CD deploying-scalable-agents
Take a working agent prototype to a scalable, observable production deployment on Microsoft Foundry. Covers deployment patterns (client-hosted, hosted agents, agent workflows), the agent lifecycle, model routing, response caching, evaluation gates, human-in-the-loop approval, observability with OpenTelemetry, cost optimisation, and smoke-testing deployed agents with the AI Smoke Test action. Based on Lesson 16 of AI Agents for Beginners. USE FOR: deploy an agent to production, scale an agent, Microsoft Foundry hosted agent, Foundry Agent Service, model routing, response caching, evaluation gate, release gate, human approval workflow, agent observability, agent tracing, agent cost optimisation, smoke test a hosted agent, production customer support agent. DO NOT USE FOR: building your first agent (start with Lesson 01), running agents locally on-device (use local-ai-agents / Lesson 17), Azure infrastructure provisioning unrelated to agents, non-Foundry deployment targets.
Take a working agent prototype to a scalable, observable production deployment on Microsoft Foundry.
As a process D 41/100 · Unfinished process — References files that are not bundled: ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/README.md, ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/code_samples/16-python-agent-framework.ipynb, ../../../.github/workflows/smoke-test.yml
How to improve
- The text references files that are not there: add them or drop the references.
- Your own cases (evals/evals.json, 4–6 real requests with expected answers): the full check would then run those instead of a model-drafted suite.
- A spec.yaml with trigger phrases and assertions — a behaviour contract for CI; `skilltest init` writes a template.
Guard findings · 0
✓ No critical or high findings
Files scanned: 1. Evidence is masked. Grey chips explain why severity was lowered.
Against the Agent Skills spec
- warning
missing-refreference to a missing file: ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/README.md - warning
missing-refreference to a missing file: ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/code_samples/16-python-agent-framework.ipynb - warning
missing-refreference to a missing file: ../../../.github/workflows/smoke-test.yml - warning
missing-refreference to a missing file: ../../../tests/README.md
Process rating: all ten parameters 41/100
- 0Tools and files. 4 referenced file(s) missing: ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/README.md, ../../../16-deploying-scalable-agents/code_samples/16-python-agent-framework.ipynb, ../../../.github/workflows/smoke-test.yml
- 0Result and completion. Does not say what the result is
- 0Inputs and preconditions. Does not say what the process needs to start
- 0Progress reporting. Says nothing while it works
- 30Running it twice. 19 mutating operations with no state check
- 50When it triggers. No condition that starts the skill
- 50Failures and branches. 0 branches, has a failure section
- 100Steps. 23 steps
- 100Consistency. Name and required fields are in place
- 100Execution cost. Instruction body is 1237 tokens
- medium Safety rules and hard prohibitions inside a skill: they belong in the system prompt, here they protect nothing
Everything here is measured from the skill text rather than judged by a model, so the numbers are checkable. A parameter weighs more when it is a more common reason for the process to stall.
Quality signals
- +5Description has no quoted example phrases that should trigger the skill
- +3Description length 985: 120–800 characters recommended
- +3Output format is not stated: the model decides each time
- +4No input/output examples
- +2Single-language instructions
- +4Description says when NOT to use the skill
- +4Structure: 10 headings
- +3Step-by-step instructions: 23 items
- +1License stated
Quality base 70; lint remarks subtract, signals add up to 100. Result: 70.