awesome AZD gallery that is enabled by default.
- default - A small set of curated templates to demonstrate different tech stacks.
- file - A local/network path that points to a template source JSON configuration file.
- url - An HTTP(S) addressable path that points to a template source JSON configuration file.
- gh - Points to a GitHub repository.
- ade - Points to an Azure Deployment Environment template list. Learn more about Azure Developer CLI support for Azure Deployment Environments.
Work with template sources
azd provides several commands to configure template sources.
Use the azd template source list command to list all currently configured template sources:
azd template source list
Example output with two configured template sources:
Key Name Type Location
awesome-azd Awesome AZD awesome-azd https://aka.ms/awesome-azd/templates.json
default Default resource
Use the azd template source add command to add a new template source. This command accepts the following parameters:
- key: The technical name of the template source.
- --type, -t: The template source type - valid values are file, url and gh for GitHub.
- --location, -l: The template source location, which should be a local network or HTTP(S) web URI.
- --displayName, -n: The template source display name (optional, will use key if omitted).
azd template source add <key> --type <file-or-url> --location <your-uri> --displayname <your-display-name>
Use the azd template source remove command to remove a template source:
azd template source remove <key>
Use the azd config reset command to reset the template configuration back to default settings:
azd config reset
Work with template lists
After you configure your template sources, use the azd template list command to list the available templates from those sources:
azd template list
For example, a default installation of azd lists the following templates from the awesome-azd template source:
Name Source Repository Path
Event Driven Java Application with Azure Service Bus Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/ASA-Samples-Event-Driven-Application
Static React Web App with Java API and PostgreSQL Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/ASA-Samples-Web-Application
SAP CAP on Azure App Service Quickstart Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/app-service-javascript-sap-cap-quickstart
SAP Cloud SDK on Azure App Service Quickstart (TypeScript) Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/app-service-javascript-sap-cloud-sdk-quickstart
Java Spring Apps with Azure OpenAI Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/app-templates-java-openai-springapps
WordPress with Azure Container Apps Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/apptemplate-wordpress-on-ACA
Bicep template to bootstrap Azure Deployment Environments Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/azd-deployment-environments
Starter - Bicep Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/azd-starter-bicep
Starter - Terraform Awesome AZD Azure-Samples/azd-starter-terraform
...
# Additional templates omitted
Include the --source flag to only list templates from a specific source:
azd template list --source <source-name>
To initialize a template from the displayed list, run the azd init command and provide the path of the template:
azd init --template <path-value>
Work with Azure Deployment Environments
The Azure Developer CLI (azd) also provides support for Azure Deployment Environments. An Azure Deployment Environment (ADE) is a preconfigured collection of Azure resources deployed in predefined subscriptions. Azure governance is applied to those subscriptions based on the type of environment, such as sandbox, testing, staging, or production. With Azure Deployment Environments, your can enforce enterprise security policies and provide a curated set of predefined infrastructure as code (IaC) templates.
ADE integration is beyond the scope of this article. Learn more about configuring ade support in the Azure Developer CLI support for Azure Deployment Environments documentation.