Azure Functions (Durable)

The durable task extension for Microsoft Agent Framework enables you to build stateful AI agents and multi-agent deterministic orchestrations in a serverless environment on Azure.

Azure Functions is a serverless compute service that lets you run code on-demand without managing infrastructure. The durable task extension builds on this foundation to provide durable state management, meaning your agent's conversation history and execution state are reliably persisted and survive failures, restarts, and long-running operations.

Overview

Durable agents combine the power of Agent Framework with Azure Durable Functions to create agents that:

• Persist state automatically across function invocations
• Resume after failures without losing conversation context
• Scale automatically based on demand
• Orchestrate multi-agent workflows with reliable execution guarantees

When to use durable agents

Choose durable agents when you need:

• Full code control: Deploy and manage your own compute environment while maintaining serverless benefits
• Complex orchestrations: Coordinate multiple agents with deterministic, reliable workflows that can run for days or weeks
• Event-driven orchestration: Integrate with Azure Functions triggers (HTTP, timers, queues, etc.) and bindings for event-driven agent workflows
• Automatic conversation state: Agent conversation history is automatically managed and persisted without requiring explicit state handling in your code

This serverless hosting approach differs from managed service-based agent hosting (such as Azure AI Foundry Agent Service), which provides fully managed infrastructure without requiring you to deploy or manage Azure Functions apps. Durable agents are ideal when you need the flexibility of code-first deployment combined with the reliability of durable state management.

When hosted in the Azure Functions Flex Consumption hosting plan, agents can scale to thousands of instances or to zero instances when not in use, allowing you to pay only for the compute you need.

Getting started

dotnet add package Azure.AI.OpenAI --prerelease
dotnet add package Azure.Identity
dotnet add package Microsoft.Agents.AI.OpenAI --prerelease
dotnet add package Microsoft.Agents.AI.Hosting.AzureFunctions --prerelease

pip install azure-identity
pip install agent-framework-azurefunctions --pre

Serverless hosting

With the durable task extension, you can deploy and host Microsoft Agent Framework agents in Azure Functions with built-in HTTP endpoints and orchestration-based invocation. Azure Functions provides event-driven, pay-per-invocation pricing with automatic scaling and minimal infrastructure management.

When you configure a durable agent, the durable task extension automatically creates HTTP endpoints for your agent and manages all the underlying infrastructure for storing conversation state, handling concurrent requests, and coordinating multi-agent workflows.

using System;
using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.Hosting.AzureFunctions;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Builder;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;

var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT");
var deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT") ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

// Create an AI agent following the standard Microsoft Agent Framework pattern
AIAgent agent = new AzureOpenAIClient(new Uri(endpoint), new DefaultAzureCredential())
    .GetChatClient(deploymentName)
    .AsAIAgent(
        instructions: "You are good at telling jokes.",
        name: "Joker");

// Configure the function app to host the agent with durable thread management
// This automatically creates HTTP endpoints and manages state persistence
using IHost app = FunctionsApplication
    .CreateBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureFunctionsWebApplication()
    .ConfigureDurableAgents(options =>
        options.AddAIAgent(agent)
    )
    .Build();
app.Run();

import os
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient, AgentFunctionApp
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

endpoint = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
deployment_name = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME", "gpt-4o-mini")

# Create an AI agent following the standard Microsoft Agent Framework pattern
agent = AzureOpenAIChatClient(
    endpoint=endpoint,
    deployment_name=deployment_name,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
).as_agent(
    instructions="You are good at telling jokes.",
    name="Joker"
)

# Configure the function app to host the agent with durable thread management
# This automatically creates HTTP endpoints and manages state persistence
app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[agent])

Stateful agent threads with conversation history

Agents maintain persistent threads that survive across multiple interactions. Each thread is identified by a unique thread ID and stores the complete conversation history in durable storage managed by the Durable Task Scheduler.

