Get Started with Microsoft Agent Framework Azure Cosmos DB

Please install this package via pip:

pip install agent-framework-azure-cosmos --pre

Azure Cosmos DB History Provider

The Azure Cosmos DB integration provides CosmosHistoryProvider for persistent conversation history storage.

Basic Usage Example

from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential
from agent_framework_azure_cosmos import CosmosHistoryProvider

provider = CosmosHistoryProvider(
    endpoint="https://<account>.documents.azure.com:443/",
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
    database_name="agent-framework",
    container_name="chat-history",
)

Credentials follow the same pattern used by other Azure connectors in the repository:

• Pass a credential object (for example DefaultAzureCredential)
• Or pass a key string directly
• Or set AZURE_COSMOS_KEY in the environment

Container naming behavior:

• Container name is configured on the provider (container_name or AZURE_COSMOS_CONTAINER_NAME)
• session_id is used as the Cosmos partition key for reads/writes

See samples/02-agents/conversations/cosmos_history_provider.py for a runnable example.

Cosmos DB Workflow Checkpoint Storage

CosmosCheckpointStorage implements the CheckpointStorage protocol, enabling durable workflow checkpointing backed by Azure Cosmos DB NoSQL. Workflows can be paused and resumed across process restarts by persisting checkpoint state in Cosmos DB.

Basic Usage

Managed Identity / RBAC (recommended for production)

from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential
from agent_framework import WorkflowBuilder
from agent_framework_azure_cosmos import CosmosCheckpointStorage

checkpoint_storage = CosmosCheckpointStorage(
    endpoint="https://<account>.documents.azure.com:443/",
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential(),
    database_name="agent-framework",
    container_name="workflow-checkpoints",
)

Account Key

from agent_framework_azure_cosmos import CosmosCheckpointStorage

checkpoint_storage = CosmosCheckpointStorage(
    endpoint="https://<account>.documents.azure.com:443/",
    credential="<your-account-key>",
    database_name="agent-framework",
    container_name="workflow-checkpoints",
)

Then use with a workflow

from agent_framework import WorkflowBuilder

# Build a workflow with checkpointing enabled
workflow = WorkflowBuilder(
    start_executor=start,
    checkpoint_storage=checkpoint_storage,
).build()

# Run the workflow — checkpoints are automatically saved after each superstep
result = await workflow.run(message="input data")

# Resume from a checkpoint
latest = await checkpoint_storage.get_latest(workflow_name=workflow.name)
if latest:
    resumed = await workflow.run(checkpoint_id=latest.checkpoint_id)

Authentication Options

CosmosCheckpointStorage supports the same authentication modes as CosmosHistoryProvider:

• Managed identity / RBAC (recommended): Pass DefaultAzureCredential(), ManagedIdentityCredential(), or any Azure TokenCredential
• Account key: Pass a key string via credential parameter
• Environment variables: Set AZURE_COSMOS_ENDPOINT, AZURE_COSMOS_DATABASE_NAME, AZURE_COSMOS_CONTAINER_NAME, and AZURE_COSMOS_KEY (key not required when using Azure credentials)
• Pre-created client: Pass an existing CosmosClient or ContainerProxy

Database and Container Setup

The database and container are created automatically on first use (via create_database_if_not_exists and create_container_if_not_exists). The container uses /workflow_name as the partition key. You can also pre-create them in the Azure portal with this partition key configuration.

Environment Variables

See samples/03-workflows/checkpoint/cosmos_workflow_checkpointing.py for a standalone example, or samples/03-workflows/checkpoint/cosmos_workflow_checkpointing_foundry.py for an end-to-end example with Microsoft Foundry agents.