awesome-copilot/skills/azure-architecture-autopilot/references/architecture-guidance-sources.md

Architecture Guidance Sources (For Design Direction Decisions)

A source registry for using Azure official architecture guidance only for design direction decisions.

The URLs in this document are a list of sources for "where to look". Do not hardcode the contents of these URLs as fixed facts. Do not use for SKU, API version, region, model availability, or PE mapping decisions — those are handled exclusively via azure-dynamic-sources.md.

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Purpose Separation

Purpose	Document to Use	Decidable Items
Design direction decisions	This document (architecture-guidance-sources)	Architecture patterns, best practices, service combination direction, security boundary design
Deployment spec verification	azure-dynamic-sources.md	API version, SKU, region, model availability, PE groupId, actual property values

What must NOT be decided using this document:

• API version
• SKU names/pricing
• Region availability
• Model names/versions/deployment types
• PE groupId / DNS Zone mapping
• Specific values for resource properties

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Primary Sources

Targeted fetch targets for design direction decisions.

ID	Document	URL	Purpose
A1	Azure Architecture Center	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/	Hub — Entry point for finding domain-specific documents
A2	Well-Architected Framework	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/framework/	Security/reliability/performance/cost/operations principles
A3	Cloud Adoption Framework / Landing Zone	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cloud-adoption-framework/ready/landing-zone/	Enterprise governance, network topology, subscription structure
A4	Azure AI/ML Architecture	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/ai-ml/	AI/ML workload reference architecture hub
A5	Basic Foundry Chat Reference Architecture	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/ai-ml/architecture/basic-azure-ai-foundry-chat	Basic Foundry-based chatbot structure
A6	Baseline AI Foundry Chat Reference Architecture	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/ai-ml/architecture/baseline-openai-e2e-chat	Foundry chatbot enterprise baseline (including network isolation)
A7	RAG Solution Design Guide	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/architecture/ai-ml/guide/rag/rag-solution-design-and-evaluation-guide	RAG pattern design guide
A8	Microsoft Fabric Overview	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/fabric/get-started/microsoft-fabric-overview	Fabric platform overview and workload understanding
A9	Fabric Governance / Adoption	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-bi/guidance/fabric-adoption-roadmap-governance	Fabric governance, adoption roadmap

Secondary Sources (awareness only)

Not direct fetch targets; referenced only for change awareness.

Document	URL	Notes
Azure Updates	https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/updates/	Service changes/new feature announcements. Not a targeted fetch target

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Fetch Trigger — When to Query

Architecture guidance documents are not queried on every request. Only perform targeted fetch when the following triggers apply.

Trigger Conditions

0. When the user's workload type is identified in Phase 1 (automatic)
   • Pre-query the relevant workload's reference architecture to adjust question depth
   • Triggers automatically even if the user doesn't mention "best practice" etc.
   • Purpose: Reflect official architecture-based design decision points in questions, beyond SKU/region spec questions
1. When the user requests design direction justification
   • Keywords such as "best practice", "reference architecture", "recommended structure", "baseline", "well-architected", "landing zone", "enterprise pattern"
2. When architecture boundaries for a new service combination are ambiguous
   • Inter-service relationships that cannot be determined from existing reference files/service-gotchas
3. When enterprise-level security/governance design is needed
   • Subscription structure, network topology, landing zone patterns

When Triggers Do Not Apply

• Simple resource creation (SKU/API version/region questions) → Use only azure-dynamic-sources.md
• Service combinations already covered in domain-packs → Prioritize reference files
• Bicep property value verification → service-gotchas.md or MS Docs Bicep reference

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Fetch Budget

Scenario	Max Fetch Count
Default (when trigger fires)	Architecture guidance documents up to 2
Additional fetch allowed when	Conflicts between documents / core design uncertainty remains / user explicitly requests deeper justification
Simple deployment spec questions	0 (no architecture guidance queries)

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Decision Rule by Question Type

Question Type	Documents to Query	Design Decision Points to Extract	Documents NOT to Query
RAG / chatbot / Foundry app	A5 or A6 + A7	Network isolation level, authentication method (managed identity vs key), indexing strategy (push vs pull), monitoring scope	Do not traverse entire Architecture Center
Enterprise security / governance / landing zone	A2 + A3	Subscription structure, network topology (hub-spoke etc.), identity/governance model, security boundary	AI/ML domain documents not needed
Fabric data platform	A8 + A9	Capacity model (SKU selection criteria), governance level, data boundary (workspace separation etc.)	AI-related documents not needed
Ambiguous service combination (unclear pattern)	A1 (find closest domain document from hub) + that document	Key design decision points identified from the document	Do not traverse all sub-documents
Simple resource creation values (SKU/API/region)	No query	—	All architecture guidance
General AI/ML architecture	A4 (hub) + closest reference architecture	Compute isolation, data boundary, model serving approach	Do not crawl entirely

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URL Fallback Rule

1. Use en-us Learn URLs by default
2. If a specific URL returns 404 / redirect / deprecated → Fall back to the parent hub page
   • Example: If A5 fails → Search for "foundry chat" keyword on A4 (AI/ML hub)
3. If not found on the parent hub either → Search by title keyword on A1 (Architecture Center main)
4. Do not use the contents of a URL as fixed rules just because the URL exists

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Full Traversal Prohibited

• Do not broadly traverse (crawl) Architecture Center sub-documents
• Only targeted fetch 1–2 related documents according to the decision rule by question type
• Even within fetched documents, only reference relevant sections; do not read the entire document
• Unlimited fetching, recursive link following, and sub-page enumeration are prohibited