This pattern enables conversational continuity where agent state is preserved through process crashes and restarts, allowing full conversation history to be maintained across user threads. The durable storage ensures that even if your Azure Functions instance restarts or scales to a different instance, the conversation seamlessly continues from where it left off.

The following example demonstrates multiple HTTP requests to the same thread, showing how conversation context persists:

# First interaction - start a new thread
curl -X POST https://your-function-app.azurewebsites.net/api/agents/Joker/run \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "Tell me a joke about pirates"

# Response includes thread ID in x-ms-thread-id header and joke as plain text
# HTTP/1.1 200 OK
# Content-Type: text/plain
# x-ms-thread-id: @dafx-joker@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d
#
# Why don't pirates shower before they walk the plank? Because they'll just wash up on shore later!

# Second interaction - continue the same thread with context
curl -X POST "https://your-function-app.azurewebsites.net/api/agents/Joker/run?thread_id=@dafx-joker@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "Tell me another one about the same topic"

# Agent remembers the pirate context from the first message and responds with plain text
# What's a pirate's favorite letter? You'd think it's R, but it's actually the C!

Agent state is maintained in durable storage, enabling distributed execution across multiple instances. Any instance can resume an agent's execution after interruptions or failures, ensuring continuous operation.

Deterministic multi-agent orchestrations

The durable task extension supports building deterministic workflows that coordinate multiple agents using Azure Durable Functions orchestrations.

Orchestrations are code-based workflows that coordinate multiple operations (like agent calls, external API calls, or timers) in a reliable way. Deterministic means the orchestration code executes the same way when replayed after a failure, making workflows reliable and debuggable—when you replay an orchestration's history, you can see exactly what happened at each step.

Orchestrations execute reliably, surviving failures between agent calls, and provide predictable and repeatable processes. This makes them ideal for complex multi-agent scenarios where you need guaranteed execution order and fault tolerance.

Sequential orchestrations

In the sequential multi-agent pattern, specialized agents execute in a specific order, where each agent's output can influence the next agent's execution. This pattern supports conditional logic and branching based on agent responses.

using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.DurableTask;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask;

[Function(nameof(SpamDetectionOrchestration))]
public static async Task<string> SpamDetectionOrchestration(
    [OrchestrationTrigger] TaskOrchestrationContext context)
{
    Email email = context.GetInput<Email>();

    // Check if the email is spam
    DurableAIAgent spamDetectionAgent = context.GetAgent("SpamDetectionAgent");
    AgentSession spamSession = await spamDetectionAgent.CreateSessionAsync();

    AgentResponse<DetectionResult> spamDetectionResponse = await spamDetectionAgent.RunAsync<DetectionResult>(
        message: $"Analyze this email for spam: {email.EmailContent}",
        session: spamSession);
    DetectionResult result = spamDetectionResponse.Result;

    if (result.IsSpam)
    {
        return await context.CallActivityAsync<string>(nameof(HandleSpamEmail), result.Reason);
    }

    // Generate response for legitimate email
    DurableAIAgent emailAssistantAgent = context.GetAgent("EmailAssistantAgent");
    AgentSession emailSession = await emailAssistantAgent.CreateSessionAsync();

    AgentResponse<EmailResponse> emailAssistantResponse = await emailAssistantAgent.RunAsync<EmailResponse>(
        message: $"Draft a professional response to: {email.EmailContent}",
        session: emailSession);

    return await context.CallActivityAsync<string>(nameof(SendEmail), emailAssistantResponse.Result.Response);
}

import azure.durable_functions as df
from typing import cast
from agent_framework.azure import AgentFunctionApp
from pydantic import BaseModel

class SpamDetectionResult(BaseModel):
    is_spam: bool
    reason: str

class EmailResponse(BaseModel):
    response: str

app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[spam_detection_agent, email_assistant_agent])

@app.orchestration_trigger(context_name="context")
def spam_detection_orchestration(context: df.DurableOrchestrationContext):
    email = context.get_input()

