Azure CLI configuration

The Azure CLI allows for user configuration for settings such as logging, data collection, and default argument values. The CLI offers a convenience command for managing some defaults, az configure. Other values can be set in a configuration file or with environment variables.

Configuration values used by the CLI are evaluated in the following precedence, with items higher on the list taking priority.

  1. Command-line parameters
  2. Parameter persisted values set with az config param-persist
  3. Environment variables
  4. Values in the configuration file set with az configure

CLI configuration with az configure

You set defaults for the CLI with the az configure command. This command takes one argument, --defaults, which is a space-separated list of key=value pairs. The provided values are used by the CLI in place of required arguments.

The following table contains a list of available configuration keys.

Name Description
group The default resource group to use for all commands.
location The default location to use for all commands.
web The default app name to use for az webapp commands.
vm The default VM name to use for az vm commands.
vmss The default virtual machine scale set (VMSS) name to use for az vmss commands.
acr The default container registry name to use for az acr commands.

As an example, here's how you would set the default resource group and location for all commands.

az configure --defaults location=westus2 group=MyResourceGroup

CLI configuration file

The CLI configuration file contains other settings that are used for managing CLI behavior. The configuration file itself is located at $AZURE_CONFIG_DIR/config. The default value of AZURE_CONFIG_DIR is $HOME/.azure on Linux and macOS, and %USERPROFILE%\.azure on Windows.

Configuration files are written in the INI file format. This file format is defined by section headers, followed by a list of key-value entries.

  • Section headers are written as [section-name]. Section names are case-sensitive.
  • Entries are written as key=value. Key names are not case-sensitive.
  • Comments are any line that begins with a # or ;. Inline comments are not allowed.

Booleans are case-insensitive, and are represented by the following values.

  • True: 1, yes, true, on
  • False: 0, no, false, off

Here's an example of a CLI configuration file that disables any confirmation prompts and sets up logging to the /var/log/azure directory.

[core]
disable_confirm_prompt=Yes

[logging]
enable_log_file=yes
log_dir=/var/log/azure

See the next section for details on all of the available configuration values and what they mean. For the full details on the INI file format, see the Python documentation on INI.

CLI configuration values and environment variables

The following table contains all of the sections and option names that can be placed in a configuration file. Their corresponding environment variables are set as AZURE_{section}_{name}, in all caps. For example, output default for core is set in the AZURE_CORE_OUTPUT variable, the storage_account default for batchai is set in the AZURE_BATCHAI_STORAGE_ACCOUNT variable, and the default location is set in the AZURE_DEFAULTS_LOCATION variable.

When you provide a default value, that argument is no longer required by any command. Instead, the default value is used.

Section Name Type Description
core output string The default output format. Can be one of json, jsonc, tsv, or table.
disable_confirm_prompt boolean Turn confirmation prompts on/off.
collect_telemetry boolean Allow Microsoft to collect anonymous data on the usage of the CLI. For privacy information, see the Azure CLI MIT license.
only_show_errors boolean Only show errors during command invocation. In other words, only errors will be written to stderr. It suppresses warnings from preview, deprecated and experimental commands. It is also available for individual commands with the --only-show-errors parameter.
no_color boolean Disable color. Originally colored messages will be prefixed with DEBUG, INFO, WARNING and ERROR. This bypasses the issue of a third-party library where the terminal's color cannot revert back after a stdout redirection.
logging enable_log_file boolean Turn logging on/off.
log_dir string The directory to write logs to. By default this value is ${AZURE_CONFIG_DIR}/logs*.
defaults group string The default resource group to use for all commands.
location string The default location to use for all commands.
web string The default app name to use for az webapp commands.
vm string The default VM name to use for az vm commands.
vmss string The default virtual machine scale set (VMSS) name to use for az vmss commands.
acr string The default container registry name to use for az acr commands.
storage connection_string string The default connection string to use for az storage commands.
account string The default account name to use for az storage commands.
key string The default account key to use for az storage commands.
sas_token string The default SAS token to use for az storage commands.
batchai storage_account string The default storage account to use for az batchai commands.
storage_key string The default storage key to use for az batchai commands.
batch account string The default Azure Batch account name to use for az batch commands.
access_key string The default access key to use for az batch commands. Only used with aad authorization.
endpoint string The default endpoint to connect to for az batch commands.
auth_mode string The authorization mode to use for az batch commands. Can be shared_key or aad.
cloud name string The default cloud for all az commands. The possible values are AzureCloud (default), AzureChinaCloud, AzureUSGovernment, AzureGermanCloud. To change clouds, you can use the az cloud set –name command. For an example, see Manage Clouds with the Azure CLI.
extension use_dynamic_install string Install an extension if it's not added yet when running a command from it. The possible values are no (default), yes_prompt, yes_without_prompt.
run_after_dynamic_install boolean Continue to run the command when an extension is dynamically installed for it. Default is False.

Note

You may see other values in your configuration file, but these are managed directly through CLI commands, including az configure. The ones listed in the table above are the only values you should change yourself.

See also