Azure Deployment Action

December 5, 2025 · View on GitHub

This repository offers a GitHub Action for automating the deployment and management of Azure resources using ARM Templates or Bicep files. It integrates smoothly into GitHub workflows, allowing developers to manage Azure infrastructure directly within their CI/CD pipelines.

With this action, users can:

Deploy resources via Azure Deployments or manage environments using Deployment Stacks.
Perform various operations like creating, validating, and previewing resource changes using the "What If" feature.

Key Configuration Options

Execution Type (type): Specifies the mode of execution, whether deploying individual resources (deployment) or managing full environment stacks (deploymentStack).
Operations (operation): Users can create, validate, or preview changes before deploying resources. For deployment stacks, deletion and lifecycle management are also supported.
Scope (scope): Defines the scope at which resources are deployed, such as tenant, management group, subscription, or resource group.
Template & Parameters: Paths to the ARM or Bicep templates (template-file) and associated parameter files (parameters-file).
What If Analysis: Leverage the what-if operation to preview potential changes before applying them, including options to exclude certain change types (what-if-exclude-change-type).
Unmanaged Resource Actions: Specify actions to take on unmanaged resources (action-on-unmanage-resources) or entire resource groups (action-on-unmanage-resourcegroups), such as deleting or detaching them.

This action simplifies Azure resource management, providing flexibility through various configurations, making it suitable for automating both simple and complex infrastructure scenarios.

Usage

Deployment

- name: Deployment
  uses: azure/bicep-deploy@v2
  with:
    type: deployment
    operation: create
    name: Development
    location: westus2
    scope: subscription
    subscription-id: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    template-file: ./main.bicep
    parameters-file: ./main.bicepparam

See more examples in examples/DEPLOYMENT.md.

Deployment Stack

- name: Deployment
  uses: azure/bicep-deploy@v2
  with:
    type: deploymentStack
    operation: create
    name: Development
    location: westus2
    scope: subscription
    subscription-id: 00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000
    template-file: ./main.bicep
    parameters-file: ./main.bicepparam
    action-on-unmanage-resources: delete
    action-on-unmanage-resourcegroups: delete
    deny-settings-mode: denyWriteAndDelete

See more examples in examples/STACKS.md.

Dependencies

Login: This action is used to authenticate the GitHub Actions workflow with Azure Resource Manager (ARM).
Checkout: This action checks out the repository where the workflow is running onto the GitHub Actions runner.

Inputs

The inputs for this action provide flexibility and control for managing deployment operations and resources in Azure. By combining inputs like type, operation, and scope, workflows can be configured to handle a variety of scenarios, from deploying individual resources to managing comprehensive deployment stacks. Inputs such as template-file, parameters-file, and tags allow for easy customization of deployment configurations and metadata. Advanced features, including actions-on-unmanaged-resources and "What If" analysis, ensure deployments are predictable and secure. These options make it simple to integrate Azure resource management into CI/CD workflows.

