/azure-container-instances

name: azure-container-instances
description: Expert knowledge for Azure Container Instances development including troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. Use when configuring ACI standby pools, static IP networking, GPU containers, secure ACR pulls, or GitHub Actions deploys, and other Azure Container Instances related development tasks. Not for Azure Container Apps (use azure-container-apps), Azure Kubernetes Service (AKS) (use azure-kubernetes-service), Azure App Service (use azure-app-service), Azure Virtual Machines (use azure-virtual-machines).
compatibility: Requires network access. Uses mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch or fetch_webpage to retrieve documentation.
metadata:
  generated_at: "2026-08-02"
  generator: "docs2skills/1.0.0"

Azure Container Instances Skill

This skill provides expert guidance for Azure Container Instances. Covers troubleshooting, best practices, decision making, architecture & design patterns, limits & quotas, security, configuration, and deployment. It combines local quick-reference content with remote documentation fetching capabilities.

How to Use This Skill

> **IMPORTANT for Agent**: Use the **Category Index** below to locate relevant sections. For categories with line ranges (e.g., `L35-L120`), use `read_file` with the specified lines. For categories with file links (e.g., `[security.md](security.md)`), use `read_file` on the linked reference file

> **IMPORTANT for Agent**: If `metadata.generated_at` is more than 3 months old, suggest the user pull the latest version from the repository. If `mcp_microsoftdocs` tools are not available, suggest the user install it: [Installation Guide](https://github.com/MicrosoftDocs/mcp/blob/main/README.md)

This skill requires **network access** to fetch documentation content:

• **Preferred**: Use `mcp_microsoftdocs:microsoft_docs_fetch` with query string `from=learn-agent-skill`. Returns Markdown.
• **Fallback**: Use `fetch_webpage` with query string `from=learn-agent-skill&accept=text/markdown`. Returns Markdown.

Category Index

| Category | Lines | Description | |----------|-------|-------------| | Troubleshooting | L36-L42 | Diagnosing ACI issues using logs/events, understanding provisioning/runtime states, and troubleshooting deployment failures and container startup problems. | | Best Practices | L43-L47 | Guidance on designing and running ACI workloads reliably: resource sizing, networking, storage, security, scaling, image management, and operational best practices. | | Decision Making | L48-L53 | Guidance on cost-optimizing ACI with Spot containers and using prediction-based sizing to configure and right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools. | | Architecture & Design Patterns | L54-L60 | Design patterns for giving ACI containers static inbound/outbound IPs using Application Gateway, firewalls, and NAT Gateway for controlled, predictable network egress/ingress. | | Limits & Quotas | L61-L69 | ACI limits, quotas, and behaviors: max CPU/memory (Big Containers), per‑region quotas, standby pool limits, VNet constraints, and FAQs on scaling, performance, and resource usage. | | Security | L70-L84 | Securing Azure Container Instances: TLS/HTTPS setup, secrets and CMK encryption, managed identities/RBAC, secure ACR pulls, DNS reuse protection, and Azure Policy for compliance. | | Configuration | L85-L116 | Configuring ACI container groups: env vars, DNS, volumes, GPUs, probes, logging/monitoring, standby pools, restarts, entrypoints, updates, and runtime command execution. | | Deployment | L117-L120 | Using GitHub Actions to build, push, and automatically deploy container images to Azure Container Instances, including workflow YAML setup and authentication configuration. |

Troubleshooting

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Retrieve Azure Container Instances logs and events for troubleshooting | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-get-logs | | Troubleshoot Azure Container Instances deployment issues | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-troubleshooting | | Interpret Azure Container Instances provisioning and runtime states | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-state |

Best Practices

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Apply Azure Container Instances workload best practices | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-best-practices-and-considerations |

Decision Making

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Decide when to use ACI Spot containers for cost savings | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-spot-containers-overview | | Use prediction results to right-size Azure Container Instances standby pools | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-standby-pool-prediction-results |

Architecture & Design Patterns

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Expose Azure Container Instances via Application Gateway static IP | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-application-gateway | | Configure static outbound IP for Azure Container Instances with firewall | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-egress-ip-address | | Configure Azure Container Instances egress via NAT Gateway | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-nat-gateway |

Limits & Quotas

| Topic | URL | |-------|-----| | Use Big Containers with ACI vCPU and memory limits | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/big-containers | | Azure Container Instances FAQs on limits and behavior | https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/container-instances/container-instances-faq | | Check Azure Container Instances resource and quota limits | https://learn.mi