APEX Accelerator

Modernize your Azure Infrastructure with AI. A production-ready template for building Well-Architected environments using custom Copilot agents, Dev Containers, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP).

Overview

This accelerator provides the scaffolding and governance to move from requirements to deployed infrastructure using an orchestrated multi-agent workflow. It leverages domain-specific AI agents to ensure every deployment is Well-Architected, governed, and documented.

What you get: Specialized agents, skills, validation scripts, a full dev container with all tools pre-installed, and an optional weekly sync workflow that keeps your agents and skills up to date with the upstream APEX project.

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Prerequisites

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Quick Start

1. Create Your Repository

This repository is a GitHub Template — not a fork.

1. Click “Use this template” → “Create a new repository” at the top of this page
2. Choose an owner and name (e.g., my-infraops-project)
3. Select Private (do not use Public)
4. Click Create repository

Your new repo has the same directory structure and files but a clean commit history and no fork relationship. It is entirely yours.

2. Clone and Open in Dev Container

git clone https://github.com/YOUR-USERNAME/my-infraops-project.git
cd my-infraops-project
code .

When prompted by VS Code, click “Reopen in Container” (or run Dev Containers: Reopen in Container from the Command Palette). The container build takes 3-5 minutes and pre-installs:

• Azure CLI with Bicep extension
• Terraform CLI with TFLint
• GitHub CLI (gh)
• Node.js + npm (validation scripts)
• Python 3 + pip (MCP server, diagram generation)
• Go (Terraform MCP server)

3. Initialize Your Repository

After the dev container starts, run the initialization commands:

npm install
npm run init
npm run sync:workflows

What these do:

Note: Python dependencies (diagrams, Azure Pricing MCP server, apex-recall) are installed automatically by the dev container’s post-create.sh script. No manual pip install is needed.

After running, review and commit:

git --no-pager diff
git add -A && git commit -m "chore: initialize from template"
git push

Expected diff: You will see changes to AGENTS.md, CONTRIBUTING.md, and one or more .github/workflows/ files. You may also see formatting-only changes to .vscode/mcp.json (the dev container normalizes its JSON arrays to multi-line format on first start) — this is expected and safe to commit.

Tip: Use git --no-pager diff instead of plain git diff to avoid the less pager. If you do use git diff and see a : prompt, press q to exit or Space to scroll.

4. Set Up Azure

Run the setup wizard to configure Azure OIDC authentication, RBAC roles, and GitHub secrets/variables — all in one command:

az login
npm run setup

The wizard creates an Entra ID app registration, OIDC federated credentials (for main branch + dev/staging/prod environments), assigns Reader at your Management Group and Contributor at your subscription, and configures all GitHub secrets and variables. It is idempotent — safe to re-run.

See the Azure Setup documentation for headless mode, manual setup steps, and troubleshooting.

5. Allow GitHub Actions to Create Pull Requests

The maintenance workflows (step 6) open pull requests automatically when they detect drift. This requires one permission change in your repository settings.

1. Go to your repository on GitHub
2. Click Settings → Actions → General
3. Scroll to Workflow permissions
4. Check Allow GitHub Actions to create and approve pull requests
5. Click Save

Why: GitHub disables this by default on all new repositories. Without it, any workflow that opens a PR will fail with: GitHub Actions is not permitted to create or approve pull requests

6. Run the Maintenance Workflows

After Azure setup completes, trigger the two scheduled maintenance workflows once so your repository has a fresh baseline before you start working. Both run weekly on Mondays after this initial seed.

gh workflow run "Weekly Maintenance"
gh workflow run "Governance Policy Baseline"

Verify both runs succeeded before continuing:

gh run list --workflow "Weekly Maintenance" --limit 1
gh run list --workflow "Governance Policy Baseline" --limit 1

Each run may open a pull request when it detects drift (new AVM module versions, policy changes, deprecated services). Review and merge those PRs as they appear — they are never auto-merged.

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Project Structure

Once you are working in your repo, here is what lives where:

.github/
  agents/              # Agent definitions (*.agent.md)
    _subagents/        # Subagent definitions (non-user-invocable)
  skills/              # Reusable domain knowledge (SKILL.md per skill)
  instructions/        # File-type rules with glob-based auto-application
  copilot-instructions.md  # VS Code Copilot-specific orchestration instructions
  workflows/           # GitHub Actions (sync, CI, validation)
agent-output/          # Generated artifacts organized by project
  {project}/           # 01-requirements.md through 07-*.md
infra/
  bicep/{project}/     # Bicep templates (main.bicep + modules/)
  terraform/{project}/ # Terraform configurations (main.tf + modules/)
tools/
  mcp-servers/         # MCP servers (azure-pricing, drawio)
  scripts/             # Validation and maintenance scripts
site/                  # Documentation site source (Astro Starlight)

What’s Yours vs. What’s Upstream

Note: If you disable the sync workflow, everything becomes yours to edit freely. See Customization below.

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Customization

Changing defaults (regions, tags, naming)

When you create from this template, every file is yours. The question is which approach gives you the best experience over time.