Name	Description	Allowed Values	Required
`type`	Specifies the execution type, which can be either 'deployment' or 'deploymentStack'.	`deployment`, `deploymentStack`	Yes
`operation`	Specifies the operation to perform. For deployment, choose from 'create', 'validate', 'whatIf'. For deploymentStack, choose from 'create', 'delete', 'validate'.	deployment: `create`, `validate`, `whatIf` deploymentStack: `create`, `delete`, `validate`	Yes
`scope`	Specifies the scope of the deployment or deploymentStack. For deployment, choose from 'resourceGroup', 'subscription', 'managementGroup', 'tenant'. For deploymentStack, choose from 'resourceGroup', 'subscription', 'managementGroup'.	deployment: `tenant`, `managementGroup`, `subscription`, `resourceGroup` deploymentStack: `managementGroup`, `subscription`,`resourceGroup`	Yes
`name`	Specifies the name of the deployment or deploymentStack.	Free-text	No
`location`	Specifies the location of the deployment or deploymentStack. Must be provided if the 'scope' parameter is 'subscription', 'managementGroup' or 'tenant'.	Free-text	No
`tenant-id`	Specifies the tenant ID. Required if the 'scope' parameter is 'tenant'.	Free-text	No
`management-group-id`	Specifies the management group ID. Required if the 'scope' parameter is 'managementGroup'.	Free-text	No
`subscription-id`	Specifies the subscription ID. Required if the 'scope' parameter is 'subscription' or 'resourceGroup'.	Free-text	No
`resource-group-name`	Specifies the resource group name. Required if the 'scope' parameter is 'resourceGroup'.	Free-text	No
`template-file`	Specifies the path to the template file.	Free-text	No
`parameters-file`	Specifies the path to the parameters file (.json or .bicepparam).	Free-text	No
`parameters`	Specifies the inline parameters to use (as json or YAML object).	Free-text	No
`bicep-version`	Specifies the version of Bicep to use for compilation. If not provided, the latest version will be used. Example string: '0.38.5'.	Free-text	No
`masked-outputs`	Specifies output names to mask values for.	Free-text	No
`environment`	Specifies the Azure environment to use. Choose from 'azureCloud', 'azureChinaCloud', 'azureGermanCloud', 'azureUSGovernment'.	Free-text	No
`what-if-exclude-change-types`	Specifies the change types to exclude from the 'What If' operation.	Free-text	No
`validation-level`	Specifies the validation level. Only supported for deployment what-if and validate operations. Choose from 'provider', 'template', or 'providerNoRbac'.	Free-text	No
`action-on-unmanage-resources`	Specifies the action to take on unmanaged resources. Choose from 'delete' or 'detach'.	`delete`, `detach`	No
`action-on-unmanage-resourcegroups`	Specifies the action to take on unmanaged resource groups. Choose from 'delete' or 'detach'.	`delete`, `detach`	No
`action-on-unmanage-managementgroup`	Specifies the action to take on unmanaged management groups. Choose from 'delete' or 'detach'.	`delete`, `detach`	No
`deny-settings-mode`	Specifies the mode of the deny settings. Choose from 'denyDelete', 'denyWriteAndDelete', 'none'.	`denyDelete`, `denyWriteAndDelete`, `none`	No
`deny-settings-excluded-actions`	Specifies the excluded actions for the deny settings.	Free-text	No
`deny-settings-excluded-principals`	Specifies the excluded principals for the deny settings.	Free-text	No
`deny-settings-apply-to-child-scopes`	When specified, the deny setting mode configuration also applies to the child scope of the managed resources.	Free-text	No
`bypass-stack-out-of-sync-error`	Specifies whether to bypass the stack out of sync error. Choose from 'true' or 'false'.	`true`, `false`	No
`description`	Specifies the description of the deploymentStack.	Free-text	No
`tags`	Specifies the tags for the deploymentStack.	Free-text	No

Outputs

The action provides outputs from the deployment operation, which can be accessed in subsequent steps of a workflow. These outputs are useful for dynamically referencing values generated during the deployment process, such as resource IDs, endpoint URLs, or other outputs defined in Bicep templates.

Accessing Outputs

After the deployment step has been executed, outputs can be accessed using the outputs property of the step's ID. For example, if the deployment step's ID is deployment, its outputs can be accessed as ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.<outputName> }}.

- name: Print Deployment Outputs
  run: |
    echo "intOutput: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.intOutput }}"
    echo "stringOutput: ${{ steps.deployment.outputs.stringOutput }}"

Defining Outputs in Bicep

Outputs are defined in the Bicep template using the output keyword. Outputs that need to be used in the workflow must be declared in the Bicep template being deployed. For example:

output intOutput int = 42
output stringOutput string = 'Hello, World!'

For detailed guidance, refer to the Bicep Outputs documentation.

Practical Usage

Define Outputs in the Bicep Template: Declare the outputs in the .bicep file as shown above.
Reference Outputs in Workflow: Use the ${{ steps.<step_id>.outputs.<output_name> }} syntax in subsequent steps to access the values.

These outputs can then be leveraged for:

Debugging deployment results.
Passing values dynamically to other steps or jobs.
Integrating deployment results into a CI/CD pipeline.

Contributing

This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com.

When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact opencode@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.

Trademarks

This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines. Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship. Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.