    # Check if the email is spam
    spam_agent = app.get_agent(context, "SpamDetectionAgent")
    spam_thread = spam_agent.create_session()

    spam_result_raw = yield spam_agent.run(
        messages=f"Analyze this email for spam: {email['content']}",
        session=spam_thread,
        response_format=SpamDetectionResult
    )
    spam_result = cast(SpamDetectionResult, spam_result_raw.get("structured_response"))

    if spam_result.is_spam:
        result = yield context.call_activity("handle_spam_email", spam_result.reason)
        return result

    # Generate response for legitimate email
    email_agent = app.get_agent(context, "EmailAssistantAgent")
    email_thread = email_agent.create_session()

    email_response_raw = yield email_agent.run(
        messages=f"Draft a professional response to: {email['content']}",
        session=email_thread,
        response_format=EmailResponse
    )
    email_response = cast(EmailResponse, email_response_raw.get("structured_response"))

    result = yield context.call_activity("send_email", email_response.response)
    return result

Orchestrations coordinate work across multiple agents, surviving failures between agent calls. The orchestration context provides methods to retrieve and interact with hosted agents within orchestrations.

Parallel orchestrations

In the parallel multi-agent pattern, you execute multiple agents concurrently and then aggregate their results. This pattern is useful for gathering diverse perspectives or processing independent subtasks simultaneously.

using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.DurableTask;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask;

[Function(nameof(ResearchOrchestration))]
public static async Task<string> ResearchOrchestration(
    [OrchestrationTrigger] TaskOrchestrationContext context)
{
    string topic = context.GetInput<string>();

    // Execute multiple research agents in parallel
    DurableAIAgent technicalAgent = context.GetAgent("TechnicalResearchAgent");
    DurableAIAgent marketAgent = context.GetAgent("MarketResearchAgent");
    DurableAIAgent competitorAgent = context.GetAgent("CompetitorResearchAgent");

    // Start all agent runs concurrently
    Task<AgentResponse<TextResponse>> technicalTask = 
        technicalAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>($"Research technical aspects of {topic}");
    Task<AgentResponse<TextResponse>> marketTask = 
        marketAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>($"Research market trends for {topic}");
    Task<AgentResponse<TextResponse>> competitorTask = 
        competitorAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>($"Research competitors in {topic}");

    // Wait for all tasks to complete
    await Task.WhenAll(technicalTask, marketTask, competitorTask);

    // Aggregate results
    string allResearch = string.Join("\n\n", 
        technicalTask.Result.Result.Text,
        marketTask.Result.Result.Text,
        competitorTask.Result.Result.Text);

    DurableAIAgent summaryAgent = context.GetAgent("SummaryAgent");
    AgentResponse<TextResponse> summaryResponse = 
        await summaryAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>($"Summarize this research:\n{allResearch}");

    return summaryResponse.Result.Text;
}

import azure.durable_functions as df
from agent_framework.azure import AgentFunctionApp

app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[technical_agent, market_agent, competitor_agent, summary_agent])

@app.orchestration_trigger(context_name="context")
def research_orchestration(context: df.DurableOrchestrationContext):
    topic = context.get_input()

    # Execute multiple research agents in parallel
    technical_agent = app.get_agent(context, "TechnicalResearchAgent")
    market_agent = app.get_agent(context, "MarketResearchAgent")
    competitor_agent = app.get_agent(context, "CompetitorResearchAgent")

    technical_task = technical_agent.run(messages=f"Research technical aspects of {topic}")
    market_task = market_agent.run(messages=f"Research market trends for {topic}")
    competitor_task = competitor_agent.run(messages=f"Research competitors in {topic}")

    # Wait for all tasks to complete
    results = yield context.task_all([technical_task, market_task, competitor_task])

    # Aggregate results
    all_research = "\n\n".join([r.get('response', '') for r in results])

    summary_agent = app.get_agent(context, "SummaryAgent")
    summary = yield summary_agent.run(messages=f"Summarize this research:\n{all_research}")

    return summary.get('response', '')

The parallel execution is tracked using a list of tasks. Automatic checkpointing ensures that completed agent executions are not repeated or lost if a failure occurs during aggregation.

