appinsights-instrumentation

by microsoft

Guidance for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights. Provides telemetry patterns, SDK setup, and configuration references. WHEN: how to instrument app, App Insights SDK, telemetry patterns, what is App Insights, Application Insights guidance, instrumentation examples, APM best practices.

npx skills add https://github.com/microsoft/azure-skills --skill appinsights-instrumentation
Download ZIPGitHub

AppInsights Instrumentation Guide

This skill provides guidance and reference material for instrumenting webapps with Azure Application Insights.

⛔ ADDING COMPONENTS?

If the user wants to add App Insights to their app, invoke azure-prepare instead. This skill provides reference material—azure-prepare orchestrates the actual changes.

When to Use This Skill

  • User asks how to instrument (guidance, patterns, examples)
  • User needs SDK setup instructions
  • azure-prepare invokes this skill during research phase
  • User wants to understand App Insights concepts

When to Use azure-prepare Instead

  • User says "add telemetry to my app"
  • User says "add App Insights"
  • User wants to modify their project
  • Any request to change/add components

Prerequisites

The app in the workspace must be one of these kinds

  • An ASP.NET Core app hosted in Azure
  • A Node.js app hosted in Azure

Guidelines

Collect context information

Find out the (programming language, application framework, hosting) tuple of the application the user is trying to add telemetry support in. This determines how the application can be instrumented. Read the source code to make an educated guess. Confirm with the user on anything you don't know. You must always ask the user where the application is hosted (e.g. on a personal computer, in an Azure App Service as code, in an Azure App Service as container, in an Azure Container App, etc.).

Prefer auto-instrument if possible

If the app is a C# ASP.NET Core app hosted in Azure App Service, use AUTO guide to help user auto-instrument the app.

Manually instrument

Manually instrument the app by creating the AppInsights resource and update the app's code.

Create AppInsights resource

Use one of the following options that fits the environment.

  • Add AppInsights to existing Bicep template. See examples/appinsights.bicep for what to add. This is the best option if there are existing Bicep template files in the workspace.
  • Use Azure CLI. See scripts/appinsights.ps1 for what Azure CLI command to execute to create the App Insights resource.

No matter which option you choose, recommend the user to create the App Insights resource in a meaningful resource group that makes managing resources easier. A good candidate will be the same resource group that contains the resources for the hosted app in Azure.

Modify application code

  • If the app is an ASP.NET Core app, see ASPNETCORE guide for how to modify the C# code.
  • If the app is a Node.js app, see NODEJS guide for how to modify the JavaScript/TypeScript code.
  • If the app is a Python app, see PYTHON guide for how to modify the Python code.

SDK Quick References

Platform-Specific Guides

More skills from microsoft

oss-growth
microsoft
OSS growth hacker persona
official
microsoft-foundry
microsoft
Deploy, evaluate, and manage Foundry agents end-to-end: Docker build, ACR push, hosted/prompt agent create, container start, batch eval, continuous eval, prompt optimizer workflows, agent.yaml, dataset curation from traces. USE FOR: deploy agent to Foundry, hosted agent, create agent, invoke agent, evaluate agent, run batch eval, continuous eval, continuous monitoring, continuous eval status, optimize prompt, improve prompt, prompt optimizer, optimize agent instructions, improve agent...
officialdevelopmentdevops
azure-ai
microsoft
Use for Azure AI: Search, Speech, OpenAI, Document Intelligence. Helps with search, vector/hybrid search, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, transcription, OCR. WHEN: AI Search, query search, vector search, hybrid search, semantic search, speech-to-text, text-to-speech, transcribe, OCR, convert text to speech.
officialdevelopmentapi
azure-deploy
microsoft
Execute Azure deployments for ALREADY-PREPARED applications that have existing .azure/deployment-plan.md and infrastructure files. DO NOT use this skill when the user asks to CREATE a new application — use azure-prepare instead. This skill runs azd up, azd deploy, terraform apply, and az deployment commands with built-in error recovery. Requires .azure/deployment-plan.md from azure-prepare and validated status from azure-validate. WHEN: "run azd up", "run azd deploy", "execute deployment",...
officialdevopsaws
azure-storage
microsoft
Azure Storage Services including Blob Storage, File Shares, Queue Storage, Table Storage, and Data Lake. Answers questions about storage access tiers (hot, cool, cold, archive), when to use each tier, and tier comparison. Provides object storage, SMB file shares, async messaging, NoSQL key-value, and big data analytics. Includes lifecycle management. USE FOR: blob storage, file shares, queue storage, table storage, data lake, upload files, download blobs, storage accounts, access tiers,...
officialdevelopmentdatabase
azure-diagnostics
microsoft
Debug Azure production issues on Azure using AppLens, Azure Monitor, resource health, and safe triage. WHEN: debug production issues, troubleshoot app service, app service high CPU, app service deployment failure, troubleshoot container apps, troubleshoot functions, troubleshoot AKS, kubectl cannot connect, kube-system/CoreDNS failures, pod pending, crashloop, node not ready, upgrade failures, analyze logs, KQL, insights, image pull failures, cold start issues, health probe failures,...
officialdevopsdevelopment
azure-prepare
microsoft
Prepare Azure apps for deployment (infra Bicep/Terraform, azure.yaml, Dockerfiles). Use for create/modernize or create+deploy; not cross-cloud migration (use azure-cloud-migrate). DO NOT USE FOR: copilot-sdk apps (use azure-hosted-copilot-sdk). WHEN: "create app", "build web app", "create API", "create serverless HTTP API", "create frontend", "create back end", "build a service", "modernize application", "update application", "add authentication", "add caching", "host on Azure", "create and...
officialdevelopmentdevops
azure-validate
microsoft
Pre-deployment validation for Azure readiness. Run deep checks on configuration, infrastructure (Bicep or Terraform), RBAC role assignments, managed identity permissions, and prerequisites before deploying. WHEN: validate my app, check deployment readiness, run preflight checks, verify configuration, check if ready to deploy, validate azure.yaml, validate Bicep, test before deploying, troubleshoot deployment errors, validate Azure Functions, validate function app, validate serverless...
officialdevopstesting