Official agent skill

Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py

by microsoft in microsoft/skills

Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. An agent skill from microsoft/skills.

OfficialMITAuto-check passedDevOps & Cloud

Install Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py

skills CLI
$ npx skills add microsoft/skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py -a claude-code

Project install by default; add -g for ~/.claude/skills/.

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install microsoft/skills azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py --agent claude-code

Project scope by default; add --scope user for a personal install. Needs GitHub CLI 2.90.0 or later (public preview).

Manual copy
$ git clone --depth 1 https://github.com/microsoft/skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/.github/plugins/azure-sdk-python/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py .claude/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py && rm -rf skills-src

Use ~/.claude/skills/ instead of .claude/skills for a personal install. The folder must contain SKILL.md.

Claude Code skills documentation · loads skills from .claude/skills/

Facts

Skill name
azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py
GitHub stars
3.1k
Used in
5 other repos
Token cost
~2.6k tokens
SKILL.md length
461 words
Files
3 (incl. references)
Skills in repo
150
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
MIT

At a glance

Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. An agent skill from microsoft/skills.

  • Works in 3 steps: Begin Analysis — Start the analysis… → Poll for Results — Poll until analysis… → Process Results — Extract structured…
  • Multimodal content extraction from documents
  • SKILL.md covers Installation, Environment Variables, Authentication & Lifecycle and Core Workflow, plus 14 more sections
  • Calls pip; reaches learn.microsoft.com; needs AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS

What it does

Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py is an agent skill from microsoft/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. Use for multimodal content extraction from documents, images, audio, and video. Triggers: "azure-ai-contentunderstanding", "ContentUnderstandingClient", "multimodal analysis", "document extraction", "video analysis", "audio transcription".

Its SKILL.md is about 2.6k tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. The skill folder holds 3 other files, including reference files (for example `references/capabilities.md` and `references/non-hero-scenarios.md`).

It sits in DevOps & Cloud, covering Transcription. It works with Microsoft Azure, Python and Visual Studio Code. The repository describes itself as: Skills, MCP servers, Custom Agents, Agents.md for SDKs to ground Coding Agents. The licence is MIT.

When your agent uses it

  • Multimodal content extraction from documents
  • Tasks that involve Transcription

Example prompts

  • “azure-ai-contentunderstanding”
  • “ContentUnderstandingClient”
  • “multimodal analysis”
  • “/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py”

Requirements

  • Python 3

Workflow steps

3 steps, taken from the first numbered list in SKILL.md.

  1. Begin Analysis — Start the analysis operation with begin_analyze() (returns a poller)
  2. Poll for Results — Poll until analysis completes (SDK handles this with .result())
  3. Process Results — Extract structured results from AnalyzeResult.contents

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit 3898ec8. It shows what the files ask for, not the result of running them.

  • Tool permissions

    Pre-approves nothing: there is no allowed-tools line, so your agent's usual permission prompts apply.

    From allowed-tools in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

  • Runs code

    Shell commands in SKILL.md call:

    • pip

    From the folder's file list and the shell code blocks in SKILL.md.

  • Network

    Hosts in commands or code, which the agent is likely to contact:

    • learn.microsoft.com

    From URLs in SKILL.md, links to its own repository left out.

  • Credentials

    Names these keys or tokens, usually read from environment variables:

    • AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS

    From names ending in _API_KEY, _TOKEN, _SECRET, _KEY or _PASSWORD in SKILL.md.

Context cost

Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py loads about 2.6k tokens when it runs, and up to ~4.5k if it reads all its reference files. Until then it costs about 80 tokens; SKILL.md has 461 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~80
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~2.6k
With references · SKILL.md plus every file in references/, read only if the agent opens them
~4.5k

Estimates: characters ÷ 4, the usual rule of thumb; real counts depend on the model's tokenizer. Scripts and assets cost tokens only if the agent reads them.

Safety

Auto-check passed

The automated check found no risky patterns in SKILL.md.

Automated static check — not a guarantee. Review scripts before installing. It scans the text of SKILL.md for risky patterns (piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files, hidden Unicode, destructive commands); files beside SKILL.md are not scanned.

SKILL.md

The full file from microsoft/skills at commit 3898ec8, republished under its MIT licence (© microsoft). 461 words, ~2,628 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder). This skill also uses 2 other files; get the full folder from GitHub.
name
azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py
description
Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. Use for multimodal content extraction from documents, images, audio, and video. Triggers: "azure-ai-contentunderstanding", "ContentUnderstandingClient", "multimodal analysis", "document extraction", "video analysis", "audio transcription".
license
MIT
metadata.author
Microsoft
metadata.version
1.0.0
metadata.package
azure-ai-contentunderstanding

Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python

Multimodal AI service that extracts semantic content from documents, video, audio, and image files for RAG and automated workflows.