Human-in-the-loop orchestrations

Deterministic agent orchestrations can pause for human input, approval, or review without consuming compute resources. Durable execution enables orchestrations to wait for days or even weeks while waiting for human responses. When combined with serverless hosting, all compute resources are spun down during the wait period, eliminating compute costs until the human provides their input.

using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.DurableTask;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask;

[Function(nameof(ContentApprovalWorkflow))]
public static async Task<string> ContentApprovalWorkflow(
    [OrchestrationTrigger] TaskOrchestrationContext context)
{
    string topic = context.GetInput<string>();

    // Generate content using an agent
    DurableAIAgent contentAgent = context.GetAgent("ContentGenerationAgent");
    AgentResponse<GeneratedContent> contentResponse = 
        await contentAgent.RunAsync<GeneratedContent>($"Write an article about {topic}");
    GeneratedContent draftContent = contentResponse.Result;

    // Send for human review
    await context.CallActivityAsync(nameof(NotifyReviewer), draftContent);

    // Wait for approval with timeout
    HumanApprovalResponse approvalResponse;
    try
    {
        approvalResponse = await context.WaitForExternalEvent<HumanApprovalResponse>(
            eventName: "ApprovalDecision",
            timeout: TimeSpan.FromHours(24));
    }
    catch (OperationCanceledException)
    {
        // Timeout occurred - escalate for review
        return await context.CallActivityAsync<string>(nameof(EscalateForReview), draftContent);
    }

    if (approvalResponse.Approved)
    {
        return await context.CallActivityAsync<string>(nameof(PublishContent), draftContent);
    }

    return "Content rejected";
}

import azure.durable_functions as df
from datetime import timedelta
from agent_framework.azure import AgentFunctionApp

app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[content_agent])

@app.orchestration_trigger(context_name="context")
def content_approval_workflow(context: df.DurableOrchestrationContext):
    topic = context.get_input()

    # Generate content using an agent
    content_agent = app.get_agent(context, "ContentGenerationAgent")
    draft_content = yield content_agent.run(
        messages=f"Write an article about {topic}"
    )

    # Send for human review
    yield context.call_activity("notify_reviewer", draft_content)

    # Wait for approval with timeout
    approval_task = context.wait_for_external_event("ApprovalDecision")
    timeout_task = context.create_timer(
        context.current_utc_datetime + timedelta(hours=24)
    )

    winner = yield context.task_any([approval_task, timeout_task])

    if winner == approval_task:
        timeout_task.cancel()
        approval_data = approval_task.result
        if approval_data.get("approved"):
            result = yield context.call_activity("publish_content", draft_content)
            return result
        return "Content rejected"

    # Timeout occurred - escalate for review
    result = yield context.call_activity("escalate_for_review", draft_content)
    return result

Deterministic agent orchestrations can wait for external events, durably persisting their state while waiting for human feedback, surviving failures, restarts, and extended waiting periods. When the human response arrives, the orchestration automatically resumes with full conversation context and execution state intact.

Providing human input

To send approval or input to a waiting orchestration, raise an external event to the orchestration instance using the Durable Functions client SDK. For example, a reviewer might approve content through a web form that calls:

await client.RaiseEventAsync(instanceId, "ApprovalDecision", new HumanApprovalResponse 
{ 
    Approved = true,
    Feedback = "Looks great!"
});

approval_data = {
    "approved": True,
    "feedback": "Looks great!"
}
await client.raise_event(instance_id, "ApprovalDecision", approval_data)

Cost efficiency

Human-in-the-loop workflows with durable agents are extremely cost-effective when hosted on the Azure Functions Flex Consumption plan. For a workflow waiting 24 hours for approval, you only pay for a few seconds of execution time (the time to generate content, send notification, and process the response)—not the 24 hours of waiting. During the wait period, no compute resources are consumed.