Strategy A: Edit directly (simplest)

Edit the file you need — for example, change swedencentral to westeurope in .github/skills/apex-azure-defaults/SKILL.md. If you don’t plan to pull upstream improvements, disable the sync workflow entirely (repo Settings → Actions → disable Upstream Sync) and manage the repo as your own.

If you want upstream updates later, re-enable the workflow. The sync PR will overwrite your edited files with the upstream version (it is not a merge), so you’ll need to re-apply your changes after merging. Keep a record of what you changed.

Strategy B: Keep sync enabled, layer your overrides (recommended for teams that want continuous upstream improvements)

The sync workflow overwrites all upstream-managed files but never touches the four excluded paths. To safely store overrides that survive sync:

1. Edit the sync exclusion list — the sync workflow file itself is user-owned (.github/workflows/ is excluded from sync). Open .github/workflows/weekly-upstream-sync.yml and add paths to EXCLUDE_PATHS. The mirror and preservation check both consume this list:

   EXCLUDE_PATHS: |
     .github/workflows/
     agent-output/
     infra/bicep/
     infra/terraform/
     README.md
     AGENTS.md
   

   Then add your overrides to root AGENTS.md — it will survive all future syncs.

2. Use project-local guidance — place organization defaults in infra/bicep/{project}/AGENTS.md or infra/terraform/{project}/AGENTS.md. Project folders are preserved. The shared track-level AGENTS.md files are upstream-owned exceptions so security and workflow corrections reach both tracks. To own a shared file instead, remove its entry from SYNC_EXCEPTIONS.

3. VS Code user-profile instructions — place a .instructions.md file in your VS Code profile’s prompts/ folder. This lives outside the repo entirely and applies to all your workspaces.

Which strategy to pick?

Adding new agents or skills

Agents are defined in .github/agents/*.agent.md and skills in .github/skills/*/SKILL.md. You can add new ones alongside the existing set. If you keep sync enabled, add your custom paths to EXCLUDE_PATHS. Distinctive names alone do not protect files: the mirror removes upstream-absent paths.

Previewing upstream updates

Manual Upstream Sync runs default to dry_run=true: they mirror into the runner, validate contracts, and summarize changes without pushing or changing pull requests. Set upstream_ref to an existing upstream feature branch to preview unmerged changes. Non-main branches cannot publish.

Scheduled runs use upstream main. A manual main run can set dry_run=false to propose a sync PR. Every run records the exact upstream commit; review remains manual. The stabilization and publication checks run before publishing. These checks are not native agent acceptance or permission to deploy Azure resources.

Private governance baselines, project outputs, generated infrastructure, repository workflows, local logs and scratch remain preserved. AVM indexes, the module cache and deprecation data are seeded only when absent, then owned by consumer maintenance. The public governance fixture and shared track-level guidance continue to follow upstream via SYNC_EXCEPTIONS.

Consumer Automation

The accelerator distributes governance, IaC and weekly maintenance workflows from APEX’s .github/consumer-workflows/ templates. Operational jobs are disabled in APEX, this accelerator and template repositories. Repositories created from this template run IaC checks and maintenance automatically when Actions is enabled. Governance additionally requires GOVERNANCE_BASELINE_ENABLED=true, a Management Group ID and configured Azure OIDC credentials.

Preview template updates with npm run sync:workflows -- --dry-run, then apply a reviewed commit using npm run sync:workflows -- --apply --ref . Modified workflows block the update; retired files are reported for review, never deleted automatically. The updater provenance is preserved by content sync. See consumer workflow ownership.

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IaC Tracks: Bicep and Terraform

Both IaC tracks are fully supported. The Requirements agent (Step 1) captures your iac_tool preference, and the Orchestrator routes Steps 4-6 to the correct track.

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Multi-Project Support

The accelerator is designed for one repo containing multiple projects. Each project gets its own folders:

• agent-output/{project}/ — artifacts (requirements, architecture, plans, docs)
• infra/bicep/{project}/ or infra/terraform/{project}/ — IaC templates

Agents, skills, instructions, and the dev container are shared across all projects.

One repo per project is also valid when teams need separate governance or isolation. Each repo is created independently from the template.

Sharing customizations across repos or teams

• Edit the sync exclusion list in each repo to protect AGENTS.md, then maintain a standard overrides section that you copy into each repo
• VS Code user-profile instructions — personal preferences that follow you across repos without any per-repo setup
• Canonical overrides in a shared location — maintain a standard overrides snippet in a team wiki or internal repo and copy it when creating new instances

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Keeping Up to Date

The sync workflow opens a PR for human review — it never auto-merges. You can disable it entirely if you prefer to manage updates manually.

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Validation & Quality

# Run all code and documentation validations
npm run validate:all

# Fix markdown formatting
npm run lint:md:fix

# Bicep validation (replace {project})
bicep build infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep
bicep lint infra/bicep/{project}/main.bicep

# Terraform validation
terraform fmt -check -recursive infra/terraform/
cd infra/terraform/{project} && terraform init -backend=false && terraform validate

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Resources

• APEX upstream project
• APEX documentation
• Azure Setup guide
• MicroHack (hands-on exercises)
• Prompt Guide
• FAQ

License

MIT