When to use the Azure Developer CLI

  • 6 minutes

The Azure Developer CLI (azd) provides value to both individuals and teams in various scenarios. The templated approach of the tool enables repeatable and predictable deployment scenarios that would otherwise require many manual steps. Some of the most common use cases for azd are as follows:

  • Streamlined journey to the cloud - azd accelerates the process of moving your app from a local development environment to Azure. By using existing azd templates, you can provision an app to a fully configured cloud environment in minutes. Developers who are unfamiliar with Azure workloads can rely on templates to complete most the work for them. This use case is especially valuable for environments with many Azure services or complex configuration requirements that are difficult to recreate manually.

  • Reusable and repeatable app infrastructure - azd templates makes it easy to share and redistribute both the source code and infrastructure scaffolding of your apps. They're a great fit for scenarios where you would like to include infrastructure as code resources with your app. For example, if you're working on an open-source project or collaborating with other developers, azd provides an easy way to package up the entirety of your app and cloud infrastructure for others to easily use. Without azd, if another developer is unfamiliar with Azure, it would be very challenging for them to provision your app to the cloud for their own experimentation.

  • CI/CD for infrastructure and deployment - You can also use azd when you want to provision and deploy your infrastructure using CI/CD through platforms such as GitHub Actions or Azure Pipelines. Most azd templates include support for these workflows. As you make changes to your code or infrastructure templates, you can run commands such as azd provision and azd deploy to push those changes to Azure with a repeatable, reliable process.

Consider these scenarios when evaluating whether azd is a good fit for your team and project. Other developers are able to quickly provision and deploy the app to Azure if you convert your project to an azd template.