"One page, the whole vocabulary. Once these terms feel familiar, azd docs and Azure tutorials read like plain English."
Level: Reference · Time: ~browse · Prerequisites: none
Learning Objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- Recognize the key terms used across this track
- Explain each in simple language
- Use this page as a quick reference
Skim this once now so the words feel familiar, then come back whenever a term shows up in a command, a template, or the Azure portal. You don't need to memorize these — recognizing a term and knowing where to look it up is enough to keep moving. The groups follow the track's flow — azd basics, then infrastructure and config, then security, and finally AI plus operations — so a term's neighborhood hints at when in a project you'll first meet it. The bold entries are the ones worth knowing cold; the rest you can look up as needed.
AZD Basics
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| AZD | Azure Developer CLI — provisions + deploys apps with a few commands |
azd up | Provision infrastructure and deploy, in one command |
azd init | Start a project (from a template or your own code) |
azd provision | Create/update the Azure resources |
azd deploy | Build and push your app code |
azd down | Delete all provisioned resources |
azure.yaml | Maps each service to its code, language, and host |
| Template | A repo laid out so azd up works out of the box |
| Host | Where a service runs (Container Apps, App Service, Functions…) |
| Hook | A custom script run at a lifecycle moment (e.g., postprovision) |
Infrastructure & Config
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Infrastructure as code (IaC) | Defining cloud resources in text files |
| Bicep | Azure's declarative IaC language |
| Declarative | You describe the end state, not the steps |
| Idempotent | Re-running gives the same result |
| Environment | A named set of settings + resources (dev, prod) |
| Environment variable | A per-environment setting injected into the app |
| SKU | The size/tier of a resource (performance + cost) |
| Quota | A limit on how much of a resource you can create |
| Region | The Azure data-center location resources live in |
Security
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Managed identity | A passwordless identity for your app to authenticate |
| Key Vault | Secure store for secrets (keys, passwords) |
| Least privilege | Grant only the minimum access needed |
AI & Operations
| Term | Plain meaning |
|---|---|
| Azure OpenAI | Azure-hosted GPT/embedding models |
| Microsoft Foundry | Platform to build/deploy/manage AI projects & agents |
| Model deployment | A provisioned, callable instance of a model |
| TPM (tokens per minute) | An AI model's throughput/capacity quota |
| AI agent | A model + tools + a loop, so it can take actions |
| Multi-agent system | Several specialized agents coordinating |
| Application Insights | Azure's telemetry: requests, errors, latency, usage |
azd monitor | Opens your app's monitoring dashboards |
| Preflight check | Verifying conditions before deploying |
| CI/CD | Automated test + deploy pipeline (azd pipeline config) |
| Content safety | Filters that catch harmful AI inputs/outputs |
Try this: Cover the right column and explain five terms in your own words, out loud or in writing. The ones you can't are exactly the concepts worth revisiting in their module — recognition is good, but explaining a term back, unprompted, is how you know it's yours. Do this again after you've deployed something real, and notice how many now feel obvious.
Key Takeaway: These terms span the whole track — azd commands and templates, infrastructure and config, security, and AI plus operations. Fluency here is what lets the official docs and Azure tutorials read like plain English instead of alphabet soup. Bookmark this page as your quick reference while you build and deploy on Azure, and revisit it whenever a new term stops you mid-command.
Further Learning
Part of "AZD for Beginners." Adapted from Microsoft's open AZD curriculum (MIT License).