Microsoft Foundry Blog
Your source for learning and building with our models, agents, and tools.
Featured posts
Introducing the Microsoft Copilot harness in Foundry Agent Service
A model can reason about a task. Completing that task takes more: the right context, tools, execution environment, and controls, and an agent loop that brings t...
What’s new in Microsoft Foundry | September 2026
Explore September's models, Routines, Tool Search, Model Router, and Insights through one two-agent workflow that turns public releases into a Foundry developer...
Latest posts
Announcing Computer Use tool (Preview) in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service
Overview We are excited to announce Computer Use—are now available in preview in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service. It brings feature parity with the Azure OpenAI Responses API, but with the added advantage of seamless integration into the Foundry agent runtime and enterprise security. With this release, developers can create agents that not only reason over text, retrieve knowledge, or call APIs, but also directly interact with computer interfaces through natural language instructions. At launch, it is accessible through REST API and SDK, giving developers the flexibility to embed them directly into their applica...
What’s new in Azure AI Foundry | August 2025
August 2025 highlights GPT‑5 arrives in Foundry, Model Router adds GPT‑5 support, Responses API is GA, Browser Automation enters public preview, plus Sora updates, Mistral Document AI, FLUX image models, OpenAI gpt‑oss with Foundry Local, and SDK/documentation updates.
Unlocking GPT-5’s Freeform Tool Calling: A New Era of Seamless Integration
GPT-5 models are now available in Azure AI Foundry via Azure OpenAI. Designed for advanced reasoning and generation. One of the core capabilities of the model is tool calling, which enables it to interact with external systems by generating and sending raw text directly to tools. What Is Freeform Tool Calling in GPT-5? Freeform tool calling is a powerful capability in GPT-5 that allows the model to send raw text payloads like Python scripts, SQL queries, or configuration files directly to external tools without needing to wrap them in structured JSON. This means the model can generate code or text in the ...
Announcing the Browser Automation Tool (Preview) in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service
Overview Today, we are excited to announce the Browser Automation Tool (Preview) as the newest action tool in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service through API and SDK. This tool enables developers to build agents capable of performing real-world browser tasks—such as searching, navigating, filling forms, booking appointments, and more—through natural language prompts. Powered by Playwright Workspaces, Browser Automation Tool brings isolated, cloud-hosted browser automation to your AI agents, supporting multi-turn interactions that mimic a real user’s browsing experience. Key Benefits ...
What’s new in Azure AI Foundry | July 2025
July 2025 brings Deep Research Agent (public preview), GPT-image-1 model enhancements, new developer tools, and platform, security, and SDK updates to Azure AI Foundry.
Building AI Agents with the A2A .NET SDK
Learn how to build collaborative AI agents using the new A2A .NET SDK, enabling seamless communication and discovery between autonomous agents in the AI ecosystem.
What’s new in Azure AI Foundry | June 2025
Latest features and updates in Azure AI Foundry for June 2025, featuring major model releases, Agent Service GA, enhanced developer tools, and significant portal improvements.
Announcing Model Context Protocol Support (preview) in Azure AI Foundry Agent Service
Generative-AI agents only become useful when they can do things—query systems of record, trigger workflows, or look up specialized knowledge. Until now that meant hand-rolling Azure Functions, managing OpenAPI specs, or writing custom plug-ins for every backend you own. MCP changes the economics: it is an open, JSON-RPC–based protocol—originally proposed by Anthropic—that lets a “server” publish tools (functions) and resources (context) once and have any compliant “client” (your agent runtime) discover and call them automatically. Think “USB-C for AI integrations.” With today’s preview, Foundry Agent Serv...
codex-mini: Fast, Scalable Code Generation for the CLI Era
We’re announcing the general availability of Azure OpenAI’s codex-mini in Azure AI Foundry Models. codex-mini is a fine-tuned version of the o4-mini model, designed to deliver rapid, instruction-following performance for developers working in CLI workflows. Whether you're automating shell commands, editing scripts, or refactoring repositories, codex-mini brings speed, precision, and scalability to your terminal. Why codex-mini? For full pricing details across all Azure OpenAI models, visit the Azure OpenAI pricing. How to use Azure OpenAI cod...