Official agent skill

Azure Cloud Shell

by MicrosoftDocs in MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills

Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security.

OfficialCC-BY-4.0Auto-check passedBackend & APIs

Install Azure Cloud Shell

skills CLI
$ npx skills add MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-cloud-shell -a claude-code

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

GitHub CLI
$ gh skill install MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills azure-cloud-shell --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/MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills.git skills-src && mkdir -p .claude/skills && cp -r skills-src/skills/azure-cloud-shell .claude/skills/azure-cloud-shell && 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-cloud-shell
GitHub stars
775
Token cost
~875 tokens
SKILL.md length
272 words
Files
1
Skills in repo
149
Repo updated
First seen
Licence
CC-BY-4.0

At a glance

Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security.

  • Handling Cloud Shell storage mounts
  • SKILL.md covers How to Use This Skill and Category Index
  • Instructions only: no scripts, shell commands, URLs or credentials in SKILL.md
  • File persistence

What it does

Azure Cloud Shell is an agent skill from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security. Use when handling Cloud Shell storage mounts, session limits, file persistence, private VNet access, or RBAC setup, and other Azure Cloud Shell related development tasks. Not for Azure Portal (use azure-portal), Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Virtual Desktop (use azure-virtual-desktop), Azure DevOps (use azure-devops).

Its SKILL.md is about 880 tokens, which your agent loads only when the skill is triggered. It is a single SKILL.md file with no bundled scripts. Compatibility notes: Requires network access. Uses mcpmicrosoftdocs:microsoftdocsfetch or fetchwebpage to retrieve documentation.

It sits in Backend & APIs, covering Authorization and RBAC. It works with Microsoft Azure and Azure DevOps. The repository describes itself as: Curated Agent Skills for Microsoft & Azure – giving AI coding assistants structured, real-time expertise from Microsoft Learn docs. The licence is CC-BY-4.0.

When your agent uses it

  • Handling Cloud Shell storage mounts
  • File persistence
  • Private VNet access
  • Other Azure Cloud Shell related development tasks

Example prompts

  • “/azure-cloud-shell”

Requirements

  • Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation.

What it can do on your machine

Read from SKILL.md and the folder at commit ba74e8f. 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

    No scripts in the folder and no shell commands in SKILL.md.

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

  • Network

    Links to these hosts (documentation or services it may open):

    • learn.microsoft.com
    • github.com

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

  • Credentials

    Names no API keys, tokens, secrets or passwords.

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

  • Compatibility

    Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation.

    From compatibility in the SKILL.md frontmatter.

Context cost

Azure Cloud Shell loads about 875 tokens when it runs. Until then it costs about 119 tokens; SKILL.md has 272 words of instructions outside code blocks.

Always · name and description, kept in context so the agent knows when to use it
~119
When it runs · the whole SKILL.md, loaded when a task matches
~875

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 MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills at commit ba74e8f, republished under its CC-BY-4.0 licence (© MicrosoftDocs). 272 words, ~875 tokens.

Download SKILL.mdSave it as .claude/skills/azure-cloud-shell/SKILL.md (or your agent's skills folder).
name
azure-cloud-shell
description
Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security. Use when handling Cloud Shell storage mounts, session limits, file persistence, private VNet access, or RBAC setup, and other Azure Cloud Shell related development tasks. Not for Azure Portal (use azure-portal), Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines), Azure Virtual Desktop (use azure-virtual-desktop), Azure DevOps (use azure-devops).
compatibility
Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation.
metadata.generated_at
2026-09-20
metadata.generator
docs2skills/1.0.0

Azure Cloud Shell Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Cloud Shell. Covers troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

How to Use This Skill

IMPORTANT for Agent: Use the Category Index below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., L35-L120), use read_file with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., [security.md](security.md)), use read_file on the linked reference file

IMPORTANT for Agent: If metadata.generated_at is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If mcp_microsoftdocs tools are not available, suggest the user install it: Installation Guide

This skill requires network access to fetch documentation content:

  • Preferred: Use mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch with query string from=learn-agent-skill. Returns Markdown.
  • Fallback: Use fetch_webpage with query string from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown. Returns Markdown.