Observability with Durable Task Scheduler

The Durable Task Scheduler (DTS) is the recommended durable backend for your durable agents, offering the best performance, fully managed infrastructure, and built-in observability through a UI dashboard. While Azure Functions can use other storage backends (like Azure Storage), DTS is optimized specifically for durable workloads and provides superior performance and monitoring capabilities.

Agent session insights

• Conversation history: View complete chat history for each agent session, including all messages, tool calls, and conversation context at any point in time
• Task timing: Monitor how long specific tasks and agent interactions take to complete

Orchestration insights

• Multi-agent visualization: See the execution flow when calling multiple specialized agents with visual representation of parallel executions and conditional branching
• Execution history: Access detailed execution logs
• Real-time monitoring: Track active orchestrations, queued work items, and agent states across your deployment
• Performance metrics: Monitor agent response times, token usage, and orchestration duration

Debugging capabilities

• View structured agent outputs and tool call results
• Trace tool invocations and their outcomes
• Monitor external event handling for human-in-the-loop scenarios

The dashboard enables you to understand exactly what your agents are doing, diagnose issues quickly, and optimize performance based on real execution data.

Tutorial: Create and run a durable agent

This tutorial shows you how to create and run a durable AI agent using the durable task extension for Microsoft Agent Framework. You'll build an Azure Functions app that hosts a stateful agent with built-in HTTP endpoints, and learn how to monitor it using the Durable Task Scheduler dashboard.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

Download the quickstart project

Use Azure Developer CLI to initialize a new project from the durable agents quickstart template.

Provision Azure resources

Use Azure Developer CLI to create the required Azure resources for your durable agent.

1. Provision the infrastructure:

   azd provision
   

   This command creates:

   • An Azure OpenAI service with a gpt-4o-mini deployment
   • An Azure Functions app with Flex Consumption hosting plan
   • An Azure Storage account for the Azure Functions runtime and durable storage
   • A Durable Task Scheduler instance (Consumption plan) for managing agent state
   • Necessary networking and identity configurations

2. When prompted, select your Azure subscription and choose a location for the resources.

The provisioning process takes a few minutes. Once complete, azd stores the created resource information in your environment.

Review the agent code

Now let's examine the code that defines your durable agent.

using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.Hosting.AzureFunctions;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Builder;
using Microsoft.Extensions.AI;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using OpenAI;

var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT") 
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT environment variable is not set");
var deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT") ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

// Create an AI agent following the standard Microsoft Agent Framework pattern
AIAgent agent = new AzureOpenAIClient(new Uri(endpoint), new DefaultAzureCredential())
    .GetChatClient(deploymentName)
    .AsAIAgent(
        instructions: "You are a helpful assistant that can answer questions and provide information.",
        name: "MyDurableAgent");

using IHost app = FunctionsApplication
    .CreateBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureFunctionsWebApplication()
    .ConfigureDurableAgents(options => options.AddAIAgent(agent))
    .Build();
app.Run();

import os
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient, AgentFunctionApp
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

endpoint = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
if not endpoint:
    raise ValueError("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT is not set.")
deployment_name = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT_NAME", "gpt-4o-mini")

# Create an AI agent following the standard Microsoft Agent Framework pattern
agent = AzureOpenAIChatClient(
    endpoint=endpoint,
    deployment_name=deployment_name,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
).as_agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant that can answer questions and provide information.",
    name="MyDurableAgent"
)

# Configure the function app to host the agent with durable thread management
app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[agent])

The agent is now ready to be hosted in Azure Functions. The durable task extension automatically creates HTTP endpoints for interacting with your agent and manages conversation state across multiple requests.

Configure local settings

Create a local.settings.json file for local development based on the sample file included in the project.

