az-scout 2026.2.5

Azure SKU scout — explore availability zones, capacity, pricing, and plan VM deployments across subscriptions

az-scout

Scout Azure regions for VM availability, zone mappings, pricing, spot scores, and quota — then plan deployments with confidence.

az-scout helps you compare how Azure maps logical Availability Zones to physical zones across subscriptions, evaluate SKU capacity and pricing, and generate deterministic deployment plans — all from a single web UI or MCP-powered AI agent.

Quick start

# Make sure you are authenticated to Azure
az login

# Run the tool (no install required)
uvx az-scout

Your browser opens automatically at http://127.0.0.1:5001.

CLI options

az-scout [COMMAND] [OPTIONS]

az-scout web (default)

Run the web UI. This is the default when no subcommand is given.

  --host TEXT     Host to bind to.  [default: 127.0.0.1]
  --port INTEGER  Port to listen on.  [default: 5001]
  --no-open       Don't open the browser automatically.
  -v, --verbose   Enable verbose logging.
  --reload        Auto-reload on code changes (development only).
  --help          Show this message and exit.

az-scout mcp

Run the MCP server.

  --sse           Use SSE transport instead of stdio.
  --port INTEGER  Port for SSE transport.  [default: 8080]
  -v, --verbose   Enable verbose logging.
  --help          Show this message and exit.

Alternative install

pip install az-scout
az-scout

Prerequisites

Requirement	Details
Python	≥ 3.11
Azure credentials	Any method supported by DefaultAzureCredential (az login, managed identity, …)
RBAC	Reader on the subscriptions you want to query

Features

• Region selector – AZ-enabled regions, loaded automatically.
• Subscription picker – searchable, multi-select.
• Collapsible sidebar – toggle the filter panel to maximize the results area.
• Graph view – D3.js bipartite diagram (Logical Zone → Physical Zone), colour-coded per subscription with interactive hover highlighting.
• Table view – comparison table with consistency indicators.
• SKU availability view – shows VM SKU availability per physical zone with vCPU quota usage (limit / used / remaining) and CSV export.
• Spot Placement Scores – evaluate the likelihood of Spot VM allocation (High / Medium / Low) per SKU for a given region and instance count, powered by the Azure Compute RP.
• Deployment Confidence Score – a composite 0–100 score per SKU estimating deployment success probability, synthesised from quota headroom, Spot Placement Score, availability zone breadth, restrictions, and price pressure signals. Missing signals are automatically excluded with weight renormalisation. The score updates live when Spot Placement Scores arrive.
• Deployment Plan – agent-ready POST /api/deployment-plan endpoint that evaluates (region, SKU) combinations against zones, quotas, spot scores, pricing, and restrictions. Returns a deterministic, ranked plan with business and technical views (no LLM, no invention — missing data is flagged explicitly).
• Export – download the graph as PNG or the tables as CSV.
• Shareable URLs – filters are reflected in the URL; reload or share a link to restore the exact view.
• MCP server – expose all capabilities as MCP tools for AI agents (see below).

MCP server

An MCP server is included, allowing AI agents (Claude Desktop, VS Code Copilot, etc.) to query zone mappings and SKU availability directly.

Available tools

Tool	Description
list_tenants	Discover Azure AD tenants and authentication status
list_subscriptions	List enabled subscriptions (optionally scoped to a tenant)
list_regions	List regions that support Availability Zones
get_zone_mappings	Get logical→physical zone mappings for subscriptions in a region
get_sku_availability	Get VM SKU availability per zone with restrictions, capabilities, and vCPU quota per family
get_spot_scores	Get Spot Placement Scores (High / Medium / Low) for a list of VM sizes in a region

get_sku_availability supports optional filters to reduce output size: name, family, min_vcpus, max_vcpus, min_memory_gb, max_memory_gb.

Usage

stdio transport (default – for Claude Desktop, VS Code, etc.)

az-scout mcp

Add to your MCP client configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "az-scout": {
      "command": "az-scout",
      "args": ["mcp"]
    }
  }
}

If using uv:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "az-scout": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["az-scout", "mcp"]
    }
  }
}

SSE transport

az-scout mcp --sse --port 8080

Deployment Plan API

The POST /api/deployment-plan endpoint provides a deterministic decision engine for deployment planning. It is designed for Sales / Solution Engineers and AI agents: no LLM is involved — every decision traces back to real Azure data.

Request

{
  "subscriptionId": "xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx",
  "regionConstraints": {
    "allowRegions": ["francecentral", "westeurope"],
    "dataResidency": "EU"
  },
  "skuConstraints": {
    "preferredSkus": ["Standard_D2s_v3", "Standard_E8s_v4"],
    "requireZonal": true
  },
  "scale": { "instanceCount": 4 },
  "pricing": {
    "currencyCode": "EUR",
    "preferSpot": true,
    "maxHourlyBudget": 2.0
  },
  "timing": { "urgency": "now" }
}

Response (abbreviated)

{
  "summary": {
    "recommendedRegion": "francecentral",
    "recommendedSku": "Standard_D2s_v3",
    "recommendedMode": "zonal",
    "riskLevel": "low",
    "confidenceScore": 85
  },
  "businessView": {
    "keyMessage": "Standard_D2s_v3 in francecentral is recommended ...",
    "reasons": ["Available in 3 availability zone(s).", "Sufficient quota ..."],
    "risks": [],
    "mitigations": [],
    "alternatives": [{ "region": "westeurope", "sku": "Standard_E8s_v4", "reason": "..." }]
  },
  "technicalView": {
    "evaluation": { "regionsEvaluated": ["francecentral", "westeurope"], "perRegionResults": [] },
    "dataProvenance": { "evaluatedAt": "...", "cacheTtl": {}, "apiVersions": {} }
  },
  "warnings": ["Spot placement score is probabilistic and not a guarantee."],
  "errors": []
}

Note: Spot placement scores are probabilistic and not a guarantee of allocation. Quota values are dynamic and may change between planning and actual deployment.

How it works

The backend calls the Azure Resource Manager REST API to fetch:

• Zone mappings: availabilityZoneMappings from /subscriptions/{id}/locations endpoint
• Resource SKUs: SKU details from /subscriptions/{id}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/skus endpoint with zone restrictions and capabilities
• Compute Usages: vCPU quota per VM family from /subscriptions/{id}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/locations/{region}/usages endpoint (cached for 10 minutes, with retry on throttling and graceful handling of 403)
• Spot Placement Scores: likelihood indicators for Spot VM allocation from /subscriptions/{id}/providers/Microsoft.Compute/locations/{region}/placementScores/spot/generate endpoint (batched in chunks of 100, sequential execution with retry/back-off, cached for 10 minutes). Note: these scores reflect the probability of obtaining a Spot VM allocation, not datacenter capacity.

The frontend renders the results as an interactive graph, comparison table, and SKU availability table with quota columns.

API documentation is available at /docs (Swagger UI) and /redoc (ReDoc) when the server is running.

License

MIT