azure-openai-chat-completion-agent

title: Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion Agents
description: Learn how to use Microsoft Agent Framework with Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion service.
zone_pivot_groups: programming-languages
author: westey-m
ms.topic: tutorial
ms.author: westey
ms.date: 09/24/2025
ms.service: agent-framework

Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion Agents

Microsoft Agent Framework supports creating agents that use the [Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion](/azure/ai-foundry/openai/how-to/chatgpt) service.

::: zone pivot="programming-language-csharp"

Getting Started

Add the required NuGet packages to your project.

dotnet add package Azure.AI.OpenAI --prerelease
dotnet add package Azure.Identity
dotnet add package Microsoft.Agents.AI.OpenAI --prerelease

Create an Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion Agent

As a first step you need to create a client to connect to the Azure OpenAI service.

using System;
using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using OpenAI;

AzureOpenAIClient client = new AzureOpenAIClient(
    new Uri("https://<myresource>.openai.azure.com"),
    new AzureCliCredential());

Azure OpenAI supports multiple services that all provide model calling capabilities. Pick the ChatCompletion service to create a ChatCompletion based agent.

var chatCompletionClient = client.GetChatClient("gpt-4o-mini");

Finally, create the agent using the `AsAIAgent` extension method on the `ChatCompletionClient`.

AIAgent agent = chatCompletionClient.AsAIAgent(
    instructions: "You are good at telling jokes.",
    name: "Joker");
// Invoke the agent and output the text result.
Console.WriteLine(await agent.RunAsync("Tell me a joke about a pirate."));

Agent Features

Function Tools

You can provide custom function tools to Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion agents:

using System;
using System.ComponentModel;
using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;
using OpenAI;

var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT") ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT is not set.");
var deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME") ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

[Description("Get the weather for a given location.")]
static string GetWeather([Description("The location to get the weather for.")] string location)
    => $"The weather in {location} is cloudy with a high of 15°C.";

// Create the chat client and agent, and provide the function tool to the agent.
AIAgent agent = new AzureOpenAIClient(
    new Uri(endpoint),
    new AzureCliCredential())
     .GetChatClient(deploymentName)
     .AsAIAgent(instructions: "You are a helpful assistant", tools: [AIFunctionFactory.Create(GetWeather)]);

// Non-streaming agent interaction with function tools.
Console.WriteLine(await agent.RunAsync("What is the weather like in Amsterdam?"));

Streaming Responses

Get responses as they are generated using streaming:

AIAgent agent = chatCompletionClient.AsAIAgent(
    instructions: "You are good at telling jokes.",
    name: "Joker");

// Invoke the agent with streaming support.
await foreach (var update in agent.RunStreamingAsync("Tell me a joke about a pirate."))
{
    Console.Write(update);
}

Using the Agent

The agent is a standard `AIAgent` and supports all standard `AIAgent` operations.

For more information on how to run and interact with agents, see the [Agent getting started tutorials](../../../tutorials/overview.md).

::: zone-end ::: zone pivot="programming-language-python"

Configuration

Environment Variables

Before using Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion agents, you need to set up these environment variables:

export AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT="https://<myresource>.openai.azure.com"
export AZURE_OPENAI_CHAT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="gpt-4o-mini"

Optionally, you can also set:

export AZURE_OPENAI_API_VERSION="2024-10-21"  # Default API version
export AZURE_OPENAI_API_KEY="<your-api-key>"  # If not using Azure CLI authentication

Installation

Add the Agent Framework package to your project:

pip install agent-framework-core --pre

Getting Started

Authentication

Azure OpenAI agents use Azure credentials for authentication. The simplest approach is to use `AzureCliCredential` after running `az login`:

from azure.identity import AzureCliCredential

credential = AzureCliCredential()

Create an Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion Agent

Basic Agent Creation

The simplest way to create an agent is using the `AzureOpenAIChatClient` with environment variables:

import asyncio
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient
from azure.identity import AzureCliCredential

async def main():
    agent = AzureOpenAIChatClient(credential=AzureCliCredential()).as_agent(
        instructions="You are good at telling jokes.",
        name="Joker"
    )

    result = await agent.run("Tell me a joke about a pirate.")
    print(result.text)

asyncio.run(main())

Explicit Configuration

You can also provide configuration explicitly instead of using environment variables:

import asyncio
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient
from azure.identity import AzureCliCredential

async def main():
    agent = AzureOpenAIChatClient(
        endpoint="https://<myresource>.openai.azure.com",
        deployment_name="gpt-4o-mini",
        credential=AzureCliCredential()
    ).as_agent(
        instructions="You are good at telling jokes.",
        name="Joker"
    )

    result = await agent.run("Tell me a joke about a pirate.")
    print(result.text)

asyncio.run(main())

Agent Features

Function Tools

You can provide custom function tools to Azure OpenAI ChatCompletion agents:

import asyncio
from typing import Annotated
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient
from azure.identity import