Lessons in this article
This is Microsoft Foundry for beginners, in three lessons. Lesson 1 answers what is Microsoft Foundry and why it was built. Lesson 2 covers where you work in it, with a first-hour setup. Lesson 3 covers the Microsoft Foundry features, including Foundry Agent Service, and how they fit together. Read them in order, because each one builds on the one before. Open a lesson below to read it on its own page.
Lessons
Lesson 1 · 3 min read
What is Microsoft Foundry and why it was built
What Microsoft Foundry is, the words you need (resource, project, model, agent, tool, deployment), how the parts fit together, and what it costs to start.
Lesson 2 · 3 min read
Where you work in Microsoft Foundry
How to work in Foundry: the portal, the SDK, the Azure Developer CLI, and the VS Code toolkit, with a first-hour setup from project to agent.
Lesson 3 · 4 min read
The features of Microsoft Foundry
How Foundry's features fit together: agents, models, tools, tracing, evaluations, governance, and publishing, with preview features marked.
Sources
- What is Microsoft Foundry? (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft Foundry architecture (Microsoft Learn)
- Create a project (Microsoft Learn)
- Quickstart: Create a prompt agent (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft Foundry Playgrounds (Microsoft Learn)
- Agent development lifecycle in Microsoft Foundry (Microsoft Learn)
- Deploy Microsoft Foundry Models in the Foundry portal (Microsoft Learn)
- Deployment overview for Microsoft Foundry Models (Microsoft Learn)
- Role-based access control for Microsoft Foundry (Microsoft Learn)
- Run evaluations from the Microsoft Foundry portal (Microsoft Learn)
- Agent tracing overview (Microsoft Learn)
- Set up tracing for AI agents in Microsoft Foundry (Microsoft Learn)
- Review agent interactions with Trace Replay (Microsoft Learn)
- Use the Microsoft Foundry Skill in coding agents (Microsoft Learn)
- What is Foundry IQ? (Microsoft Learn)
- Microsoft Foundry: Scale innovation on a modular, interoperable, and secure agent stack (Azure blog, Nov 18, 2025)
- Microsoft Foundry pricing (Azure), including the FAQ on the free-to-explore platform
- Create your Azure free account or pay as you go (Azure)