1. Copy the sample settings file:

   • Bash
   • PowerShell

   cp local.settings.sample.json local.settings.json
   

1. Get your Azure OpenAI endpoint from the provisioned resources:

   azd env get-value AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT
   

2. Open local.settings.json and replace <your-resource-name> in the AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT value with the endpoint from the previous command.

Your local.settings.json should look like this:

{
  "IsEncrypted": false,
  "Values": {
    // ... other settings ...
    "AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT": "https://your-openai-resource.openai.azure.com",
    "AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT": "gpt-4o-mini",
    "TASKHUB_NAME": "default"
  }
}

Start local development dependencies

To run durable agents locally, you need to start two services:

• Azurite: Emulates Azure Storage services (used by Azure Functions for managing triggers and internal state).
• Durable Task Scheduler (DTS) emulator: Manages durable state (conversation history, orchestration state) and scheduling for your agents

Start Azurite

Azurite emulates Azure Storage services locally. The Azure Functions uses it for managing internal state. You'll need to run this in a new terminal window and keep it running while you develop and test your durable agent.

1. Open a new terminal window and pull the Azurite Docker image:

   docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/azure-storage/azurite
   

2. Start Azurite in a terminal window:

   docker run -p 10000:10000 -p 10001:10001 -p 10002:10002 mcr.microsoft.com/azure-storage/azurite
   

   Azurite will start and listen on the default ports for Blob (10000), Queue (10001), and Table (10002) services.

Keep this terminal window open while you're developing and testing your durable agent.

Start the Durable Task Scheduler emulator

The DTS emulator provides the durable backend for managing agent state and orchestrations. It stores conversation history and ensures your agent's state persists across restarts. It also triggers durable orchestrations and agents. You'll need to run this in a separate new terminal window and keep it running while you develop and test your durable agent.

1. Open another new terminal window and pull the DTS emulator Docker image:

   docker pull mcr.microsoft.com/dts/dts-emulator:latest
   

2. Run the DTS emulator:

   docker run -p 8080:8080 -p 8082:8082 mcr.microsoft.com/dts/dts-emulator:latest
   

   This command starts the emulator and exposes:

   • Port 8080: The gRPC endpoint for the Durable Task Scheduler (used by your Functions app)
   • Port 8082: The administrative dashboard

3. The dashboard will be available at http://localhost:8082.

Keep this terminal window open while you're developing and testing your durable agent.

Run the function app

Now you're ready to run your Azure Functions app with the durable agent.

1. In a new terminal window (keeping both Azurite and the DTS emulator running in separate windows), navigate to your project directory.

2. Start the Azure Functions runtime:

   func start
   

3. You should see output indicating that your function app is running, including the HTTP endpoints for your agent:

   Functions:
        http-MyDurableAgent: [POST] http://localhost:7071/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run
        dafx-MyDurableAgent: entityTrigger
   

These endpoints manage conversation state automatically - you don't need to create or manage thread objects yourself.

Test the agent locally

Now you can interact with your durable agent using HTTP requests. The agent maintains conversation state across multiple requests, enabling multi-turn conversations.

Start a new conversation

Create a new thread and send your first message:

curl -i -X POST http://localhost:7071/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "What are three popular programming languages?"

$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "http://localhost:7071/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run" `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers @{"Content-Type"="text/plain"} `
  -Body "What are three popular programming languages?"
$response.Headers
$response.Content

Sample response (note the x-ms-thread-id header contains the thread ID):

HTTP/1.1 200 OK
Content-Type: text/plain
x-ms-thread-id: @dafx-mydurableagent@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d
Content-Length: 189

Three popular programming languages are Python, JavaScript, and Java. Python is known for its simplicity and readability, JavaScript powers web interactivity, and Java is widely used in enterprise applications.

Save the thread ID from the x-ms-thread-id header (e.g., @dafx-mydurableagent@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d) for the next request.

Continue the conversation

Send a follow-up message to the same thread by including the thread ID as a query parameter:

curl -X POST "http://localhost:7071/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?thread_id=@dafx-mydurableagent@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "Which one is best for beginners?"