Installation

bash
pip install azure-ai-contentunderstanding

Environment Variables

bash
CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT=https://<resource>.cognitiveservices.azure.com/  # Required for all auth methods
AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod # Required only if DefaultAzureCredential is used in production

Authentication & Lifecycle

🔑 Two rules apply to every code sample below:

  1. Prefer DefaultAzureCredential. It works locally (Azure CLI / VS Code / Developer CLI) and in Azure (managed identity, workload identity) with no code change. Avoid connection strings, account/API keys — they bypass Entra audit and rotation.
    • Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential works as-is.
    • Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod (or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>) to constrain the credential chain to production-safe credentials.
  2. Wrap every client in a context manager so HTTP transports, sockets, and token caches are released deterministically:
    • Sync: with <Client>(...) as client:
    • Async: async with <Client>(...) as client: and async with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential: (from azure.identity.aio)

Snippets may abbreviate this setup, but production code should always follow both rules.

python
import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential, ManagedIdentityCredential

endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
# Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential. Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>
credential = DefaultAzureCredential(require_envvar=True)
# Or use a specific credential directly in production:
# See https://learn.microsoft.com/python/api/overview/azure/identity-readme?view=azure-python#credential-classes
# credential = ManagedIdentityCredential()
with ContentUnderstandingClient(endpoint=endpoint, credential=credential) as client:
    analyzers = list(client.list_analyzers())

Core Workflow

Content Understanding operations are asynchronous long-running operations:

  1. Begin Analysis — Start the analysis operation with begin_analyze() (returns a poller)
  2. Poll for Results — Poll until analysis completes (SDK handles this with .result())
  3. Process Results — Extract structured results from AnalyzeResult.contents

Prebuilt Analyzers

AnalyzerContent TypePurpose
prebuilt-documentSearchDocumentsExtract markdown for RAG applications
prebuilt-imageSearchImagesExtract content from images
prebuilt-audioSearchAudioTranscribe audio with timing
prebuilt-videoSearchVideoExtract frames, transcripts, summaries
prebuilt-invoiceDocumentsExtract invoice fields

Analyze Document

python
import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
with ContentUnderstandingClient(
    endpoint=endpoint,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
) as client:
    # Analyze document from URL
    poller = client.begin_analyze(
        analyzer_id="prebuilt-documentSearch",
        inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/document.pdf")]
    )

    result = poller.result()

    # Access markdown content (contents is a list)
    content = result.contents[0]
    print(content.markdown)

Access Document Content Details

python
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import MediaContentKind, DocumentContent

content = result.contents[0]
if content.kind == MediaContentKind.DOCUMENT:
    document_content: DocumentContent = content  # type: ignore
    print(document_content.start_page_number)

Analyze Image

python
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-imageSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/image.jpg")]
)
result = poller.result()
content = result.contents[0]
print(content.markdown)

Analyze Video

python
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-videoSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/video.mp4")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access video content (AudioVisualContent)
content = result.contents[0]

# Get transcript phrases with timing
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
    print(f"[{phrase.start_time} - {phrase.end_time}]: {phrase.text}")

# Get key frames (for video)
for frame in content.key_frames:
    print(f"Frame at {frame.time}: {frame.description}")

Analyze Audio

python
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="prebuilt-audioSearch",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/audio.mp3")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access audio transcript
content = result.contents[0]
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
    print(f"[{phrase.start_time}] {phrase.text}")

Custom Analyzers

Create custom analyzers with field schemas for specialized extraction:

python
# Create custom analyzer
analyzer = client.create_analyzer(
    analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
    analyzer={
        "description": "Custom invoice analyzer",
        "base_analyzer_id": "prebuilt-documentSearch",
        "field_schema": {
            "fields": {
                "vendor_name": {"type": "string"},
                "invoice_total": {"type": "number"},
                "line_items": {
                    "type": "array",
                    "items": {
                        "type": "object",
                        "properties": {
                            "description": {"type": "string"},
                            "amount": {"type": "number"}
                        }
                    }
                }
            }
        }
    }
)

# Use custom analyzer
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput

poller = client.begin_analyze(
    analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
    inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/invoice.pdf")]
)

result = poller.result()

# Access extracted fields
print(result.fields["vendor_name"])
print(result.fields["invoice_total"])

Analyzer Management

python
# List all analyzers
analyzers = client.list_analyzers()
for analyzer in analyzers:
    print(f"{analyzer.analyzer_id}: {analyzer.description}")

# Get specific analyzer
analyzer = client.get_analyzer("prebuilt-documentSearch")

# Delete custom analyzer
client.delete_analyzer("my-custom-analyzer")

Async Client

python
import asyncio
import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.aio import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential

async def analyze_document():
    endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
    async with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential:
        async with ContentUnderstandingClient(
            endpoint=endpoint,
            credential=credential
        ) as client:
            poller = await client.begin_analyze(
                analyzer_id="prebuilt-documentSearch",
                inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/doc.pdf")]
            )
            result = await poller.result()
            content = result.contents[0]
            return content.markdown

asyncio.run(analyze_document())

Content Types

ClassForProvides
DocumentContentPDF, images, Office docsPages, tables, figures, paragraphs
AudioVisualContentAudio, video filesTranscript phrases, timing, key frames

Both derive from MediaContent which provides basic info and markdown representation.

