apexbase

Imported from qprjack86/apexbase (AGENTS.md). Install upstream with npx skills add qprjack86/apexbase. Copyright stays with the author.

APEX

Agentic Platform Engineering eXperience for Azure. Verified. Well-Architected. Deployable.

A multi-agent orchestration system for Azure platform engineering. Specialized AI agents collaborate through a structured multi-step workflow: Requirements → Architecture → Design → Governance → Plan → Code → Deploy → Documentation.

Setup Commands

# Create your own repo from the Accelerator template:
#   https://github.com/jonathan-vella/azure-agentic-infraops-accelerator
# Then clone YOUR repo and open in dev container
git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/my-infraops-project.git
cd my-infraops-project
code .
# F1 → Dev Containers: Reopen in Container

# Install Node.js dependencies (validation scripts, linting)
npm install

# Python dependencies (Azure Pricing MCP server, diagrams)
pip install -r requirements.txt

Pre-installed Tools (Dev Container)

• Azure CLI (az) with Bicep extension
• Azure Developer CLI (azd) for standardized deployments
• Terraform CLI with TFLint
• GitHub CLI (gh)
• Node.js + npm (validation scripts)
• Python 3 + pip (MCP server, diagram generation)
• Go (Terraform MCP server)

Build & Validation

For the complete reference of all validation scripts, linting commands, git hooks, and CI workflows, see the published Validation & Linting Reference.

# Full validation suite
npm run validate:all

# Individual checks
npm run lint:md                          # Markdown linting
npm run lint:json                        # JSON/JSONC validation
npm run lint:agent-frontmatter           # Agent definition frontmatter
npm run lint:skills-format               # Skill file format
npm run validate:instruction-checks      # Instruction file format and reference validation
npm run lint:artifact-templates          # Artifact template compliance
npm run lint:h2-sync                     # H2 heading sync between templates and artifacts
npm run lint:governance-refs             # Governance reference validation
npm run validate:session-state           # Session state JSON schema validation
npm run validate:session-lock            # Session lock/claim model validation
npm run validate:workflow-graph          # Workflow DAG graph validation
npm run validate:agent-registry          # Agent registry consistency
npm run validate:skill-affinity          # Skill/agent affinity catalog validation
npm run validate:iac-security-baseline   # IaC security baseline (TLS, HTTPS, blob, identity, SQL auth)

# Bicep validation (replace {project} with actual project name)
bicep build infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep
bicep lint infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep

# Terraform validation
terraform fmt -check -recursive infra/terraform/
# Per-project: cd infra/terraform/{project} && terraform init -backend=false && terraform validate
npm run validate:terraform

Code Style

Naming Conventions (CAF)

Follow Azure Cloud Adoption Framework naming:

Required Tags (Azure Policy Enforced)

Every Azure resource must include these 4 tags at minimum:

Default Region

• Primary: swedencentral (EU GDPR-compliant)
• Exception: Static Web Apps → westeurope
• Failover: germanywestcentral

Azure Verified Modules (AVM) First

Always prefer AVM modules over raw resource definitions:

• Bicep: br/public:avm/res/{provider}/{resource}:{version}
• Terraform: registry.terraform.io/Azure/avm-res-{provider}-{resource}/azurerm

Unique Suffix Pattern

Generate once, pass everywhere:

• Bicep: uniqueString(resourceGroup().id)
• Terraform: random_string (4 chars, lowercase)

Security Baseline

These are non-negotiable for all generated infrastructure code:

• TLS 1.2 minimum on all services
• HTTPS-only traffic (supportsHttpsTrafficOnly: true)
• No public blob access (allowBlobPublicAccess: false)
• No shared key access on storage (allowSharedKeyAccess: false) — use Entra ID
• Managed Identity preferred over keys/connection strings
• Azure AD-only authentication for SQL
• App Service HTTP/2 enabled (http20Enabled: true)
• Container Registry admin user disabled (adminUserEnabled: false)
• MySQL/PostgreSQL SSL enforcement required
• Public network access disabled for production data services (dev/test exempt)

Testing

# Run all validations (CI equivalent)
npm run validate:all

# E2E Ralph Loop — validate artifacts (structural, no agent invocation)
npm run e2e:validate

# E2E Ralph Loop — benchmark scoring (8 dimensions, 0-100)
npm run e2e:benchmark

# E2E Ralph Loop — Terraform project benchmark
npm run e2e:benchmark -- terraform-e2e

# E2E Ralph Loop — multi-project comparison
npm run e2e:benchmark -- --compare

# Pre-commit hooks (installed via lefthook)
npm run prepare

# Pre-push hook (diff-based, automatic via lefthook)
# Only validates file types that changed: *.bicep, *.tf, *.md, *.agent.md, etc.
# Runs domain-scoped validators in parallel for speed
git push  # triggers diff-based-push-check.sh automatically

# Bicep: lint + build before committing templates
bicep lint infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep
bicep build infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep

# Terraform: format + validate before committing
terraform fmt -recursive infra/terraform/
cd infra/terraform/{project} && terraform init -backend=false && terraform validate

Commit & PR Guidelines

Use Conventional Commits:

<type>[optional scope]: <description>

Scopes: agents, skills, instructions, bicep, terraform, mcp, docs, scripts.

Always run npm run lint:md and relevant validations before committing.

