Azure Governance Policy Guardrails
Purpose
Design or review Azure governance guardrails with Azure Policy in a way that is enforceable, scope-aware, and safe to roll out.
When to use
Use this skill when the user asks for:
- Azure Policy design or review,
- initiatives versus single policy choices,
- management-group or subscription assignment placement,
- exclusions, exemptions, or inheritance concerns,
- tag governance,
- allowed locations, resource types, or SKU restrictions,
- brownfield governance hardening,
- compliance enforcement rollout safety.
Do not use this as a substitute for full regulatory interpretation, SOC operations, or writing full organization-specific policy JSON unless the user asks for that next.
Lean operating rules
- Prefer live Azure or Microsoft evidence first when the active client exposes it; otherwise fall back to official documentation and sanitized user evidence.
- Separate confirmed facts from inference. If state was not queried or shown, say so.
- Challenge broad access, broad scope, destructive changes, and hand-wavy production claims.
- Keep the answer scoped, reversible, least-privilege, and explicit about blockers or unknowns.
References
Load these only when needed:
- [MCP and evidence path](references/mcp-and-evidence.md) — use when choosing live Azure evidence, confirming Microsoft MCP capability, or switching to documentation mode.
- [Workflow and output contract](references/workflow-and-output.md) — use when executing the full review, applying stress checks, or formatting the final answer.
- [Official sources](references/official-sources.md) — use when you need the detailed Microsoft documentation list or source notes.
Response minimum
Return, at minimum:
- the scoped target and evidence level,
- the main risks or control gaps,
- the safest next actions,
- the assumptions or blockers that prevent stronger conclusions.