Azure CLI is a cross-platform tool that simplifies managing Azure resources from the command line. Optimized for automation and ease of use, it supports interactive sessions and scripting with straightforward commands that integrate seamlessly with the Azure Resource Manager model. You can start using it in your browser with Azure Cloud Shell or install it locally to use from your preferred terminal.
Install or run in Azure Cloud ShellThe easiest way to try Azure CLI is through Azure Cloud Shell, a browser-based shell with no installation required. Cloud Shell supports Bash and PowerShell and comes with the latest version of Azure CLI preinstalled.
To install Azure CLI locally, see How to install Azure CLI.
To check your version, run:
az version
Sign in to Azure
To start using Azure CLI with a local install, sign in:
Run the az login
command.
az login
If Azure CLI can open your default browser, it initiates authorization code flow and opens the default browser to load an Azure sign-in page.
Otherwise, it initiates the device code flow and instructs you to open a browser page at https://aka.ms/devicelogin. Then, enter the code displayed in your terminal.
If no web browser is available or the web browser fails to open, you can force device code flow with az login --use-device-code
.
Sign in with your account credentials in the browser.
After you sign in, a list of your subscriptions appears. The one marked isDefault: true
is currently active. To change to a different subscription, run:
az account set --subscription "<subscription-id>"
For more information about subscription selection, see Manage Azure subscriptions. For advanced sign-in options, see Sign in with Azure CLI.
Find commandsAzure CLI commands are organized as command groups. Each group represents an area of an Azure service. There are two options to find command groups:
Use the az find command. For example, to search for command names containing vm
, use the following example:
az find vm
Use the --help
argument to get a complete list of subgroups within a reference group. The following example returns all subgroups for virtual machines:
az vm --help
The following example shows the relevant portion of the output.
Subgroups:
application : Manage applications for VM.
availability-set : Group resources into availability sets.
boot-diagnostics : Troubleshoot the startup of an Azure Virtual Machine.
...
The help output includes subgroups, parameters, authentication options, and examples.
Here's another example that finds the Azure CLI commands for grouping virtual machines into availability sets, a subgroup of az vm
:
az vm availability-set --help
You can also use --help
to get parameter lists and command examples for a reference command.
az vm create --help
Here is the relevant section of the example output:
Arguments
--name [Required] : Name of the virtual machine.
...
Authentication Arguments
--admin-password : Password for the VM if authentication type is 'Password'.
--admin-username : Username for the VM...
...
Managed Service Identity Arguments
...
Examples
Create a VM from a custom managed image.
az vm create -g MyResourceGroup -n MyVm --image MyImage
...
Use the reference index that lists all command groups alphabetically.
For usage examples, see:
The Samples index for Azure CLI examples by subject, reference group, or GitHub repo.
The Article index to find in-depth guides. Use your keyboard find
shortcut keys, like Ctrl + F
, to quickly find the reference command group in which you're interested. For example, the article index for az vm
looks like the following table:
Azure CLI supports tab completion in Bash. To enable it in PowerShell, see Enable tab completion in PowerShell.
Understand global argumentsCommon arguments available to most commands include:
Argument Description--help
View command help --output
Change output format: json
, jsonc
, tsv
, table
, yaml
--query
Filter output using JMESPath --verbose
Print more execution details --debug
Show low-level REST calls for debugging --subscription
Specify subscription name or ID --only-show-errors
Suppress noncritical output
For more information, see Output formats and Query results.
Use interactive modeRun interactive mode with:
az interactive
Interactive mode launches an enhanced Azure CLI experience with inline help and command suggestions. For more, see Interactive Mode.
An optional VS Code extension provides similar features with autocomplete and hover tips.
Learn through tutorials and quickstartsGet hands-on with Azure CLI basics using the onboarding tutorial. You learn how to:
We welcome your feedback. Submit issues on GitHub or run:
az feedback
See also
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