GitHub Copilot for Azure now as a preview in Visual Studio 2022
With the help of the Azure MCP server, a range of curated Azure developer tools are now available for Copilot Chat in Visual Studio.
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Microsoft has announced that the Visual Studio extension GitHub Copilot for Azure has reached the public preview phase. It is available for Visual Studio 2022 from version 17.14 and offers new possibilities directly from the Copilot chat – thanks to Model Context Protocol (MCP).
The features of the extension
According to Microsoft's developer blog, GitHub Copilot for Azure offers a set of curated Azure developer tools that can be used via MCP within the GitHub Copilot agent mode in Visual Studio. The extension automatically installs and manages the Azure MCP server, allowing you to diagnose issues and execute Azure CLI commands, among other things. The tool suite allows interaction with numerous Azure components, including the Azure app configuration, the Azure CLI extensions, the Azure Container Registry (ACR) and the Azure Data Explorer.
Microsoft's example prompts include "Search a WebApp named '<appname>'. Has it recently had a downtime?" or "Find out which tenants I have access to and which I am currently using".
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Requirements and installation
To use the extension, Visual Studio 2022 17.4 is the minimum version. An active GitHub Copilot subscription and the Copilot chat activated in Visual Studio are also required. Finally, a Microsoft account with Azure access is also required.
If all conditions are met, GitHub Copilot for Azure for Visual Studio 2022 (Public Preview) can be downloaded and installed from the Visual Studio Marketplace. In Copilot Chat, developers then select Agent Mode, click on Select tools and select the corresponding checkbox to activate the Azure Extension. According to Microsoft, you should add details about resources (subscription, resource group and resource name) to the prompts to achieve better results.
(mai)
