Welcome to the round up of the azd releases in January 2026! This blog post (covers release versions 1.23.0, 1.23.1, 1.23.2) packed with updates: improved configuration management, enhanced authentication, and performance improvements.
Whether you’re managing multiple environments, working in multitenant scenarios, or just looking for faster workflows, this release has something for you. As always, we’d love to hear your thoughts—join us in the January release discussion on GitHub.
Highlights:
- New configuration management commands for better control over azd settings
- Enhanced environment-specific configuration capabilities
- Cross-tenant authentication support for remote state
- Automatic notifications for available extension updates
- Podman support as fallback container runtime
- Performance improvements with file-based caching
- Breaking changes: removed deprecated commands and Azure Spring Apps support
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New features
⚙️ Configuration management
This release enhances configuration management capabilities, making it easier to discover and manage azd settings at both global and environment-specific levels.
- Configuration options command: New
azd config optionscommand lists all available configuration settings with descriptions, making it easier to discover and understand available options. [#6390] - Environment-specific configuration: New
azd env configcommands enable environment-specific configuration management, allowing you to set different configurations for different environments (dev, staging, production, etc.). [#6348] - Enhanced environment management: New
azd env removecommand allows deleting local environment configuration files cleanly. [#6511]
🔐 Authentication and security
- Cross-tenant authentication: Added support for cross-tenant authentication when using remote environment state in Azure Blob Storage, enabling more flexible multitenant scenarios. [#6441]
- Authentication status: New
azd auth statuscommand displays current authentication status, making it easier to verify credentials and troubleshoot authentication issues. [#6377]
🚀 Performance and infrastructure
- File-based caching: Added file-based caching to
azd showfor approximately 60x performance improvement, dramatically speeding up resource inspection operations. [#6418] - Podman support: Added Podman support as fallback container runtime when Docker is unavailable, providing more flexibility in containerized environments. [#6436]
- Infrastructure provider auto-detection: Automatically detects infrastructure provider (Bicep/Terraform) from infra directory files when not explicitly specified, streamlining project setup. [#6461]
✨ Developer experience
- Extension update notifications: When customers run extension commands, azd checks if a newer version is available and displays an update warning with upgrade instructions. The check runs in parallel without adding latency, using registry caching with 4-hour TTL (time to live) and a 24-hour warning cooldown per extension. [#6512]
- Property-level change details: Added property-level change details in
azd provision --previewoutput for Bicep deployments, providing more granular visibility into infrastructure changes. [#6262] - Non-Aspire projects support: Added support for non-Aspire projects in Visual Studio connected services, expanding IDE integration capabilities. [#5536]
🎁 Other enhancements
- GitHub CLI update: Updated GitHub CLI tool version to 2.86.0. [#6579]
Breaking changes
Deprecated commands removed
As announced in previous releases, the following deprecated commands are removed:
- Login commands: Removed deprecated
azd loginandazd logoutcommands in favor ofazd auth loginandazd auth logout. Users must update scripts and workflows to use theazd authsubcommands. [#6395]
Azure Spring Apps
- Support discontinued: Azure Spring Apps support is removed from
azd. Projects using Azure Spring Apps need to migrate to alternative hosting solutions like Azure Container Apps or Azure App Service. [#6369]
🪲 Bugs fixed
Extension and configuration fixes
- Extension configuration properties: Fixed extension configuration properties support by adding AdditionalProperties fields to project and service configurations. [#6481]
- Extension command failures and update notifications: Fixed extension commands failing after update notification is displayed, and fixed update notification cooldown being recorded even when warning isn’t shown. [#6604]
- Extension error messages: Improved extension error messages by including error suggestion text. [#6588]
- Extension installation: Fixed
azd ext install --forceto properly reinstall extensions when version matches. [#6435]
Deployment and infrastructure
- Bicep CLI path: Fixed Bicep CLI uninitialized path causing container app deployments to fail. [#6610]
- Resource display names: Fixed
azd downto dynamically resolve resource display names. [#6452] - Deployment state handling: Fixed
azd downto handle deployment state correctly when resources are manually deleted. [#6267] - Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) deployment schema: Fixed AKS deployment schema to allow Helm deployments without project field. [#6444]
Authentication and URL handling
- GitHub URL parsing: Fixed GitHub URL parsing to check authentication before branch resolution. [#6478]
- Authentication handling: Improved authentication handling when not using built-in auth methods. [#5954]
Error handling
- Configuration loading: Fixed panic on middleware construction failure when loading invalid configuration files. [#6517]
- Context cancellation: Fixed context cancellation issue causing subsequent operations to fail after command steps complete. [#6536]
- Workflow step errors: Fixed context canceled errors in workflow steps. [#6446]
Resource management
- DocumentDB resources: Fixed Azure DocumentDB (mongoClusters) resources not being displayed in provisioning output. [#6527]
Other changes
- GitHub CLI update: Updated GitHub CLI tool version to 2.86.0. [#6579]
- Error telemetry: Improved error telemetry with specific error type classification. [#6389]
New docs
The Azure Developer CLI documentation continues to expand with updates and improvements:
- Proxy configuration guide (January 15): New comprehensive guide for configuring
azdto work with HTTP/HTTPS proxies, including corporate proxy scenarios and troubleshooting tips. Learn more - Device code authentication FAQ (January 26): Added guidance on device code authentication flow for scenarios where browser-based authentication isn’t available. Learn more
- azd publish command (January 23): New documentation for the
azd publishcommand, which separates publishing to container registries from deployment. Learn more
New templates
January brings an incredible surge of 23 new templates across the Awesome azd and AI App Template galleries! This month’s contributions showcase the growing adoption of Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers, multi-agent AI systems, and secure-by-default Azure integrations. A huge thank you to our amazing community contributors for sharing these production-ready solutions!
