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 Microsoft Learn documentation through the user's configured documentation MCP, then sampled read-only Azure evidence when the active client exposes it, then 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:

• Operations guide — use for service-specific pitfalls, design rules, verification targets, and pushback criteria.
• MCP and evidence path — use when choosing documentation-based evidence, sampled read-only Azure evidence, or sanitized user evidence.
• Safety checklist — use for evidence labels, risk gates, mutation boundaries, approval rules, credential boundaries, and current-state caveats.
• Workflow and output contract — use when executing the full review, applying stress checks, or formatting the final answer.
• Official sources — 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.