Azure Functions Agents Base Extension

Framework-neutral provider and lifecycle contracts for Python Agent integrations with Azure Functions.

This package is infrastructure for provider extensions. Applications should install a provider package such as azurefunctions-agents-extensions-agent-framework.

Provider contract

Provider packages register a zero-argument factory in the azurefunctions.agents.extensions.providers entry-point group. The entry-point name is the provider ID. The factory returns an AgentProvider with a matching provider_id, its distribution name, and a compile_binding() implementation.

compile_binding() receives the complete markdown instructions, logical Agent name, immutable provider options, injected parameter annotation, and an AgentCapabilities bundle. Providers declare supported_capabilities and translate neutral Skill/MCP definitions into their own runtime objects. The compiled recipe creates a fresh Agent context for each invocation and can run an Agent from a Durable activity.

Applications import the app class supplied by a provider package. Each Agent Function App uses one provider, configured when the app is constructed. Provider discovery is cached, while live Agents and clients are never cached.

Provider defaults are app-scoped. Binding options override defaults only for that binding. The app root is configured once when the provider app is constructed, or inferred from AzureWebJobsScriptRoot and then the current directory; decorators cannot override it.

Markdown lookup

An agent_name resolves exactly one UTF-8 file:

<app_root>/<agent_name>.agent.md
<app_root>/agents/<agent_name>.agent.md

The entire file is passed to the provider unchanged. Front matter, YAML, substitutions, tools, skills, MCP configuration, and history are not parsed by this package. If both locations exist, lookup fails as ambiguous. Absolute paths, separators, traversal components, and symlinks outside app_root are rejected.

Skills and MCP discovery

The base package discovers immutable definitions from the shared app root:

skills/<skill-name>/SKILL.md
mcp.json

Base discovery records safely contained directories that contain SKILL.md without reading or interpreting those files. Each provider owns Skill format parsing and validation. MCP servers must use http or streamable-http; local commands and stdio are rejected. Discovery does not execute scripts, resolve environment references, create credentials, or connect to servers.

Every Agent binding receives all valid Skills and MCP servers discovered from the app root. V1 has no app-level or per-binding capability selectors. Treat placing a definition under the app root as granting every Agent in that app access to it; use separate Function Apps when capabilities require isolation.

Only immutable definitions are retained in app state. Provider packages must create and close clients, credentials, tools, and other live resources within each invocation.

Durable support

Provider packages expose Durable support through their own [durable] extra. The base extra installs azure-functions-durable>=2.0.0b2; normal imports do not import or require Durable Functions. DurableAgentContext.call_agent() schedules a hidden activity with a deterministic, JSON-only payload and always uses the AgentFunctionApp provider. All file, client, Agent, model, and tool I/O occurs in the activity, never in the orchestrator.