This post announces that the August 2024 release (version 1.9.6) of the Azure Developer CLI (azd) is now available. There was no blog post for the July releases of azd (versions 1.9.4 and 1.9.5) so we cover the changes from those releases in this post as well. As always, you can learn about how to get started with the Azure Developer CLI by visiting our documentation.

Here’s what’s new with azd:

• Revamped community calls
• New auth types for azd pipeline config with Azure Pipelines (azure-dev#3924)
• Deployment status tracking for Linux web apps (azure-dev#3965)
• Added managed identity support to azd auth login (azure-dev#3723)
• Alpha support for Windows Arm64 (azure-dev#3968)
• Alpha support for persistent session affinity and domains for Azure Container Apps (ACA) (azure-dev#3955)

Revamped community calls

In case you missed it, we recently changed the format of azd‘s monthly community calls. We still demo new features but we now spend most of each call focusing on you, our wonderful community! Each month, one or a few members of the community will show off the cool things they’re building with or within azd.

Not familiar with our community calls? Check out our July call on YouTube. We go live every fourth Wednesday of the month at Microsoft Azure Developers on YouTube.

Whether you’ve built something with an existing azd template, contributed to one of our open-source repositories (azure-dev or awesome-azd), or created a template, we want you to join a call and show your work to the community! To sign up, fill out this form and get scheduled to join a future call.

New authentication types for azd pipeline config with Azure Pipelines

azd pipeline config now offers support Federated Credentials for Azure Pipelines. You can use the flag --auth-type to specify the authentication type used.

One authentication method is federated. To use it, you can run azd pipeline config --auth-type federated. How does this work? First, azd creates a Service Principal (SP) in Microsoft Entra ID without any credential. The Azure Pipelines provider then creates a service connection using the SP details (clientId and TenantId) using endpointScheme := "WorkloadIdentityFederation". Once the service connection is created, azd uses the issuer and subject to create the federated credential for the SP.

The other authentication method is client-credentials. To use it, you can run azd pipeline config --auth-type client-credentials. How does it work? First, azd creates an SP in Microsoft Entra ID without any credential. Then azd creates a client secret credential for the SP. Then the Azure Pipelines provider creates a service connection using the SP details (clientId, secret, and TenantId) using endpointScheme = "ServicePrincipal".

Added managed identity support to azd auth login

We heard your requests and are happy to share that you can now use managed identity with azd auth login. Managed identity can be useful in cases where you’re running azd inside Azure (say as part of some deployment system you put together) as it eliminates the need for a long-lived service principal.

By default, --managed-identity uses the system-assigned managed identity, but --client-id can be passed to use a user-assigned one.

Alpha support for Windows Arm64 support

We now offer Alpha support for Windows Arm64. This feature was inspired by the release of Copilot + PC at Microsoft Build. You can now take full advantage of the Arm64 capabilities offered by the new Surface line of PCs. Arm64 support is considered an Alpha feature, so we don’t recommend using it for business-critical scenarios. We’ll still cross-build binaries on Windows x86_64. Further, the Arm64 version is now added to GitHub and Storage releases but there is not yet direct support for installers or other channels. The binary is in a .zip file.

To use the Arm64 version of azd, visit our GitHub release page and find the azd-windows-arm64-alpha.zip file under the “Assets” dropdown menu.

Alpha support for persistent session affinity and domains for Azure Container Apps (ACA)

With this feature, azd uses any existing custom domains from ACA before deploying an update for it. Persistence prevents the deletion of any manually configured custom domain from the Azure portal. To use this new feature, you can run azd config set alpha.aca.persistDomains on.

Other changes and enhancements

We also added smaller enhancements and fixed issues requested by users that should improve your experience working with the azd. Some notable changes include:

Other features for azd core:

• Support for swa-cli.config.json for Azure Static Web Apps (azure-dev#3553)

Bug fixes for azd core:

• (Aspire) fix panic when a project has no endpoints (azure-dev#4065)
• Fix error in retrieving cross resource group service plan (azure-dev#4074)
• Fix bug where windows logic app passed isLinuxWebApp (azure-dev#4073)
• Fix exposed ports for Aspire projects (azure-dev#3941)
• Adds missing namespace property to Helm configuration schema (azure-dev#3948)
• Fixes issue selected environment with different environment type (azure-dev#3942)
• Reset the reader in zip deployments (azure-dev#3985)

New Templates

New templates this month include:

• Serverless Azure OpenAI Quick Start with LlamaIndex (Python) authored by Marlene Mhangami
• Pinecone RAG Demo authored by Pinecone Team
• Build a Copilot app using Azure Cosmos DB for NoSQL, Azure OpenAI Service, Azure App Service, and Semantic Kernel authored by Azure Cosmos DB Content Team
• Serverless Azure OpenAI Quick Start with LlamaIndex (JavaScript) authored by Wassim Chegham
• Azure Serverless Template using Angular-standalone, Azure Functions App, Cosmos DB, and APIM authored by Ryan Niño Dizon

Do you have an azd template you’d like to share with the rest of the community? You can learn how to with our contributor guide.

Community contributions

We’d also like to extend a special thanks to the community contributors of this release:

• Yujia Sun:
  • Remove undesirable whitespace trimming in main.bicep app-host template (azure-dev#4180)
• kdestin
  • Resolve azd crash when using the ai.endpoint service host with Python 3.8 (azure-dev#4092)
• Yohan Lasorsa
  • Allow key vault to be used in template deployment (azure-dev#4055)
• Richard Roché
  • Update golangci-lint local installation install link (azure-dev#4053)

You can use the Azure Developer CLI from:

• Your terminal of choice on Windows, Linux, or macOS.
• Visual Studio Code or GitHub Codespaces by downloading the extension from the Marketplace, or installing it directly from the extension view (Ctrl + Shift + X for Windows or Cmd + Shift + X for macOS) in Visual Studio Code.
• Visual Studio by enabling the preview feature flag.
• You can learn more about the Azure Developer CLI from our official documentation.
• If you run into any problems or have suggestions, file an issue or start a discussion in the Azure Developer CLI repository. You can also try checking out our troubleshooting documentation.