Prompt Guide
This guide provides ready-to-use prompt examples for every agent and skill in the APEX project. It is written for end users — those who interact with the agents through VS Code Copilot Chat to design, build, and deploy Azure infrastructure.
Prerequisites: Complete the Quickstart first (Dev Container running, subagent invocation enabled).
Best Practices How to write effective prompts — patterns, anti-patterns, and validation tips.
Workflow Prompts Ready-to-use prompts for every workflow step plus standalone agents.
Repository Slash Prompts Built-in slash prompts for resume, commits, and debug-log export.
Skill & Subagent Reference Reference prompts for each skill and subagent, plus advanced patterns.
Quick Reference
Section titled “Quick Reference”Agents
Section titled “Agents”| Agent | Codename | Step | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
| Orchestrator | 🧠 Orchestrator | All | Orchestrates the full multi-step workflow |
| Requirements | 📜 Scribe | 1 | Captures business and technical requirements |
| Architect | 🏛️ Oracle | 2 | WAF assessment, cost estimates, SKU comparison |
| Design | 🎨 Artisan | 3 | Architecture diagrams and ADRs (optional step) |
| Governance | 🛡️ Warden | 3.5 | Discovers Azure Policy constraints |
| IaC Planner | 📐 Strategist | 4 | Creates the Bicep or Terraform implementation plan |
| Bicep CodeGen | ⚒️ Forge | 5b | Generates production-ready Bicep templates |
| Terraform CodeGen | ⚒️ Forge | 5t | Generates production-ready Terraform configs |
| Bicep Deploy | 🚀 Envoy | 6b | What-if analysis and Bicep deployment |
| Terraform Deploy | 🚀 Envoy | 6t | Terraform plan preview and apply |
| As-Built | 📚 Chronicler | 7 | Generates post-deployment documentation |
| Diagnose | 🔍 Sentinel | — | Resource health and troubleshooting |
| Challenger | ⚔️ Challenger | — | Reviews plans for gaps and weaknesses |
Skills
Section titled “Skills”| Skill | Purpose |
|---|---|
azure-defaults | Regions, tags, naming, AVM, security, governance |
azure-artifacts | H2 template structures for agent output files |
python-diagrams | WAF/cost/compliance charts (matplotlib) |
mermaid | Inline Mermaid diagrams for markdown |
drawio | Draw.io diagrams via simonkurtz-MSFT MCP server (700+ Azure icons, batch creation) |
azure-adr | Architecture Decision Records |
azure-bicep-patterns | Reusable Bicep patterns (hub-spoke, PE, diagnostics) |
terraform-patterns | Reusable Terraform patterns (hub-spoke, PE, AVM-TF) |
azure-diagnostics | KQL templates, health checks, remediation playbooks |
github-operations | Branch naming, conventional commits, issues, PRs, CLI, Actions, and releases |
docs-writer | Documentation generation and maintenance |
sensei | Iteratively improve skill frontmatter compliance (Ralph loop) |
Subagents
Section titled “Subagents”| Subagent | Called By | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
bicep-validate-subagent | Bicep CodeGen | Runs lint plus AVM and security review |
bicep-whatif-subagent | Bicep Deploy | Runs az deployment group what-if preview |
terraform-validate-subagent | Terraform CodeGen | Runs terraform fmt, validate, TFLint, and review |
terraform-plan-subagent | Terraform Deploy | Runs terraform plan change preview |
cost-estimate-subagent | Architect | Queries Azure Pricing MCP for real-time pricing |
Prompt Files
Section titled “Prompt Files”Reusable .prompt.md files in tools/apex-prompts/ provide one-click access
to pre-configured agent workflows. Open a prompt file and use Attach (the
paper-clip icon) in Copilot Chat to load it — these files live outside
.github/prompts/ and are not discoverable via the / slash menu.
Repository-scoped prompts in .github/prompts/ are available from the Copilot
Chat slash menu. See Repository Slash Prompts for the
resume, commit, and debug-log export workflows.
Core Workflow Prompts
Section titled “Core Workflow Prompts”| Prompt File | Agent | Step | Purpose |
|---|---|---|---|
01-orchestrator | Orchestrator | All | End-to-end multi-step orchestration |
02-requirements | Requirements | 1 | Business-first requirements discovery |
03-architect | Architect | 2 | WAF assessment with cost estimates |
04-design | Design | 3 | Python architecture diagrams and ADRs |
04g-governance | Governance | 3.5 | Azure Policy governance discovery |
05-iac-planner | IaC Planner | 4 | Governance discovery and IaC planning |
06b-bicep-codegen | Bicep CodeGen | 5b | AVM-first Bicep template generation |
06t-terraform-codegen | Terraform CodeGen | 5t | AVM-TF Terraform config generation |
07b-bicep-deploy | Bicep Deploy | 6b | What-if analysis and Bicep deployment |
07t-terraform-deploy | Terraform Deploy | 6t | Terraform plan preview and apply |
08-as-built | As-Built | 7 | As-built documentation suite |
diagnose-resource | Diagnose | — | Resource health diagnostics |
Utility Prompts
Section titled “Utility Prompts”| Prompt File | Purpose |
|---|---|
git-commit-push | Diff-aware conventional commit and push |
doc-gardening | Documentation maintenance and freshness |
plan-docsPeerReview | Multi-pass documentation peer review |
challenger-review | Standalone adversarial review of an artifact |
context-audit | Agent context window utilization audit |
resume-workflow | Resume an interrupted workflow session |
merge-sensei-free-pr | Open a sensei-free PR from a sensei-bearing branch into main (details) |