Show full SKILL.md (181 more words)Show less

Model Imports

python
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import (
    AnalyzeInput,
    AnalyzeResult,
    MediaContentKind,
    DocumentContent,
    AudioVisualContent,
)

Client Types

ClientPurpose
ContentUnderstandingClientSync client for all operations
ContentUnderstandingClient (aio)Async client for all operations

Best Practices

  1. Pick sync OR async and stay consistent. Do not mix azure.ai.contentunderstanding sync clients with azure.ai.contentunderstanding.aio async clients in the same call path. Choose one mode per module.
  2. Always use context managers for clients and async credentials. Wrap every client in with ContentUnderstandingClient(...) as client: (sync) or async with ContentUnderstandingClient(...) as client: (async). For async DefaultAzureCredential from azure.identity.aio, also use async with credential: so tokens and transports are cleaned up.
  3. Use begin_analyze with AnalyzeInput — this is the correct method signature
  4. Access results via result.contents[0] — results are returned as a list
  5. Use prebuilt analyzers for common scenarios (document/image/audio/video search)
  6. Create custom analyzers only for domain-specific field extraction
  7. Use async client for high-throughput scenarios with azure.identity.aio credentials
  8. Handle long-running operations — video/audio analysis can take minutes
  9. Use URL sources when possible to avoid upload overhead

Reference Files

FileContents
references/capabilities.mdAdditional non-hero capabilities, operation-group coverage, and production checklists.
references/non-hero-scenarios.mdDedicated non-hero examples for secondary/advanced scenarios.

© microsoft, MIT. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

SKILL.md and 2 other files (references) in .github/plugins/azure-sdk-python/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py of microsoft/skills.

  • SKILL.md
  • references/capabilities.md
  • references/non-hero-scenarios.md

Open the folder on GitHubat commit 3898ec8

Used in 5 other repositories

We found 14 copies of this SKILL.md (exact, near-identical or edited) in other folders, from 5 other GitHub owners. This page covers the copy in microsoft/skills, which our catalogue first saw on October 7, 2026.

Compare with similar skills

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Questions about Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py

What does Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py do?

Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. An agent skill from microsoft/skills. Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py is an agent skill from microsoft/skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python.

When should I use Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py?

Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py fits situations like: multimodal content extraction from documents; tasks that involve Transcription.

How do I install Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add microsoft/skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/plugins/azure-sdk-python/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py in microsoft/skills) into .claude/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py in Codex?

Run `npx skills add microsoft/skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (.github/plugins/azure-sdk-python/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py in microsoft/skills) into .agents/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py in Cursor, Gemini CLI or GitHub Copilot?

Cursor, Gemini CLI, GitHub Copilot and OpenCode also load SKILL.md folders. With the skills CLI, run `npx skills add microsoft/skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py -a cursor` (or -a gemini-cli, github-copilot or opencode for the others). To copy it by hand, put the folder in .cursor/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py, .gemini/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py, .github/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py and .opencode/skills/azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py in your project.

What does Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py need to run?

Going by SKILL.md and its folder, Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py needs the command-line tools its instructions call (pip) and credentials named AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS. Our summary lists: Python 3.

Does Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py access the network?

SKILL.md names 1 domain. In commands or code: learn.microsoft.com; the agent is likely to contact it when it follows the instructions. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py safe to install?

Our automated static check of SKILL.md found no risky patterns, such as piping downloads into a shell, reading credential files or hidden Unicode. It is not a guarantee. Review the folder before installing.

What licence does Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py use?

Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py is published under the MIT licence (declared in SKILL.md). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py use?

About 2.6k tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 11k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full. Its references folder adds about 1.9k tokens, read only when the agent opens those files.

What are the alternatives to Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py: Verify (lkmeta/txtify, 135 stars), Azure AI Transcription Py (aiskillstore/marketplace, 430 stars), Azure Architecture Autopilot (github/awesome-copilot, 40k stars) and Terraform Azurerm Set Diff Analyzer (github/awesome-copilot, 40k stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Azure AI Contentunderstanding Py?

microsoft (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in microsoft/skills, which has 3,094 GitHub stars. The repository holds 150 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 9, 2026.

Source: microsoft/skills on GitHub. Facts on this page come from the repository at the commit we read; the author's words are quoted as theirs.