Manage environment variables

Environment variables influence how resources are provisioned and deployed to Azure. This is especially useful when running azd in CI/CD workflow scenarios.

Input Parameters Substitution

Environment variables can be referenced in parameter files (*.parameters.json for Bicep, *.tfvars.json for Terraform) as part of provisioning. When an environment variable substitution syntax is encountered, azd automatically substitutes the reference with the actual environment variable value set. Substitution also occurs for certain configuration settings in azure.yaml (properties documented with 'Supports environment variable substitution'), and in deployment configuration files, such as deployment manifests for aks.

Input parameter substitution example (Bicep)

Suppose that you have the environment variable AZURE_LOCATION set:

export AZURE_LOCATION=westus3

$env:AZURE_LOCATION='westus3'

In the main.parameters.json file, you can reference AZURE_LOCATION and allow for environment substitution using the following syntax:

{
  "$schema": "https://schema.management.azure.com/schemas/2019-04-01/deploymentParameters.json#",
  "contentVersion": "1.0.0.0",
  "parameters": {
    "location": {
      "value": "${AZURE_LOCATION}"
    }
  }
}

Environment-specific .env file

Outputs for infrastructure provisioning are automatically stored as environment variables in an .env file, located under .azure/<environment name>/.env. This setup allows for a local application, or deployment scripts, to use variables stored in the .env file to reference Azure-hosted resources if needed. To see these outputs, run azd env get-values, or azd env get-values --output json for JSON output.

Environment variables provided by azd

The following are variables that are automatically provided by azd:

Name	Description	Examples	When available
AZURE_ENV_NAME	The name of the environment in-use.	todo-app-dev	When an environment is created (after running azd init or azd env new, for example).
AZURE_LOCATION	The location of the environment in-use.	eastus2	Right before an environment is provisioned for the first time.
AZURE_PRINCIPAL_ID	The running user/service principal.	925cff12-ffff-4e9f-9580-8c06239dcaa4	Determined automatically during provisioning (ephemeral).
AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID	The targeted subscription.	925cff12-ffff-4e9f-9580-8c06239dcaa4	Right before an environment is provisioned for the first time.
SERVICE_<service>_IMAGE_NAME	The full name of the container image published to Azure Container Registry for container app services.	todoapp/web-dev:azdev-deploy-1664988805	After a successful publishing of a containerapp image

User-provided environment variables

User-provided variables can be declared as an infrastructure output parameter (which is automatically stored in .env) in the main.bicep file, or set directly by the user in the environment (azd env set <key> <value>). azd reads the values as configuration and perform differently.

Name	Description	Examples	Effects
AZURE_AKS_CLUSTER_NAME	The name of the Azure Kubernetes Service cluster to target.	aks-my-cluster	Required property for deployment of an aks service.
AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP	The specific resource group to target. Type string.	rg-todo-dev	azd won't perform resource group discovery, and instead references this resource group. azd also doesn't control the authored IaC configuration files, thus changes to IaC files may be needed.
AZURE_CONTAINER_REGISTRY_ENDPOINT	The Azure Container Registry endpoint to publish docker image. Type string.	myexampleacr.azurecr.io	Required property for deployment of a containerapp or aks service.
SERVICE_<service>_ENDPOINTS	The endpoints for the particular service. Type array (bicep) / list-equivalent (terraform).	['endpoint1', 'endpoint2']	Sets the public endpoints for the particular service will be used by azd for display. By default, azd discovers the automatically assigned hostnames for a given host, such as *.azurewebsites.net for appservice.

Enable demo mode

azd includes a demo mode that hides your subscription ID in the console output. This feature is useful for scenarios where you want to demo or present azd commands in a public setting.

The demo mode introduces the environment variable: AZD_DEMO_MODE. To enable demo mode, run:

export AZD_DEMO_MODE true

If you want demo mode to persist across reboots, you can also run:

setx AZD_DEMO_MODE true

or in PowerShell:

$env:AZD_DEMO_MODE="true"