Category Index

CategoryLinesDescription
TroubleshootingL31-L36Diagnosing and fixing common Cloud Shell errors, storage and connectivity issues, plus deployment and network problems when running Cloud Shell in private VNets.
Limits & QuotasL37-L41Details on Cloud Shell session duration, resource and storage limits, quotas, and how these constraints affect usage and persistence of files and settings.
SecurityL42-L47Securing Cloud Shell storage: configuring shared storage safely, using private endpoints, and setting RBAC for VNet-based Cloud Shell deployments.
Troubleshooting
TopicURL
Troubleshoot common Azure Cloud Shell issues and FAQshttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-shell/faq-troubleshooting
Troubleshoot Cloud Shell deployments in private VNetshttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-shell/vnet/troubleshooting
Limits & Quotas
TopicURL
Understand Azure Cloud Shell session and storage limitshttps://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-shell/overview
Security

© MicrosoftDocs, CC-BY-4.0. Rendered from Markdown: HTML in the file is shown as text, images as links, and headings moved down two levels. Raw file

Files

Just SKILL.md in skills/azure-cloud-shell of MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills.

Open the folder on GitHubat commit ba74e8f

Compare with similar skills

Azure Cloud Shell next to the 5 skills that share the most tags, products or categories with it. Stars are the repository's; “used in” counts other GitHub owners with a copy.

Azure Cloud Shell compared with similar skills
SkillStarsUsed inTokensAuto-checkLicenceRepo updated
Azure Cloud Shell this skillMicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills775—~875Automated safety check: PassCC-BY-4.0
Azure Resource Manager Cosmosdb Dotnetmicrosoft/skills3.1k5 repos~2.1kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Apex Azure Rbacjonathan-vella/apex217—~1.8kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Writing Bicep Templatesmicrosoft-foundry/foundry-agent-webapp127—~1.2kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Apex Entra App Registrationjonathan-vella/apex217—~1.3kAutomated safety check: PassMIT
Azure Key VaultKilo-Org/kilo-marketplace1891 repos~1.9kAutomated safety check: PassMIT

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Questions about Azure Cloud Shell

What does Azure Cloud Shell do?

Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security. Azure Cloud Shell is an agent skill from MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills, published by the product's own GitHub organization. Expert knowledge for Azure Cloud Shell development including troubleshooting, limits & quotas, and security.

When should I use Azure Cloud Shell?

Azure Cloud Shell fits situations like: handling Cloud Shell storage mounts; file persistence; private VNet access; other Azure Cloud Shell related development tasks.

How do I install Azure Cloud Shell in Claude Code?

Run `npx skills add MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-cloud-shell -a claude-code`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/azure-cloud-shell in MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills) into .claude/skills/azure-cloud-shell in your project. Claude Code loads it when a task matches its description.

How do I install Azure Cloud Shell in Codex?

Run `npx skills add MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-cloud-shell -a codex`. Or copy the skill folder (skills/azure-cloud-shell in MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills) into .agents/skills/azure-cloud-shell in your project. Codex loads it when a task matches its description.

Can I use Azure Cloud Shell 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 MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills --skill azure-cloud-shell -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-cloud-shell, .gemini/skills/azure-cloud-shell, .github/skills/azure-cloud-shell and .opencode/skills/azure-cloud-shell in your project.

What does Azure Cloud Shell need to run?

SKILL.md names no scripts, command-line tools or credentials: Azure Cloud Shell is instructions for the agent only. Compatibility (from SKILL.md): Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation..

Does Azure Cloud Shell access the network?

SKILL.md names 2 domains. As links in the text: learn.microsoft.com and github.com. This is read from the text; nothing was executed.

Is Azure Cloud Shell 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 Cloud Shell use?

Azure Cloud Shell is published under the CC-BY-4.0 licence (the repository's licence). It allows redistribution, so the full SKILL.md is shown on this page.

How many tokens does Azure Cloud Shell use?

About 875 tokens (SKILL.md is roughly 3.5k characters). Agents keep only the skill's name and description in context until a task matches; then they load SKILL.md in full.

What are the alternatives to Azure Cloud Shell?

Skills that share tags, products or a category with Azure Cloud Shell: Azure Resource Manager Cosmosdb Dotnet (microsoft/skills, 3.1k stars), Apex Azure Rbac (jonathan-vella/apex, 217 stars), Writing Bicep Templates (microsoft-foundry/foundry-agent-webapp, 127 stars) and Apex Entra App Registration (jonathan-vella/apex, 217 stars). The comparison table on this page puts their stars, adoption, token cost, safety result and licence side by side.

Who maintains Azure Cloud Shell?

MicrosoftDocs (a GitHub organization, an official publisher) maintains it in MicrosoftDocs/Agent-Skills, which has 775 GitHub stars. The repository holds 149 skills in this directory. The repository was last updated on October 5, 2026.

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