Project Structure

.github/
  agents/              # Agent definitions (*.agent.md) — top-level + subagents
    _subagents/        # Subagent definitions (non-user-invocable)
  skills/              # Reusable domain knowledge (SKILL.md per skill)
    workflow-engine/   # DAG model, workflow-graph.json
    context-shredding/ # Runtime context compression tiers and templates
    iac-common/        # Shared deploy patterns + circuit-breaker.md
  instructions/        # File-type rules with glob-based auto-application
  agent-registry.json  # Machine-readable agent role → file/model/skills mapping
  skill-affinity.json  # Skill/agent affinity weights (primary/secondary/never)
  copilot-instructions.md  # VS Code Copilot-specific orchestration instructions
agent-output/          # All agent-generated artifacts organized by project
  {project}/           # Per-project: 00-session-state.json + 01-requirements.md through 07-*.md
infra/
  bicep/{project}/     # Bicep templates (main.bicep + modules/)
    azure.yaml         # azd project manifest (per-project, co-located)
    .azure/            # azd environment state (git-ignored)
      plan.md          # azure-prepare output — source of truth for validate/deploy
  terraform/{project}/ # Terraform configurations (main.tf + modules/)
    azure.yaml         # azd project manifest (infra.provider: terraform)
    .azure/            # azd environment state (git-ignored)
      plan.md          # azure-prepare output — source of truth for validate/deploy
assets/
  excalidraw-libraries/  # Excalidraw libraries (whiteboarding only)
  drawio-libraries/      # Draw.io Azure icon libraries (for VS Code extension; MCP server has built-in icons) (mxlibrary XML + mxfile.xsd)
mcp/
  azure-pricing-mcp/   # Custom Azure Pricing MCP server (Python)
scripts/               # Validation and maintenance scripts (Node.js)
site/
  src/content/docs/    # Published user-facing documentation (Astro Starlight)
  public/              # Site-served static assets
.vscode/
  mcp.json             # MCP server configuration (github, azure-pricing, terraform, microsoft-learn, drawio)

Agent Workflow

All outputs go to agent-output/{project}/. Unified planner (05-IaC Planner) feeds into dual IaC tracks: Bicep (06b/07b) and Terraform (06t/07t). The Orchestrator agent orchestrates the full workflow with human approval gates. Review column = adversarial passes by challenger subagents, complexity-dependent Complexity-dependent. Conditional early exits reduce actual passes. Reviews target AI-generated creative decisions (architecture, governance, plan, code) not tool output (what-if/plan previews).

Content Sharing Decision Framework

azd Multi-Project Convention

This repo supports multiple independent projects. Each project is a fully self-contained azd project with its own azure.yaml and .azure/ directory inside the IaC project folder.

• Project root: infra/bicep/{project}/ or infra/terraform/{project}/
• azd manifest: infra/{iac}/{project}/azure.yaml with infra.path: . (co-located)
• azd state: infra/{iac}/{project}/.azure/ (git-ignored) — contains per-environment .env files
• Prepare plan: infra/{iac}/{project}/.azure/plan.md — source of truth for azure-validate → azure-deploy
• Environment naming: {project}-{env} (e.g., hub-spoke-dev, webapp-prod) to avoid collisions
• Running azd: cd infra/{iac}/{project} then run azd commands, or use azd -C infra/{iac}/{project} from repo root
• Never place azure.yaml or .azure/ at the repo root — this breaks multi-project isolation

Terraform Conventions

• Provider pin: ~> 4.0 (AzureRM)
• Backend: Azure Storage Account
• Required tags: Same as above, with ManagedBy = "Terraform"
• Unique suffix: random_string resource (4 chars, lowercase)
• AVM registry: registry.terraform.io/Azure/avm-res-*/azurerm
• azd support: azure.yaml with infra.provider: terraform and infra.path: . in each project directory

Bicep Conventions

• Unique suffix: uniqueString(resourceGroup().id) — generated once in main.bicep, passed to all modules
• Required tags: Same as above, with ManagedBy = "Bicep"
• AVM registry: br/public:avm/res/{provider}/{resource}:{version}
• Parameter files: Use .bicepparam format
• Deployment: azure.yaml manifest for azd (default and required for new projects); deploy.ps1 is deprecated
• azd manifest: azure.yaml lives inside infra/bicep/{project}/ with infra.path: .

Security Considerations

• Never hardcode secrets, connection strings, or API keys in templates
• Use Key Vault references for sensitive parameters
• Managed Identity is the default authentication method
• All storage accounts: HTTPS-only, TLS 1.2, no public blob access
• SQL databases: Azure AD-only authentication
• Production environments: disable public network access on data services
• Always check 04-governance-constraints.md for subscription-level Azure Policy requirements

Quarterly Context Audit

Run every 3 months to prevent context bloat regression:

1. npm run lint:skill-size — check for skills >200 lines without references
2. npm run lint:agent-body-size — check for agents >350 lines
3. npm run lint:glob-audit — check for broad wildcards on large files
4. npm run lint:skill-references — check for orphaned reference files
5. npm run lint:orphaned-content — check for unreferenced skills
6. npm run lint:docs-freshness — check docs counts and links
7. Review QUALITY_SCORE.md and update if metrics changed
8. Run npm run snapshot:baseline to capture current state for future diffs