| Template | Contributor | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Azure MCP Server – ACA with Copilot Studio agent | Chunan Ye | Self-host Azure MCP Server on Container Apps with managed identity for Copilot Studio integration. |
| Agents and MCP Orchestration with Langchain.js, LlamaIndex.TS, and Microsoft Agent Framework | Microsoft DevRel | Multi-agent travel orchestration using LangChain.js, LlamaIndex.TS, and Microsoft Agent Framework with MCP servers. |
| MCP Container TS – Model Context Protocol in TypeScript | Microsoft DevRel | TypeScript MCP server reference with authentication, SQLite state, and OpenTelemetry tracing. |
| Azure MCP Server – ACA with Managed Identity | Anu Thomas | Self-host Azure MCP Server on Container Apps with managed identity for Microsoft Foundry agents. |
| Protect API Management with OAuth | Ronald Bosma | Secure API Management APIs with OAuth and Entra ID app registrations. |
| Call OAuth-Protected APIs on API Management with Managed Identity | Ronald Bosma | Call OAuth-protected APIs using managed identities from Functions, Logic Apps, and CI/CD pipelines. |
| Image search with Azure AI Search | Azure Content Team | Full-stack image search using Azure AI Vision embeddings and Azure AI Search vectorization. |
| Call API Management backend with OAuth | Ronald Bosma | Call OAuth-protected backend APIs through API Management using three authentication patterns. |
| Azure Functions C# Timer Trigger using Azure Developer CLI | Azure Functions Team | C# timer trigger quickstart with managed identity and virtual network on Flex Consumption. |
| FastAPI PostgreSQL on Azure Container Apps | Mark Anthony Estopace | FastAPI membership API on Container Apps with Azure Database for PostgreSQL. |
| Getting Started with Remote MCP Servers using Azure Functions (Java) | Azure Samples | Build and deploy secure Java MCP server on Azure Functions with OAuth and virtual network isolation. |
| Azure Storage Account with Blobs and File Share | Peter De Tender | Storage account with Blob, File Share, and sample Seattle scenery images. |
| Azure Monitor custom logs, and external telemetry | Karel De Winter | Log Analytics workspace with custom table for logs and external telemetry. |
| Building a Multi-Agent Support Triage System with AZD and Azure AI Foundry | Dave Rendon | Production-ready multi-agent support triage system using Azure AI Foundry Agent Service. |
| Azure Firewall Syslog Emulator for Microsoft Sentinel Training | Koenraad Haedens | Emulated firewall sending syslog messages to VM for Microsoft Sentinel training. |
| Product Catalog MCP Server | Peter De Tender | App Service MCP server with product catalog for Foundry or Copilot Studio. |
| BetterNotes – AI Document Analysis – Demo Scenario | Peter De Tender | Extract and transform text from PDFs, Word docs, and images using Document Intelligence. |
| AZD-based Azure VM Backup template | Peter De Tender | Windows VM backup demo with Recovery Services Vault. |
| Azure Routing Demo | Joerg Menne | Hub & Spoke VNet topology with Windows VMs for demonstrating peerings and route tables. |
| Getting Started with NLWeb Foundry | Heng-yi Liu | Natural language interface for websites deployed as Foundry agent using NLWeb. |
| Customer Chatbot Solution Accelerator | Travis Hilbert, Solomon Pickett, and Brittnee Keller | E-commerce chatbot with specialized agents for product recommendations and policy questions. |
| Real-Time Intelligence for Operations Solution Accelerator | Alvaro Guadamillas Herranz, Gaiye Zhou, and Seth Steenken | Manufacturing asset monitoring with real-time anomaly detection and notifications. |
| Multi Agent Banking Assistant | Davide Antelmo | Banking assistant for checking balances, transactions, and payments using Microsoft Agent Framework. |
🙋♀️ New to azd?
If you’re new to the Azure Developer CLI, azd is an open-source command-line tool that accelerates the time it takes to get your application from local development environment to Azure. azd provides best practice, developer-friendly commands that map to key stages in your workflow, whether you’re working in the terminal, your editor or CI/CD.
- Install azd
- Explore templates: Browse the Awesome azd template gallery and AI App Templates
- Learn more: Visit the official documentation and troubleshooting guide
- Get help: Visit the GitHub repository to file issues or start discussions
- Share your feedback: We’re interested in learning how you’re using
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