$threadId = "@dafx-mydurableagent@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d"
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "http://localhost:7071/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?thread_id=$threadId" `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers @{"Content-Type"="text/plain"} `
  -Body "Which one is best for beginners?"

Replace @dafx-mydurableagent@263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d with the actual thread ID from the previous response's x-ms-thread-id header.

Sample response:

Python is often considered the best choice for beginners among those three. Its clean syntax reads almost like English, making it easier to learn programming concepts without getting overwhelmed by complex syntax. It's also versatile and widely used in education.

Notice that the agent remembers the context from the previous message (the three programming languages) without you having to specify them again. Because the conversation state is stored durably by the Durable Task Scheduler, this history persists even if you restart the function app or the conversation is resumed by a different instance.

Monitor with the Durable Task Scheduler dashboard

The Durable Task Scheduler provides a built-in dashboard for monitoring and debugging your durable agents. The dashboard offers deep visibility into agent operations, conversation history, and execution flow.

Access the dashboard

1. Open the dashboard for your local DTS emulator at http://localhost:8082 in your web browser.

2. Select the default task hub from the list to view its details.

3. Select the gear icon in the top-right corner to open the settings, and ensure that the Enable Agent pages option under Preview Features is selected.

Explore agent conversations

1. In the dashboard, navigate to the Agents tab.

2. Select your durable agent thread (e.g., mydurableagent - 263fa373-fa01-4705-abf2-5a114c2bb87d) from the list.

   You'll see a detailed view of the agent thread, including the complete conversation history with all messages and responses.

   

The dashboard provides a timeline view to help you understand the flow of the conversation. Key information include:

• Timestamps and duration for each interaction
• Prompt and response content
• Number of tokens used

Deploy to Azure

Now that you've tested your durable agent locally, deploy it to Azure.

1. Deploy the application:

   azd deploy
   

   This command packages your application and deploys it to the Azure Functions app created during provisioning.

2. Wait for the deployment to complete. The output will confirm when your agent is running in Azure.

Test the deployed agent

After deployment, test your agent running in Azure.

Get the function key

Azure Functions requires an API key for HTTP-triggered functions in production:

API_KEY=`az functionapp function keys list --name $(azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME) --resource-group $(azd env get-value AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP) --function-name http-MyDurableAgent --query default -o tsv`

$functionName = azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME
$resourceGroup = azd env get-value AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP
$API_KEY = az functionapp function keys list --name $functionName --resource-group $resourceGroup --function-name http-MyDurableAgent --query default -o tsv

Start a new conversation in Azure

Create a new thread and send your first message to the deployed agent:

curl -i -X POST "https://$(azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME).azurewebsites.net/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?code=$API_KEY" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "What are three popular programming languages?"

$functionName = azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME
$response = Invoke-WebRequest -Uri "https://$functionName.azurewebsites.net/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?code=$API_KEY" `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers @{"Content-Type"="text/plain"} `
  -Body "What are three popular programming languages?"
$response.Headers
$response.Content

Note the thread ID returned in the x-ms-thread-id response header.

Continue the conversation in Azure

Send a follow-up message in the same thread. Replace <thread-id> with the thread ID from the previous response:

THREAD_ID="<thread-id>"
curl -X POST "https://$(azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME).azurewebsites.net/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?code=$API_KEY&thread_id=$THREAD_ID" \
  -H "Content-Type: text/plain" \
  -d "Which is easiest to learn?"

$THREAD_ID = "<thread-id>"
$functionName = azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME
Invoke-RestMethod -Uri "https://$functionName.azurewebsites.net/api/agents/MyDurableAgent/run?code=$API_KEY&thread_id=$THREAD_ID" `
  -Method POST `
  -Headers @{"Content-Type"="text/plain"} `
  -Body "Which is easiest to learn?"

The agent maintains conversation context in Azure just as it did locally, demonstrating the durability of the agent state.

Monitor the deployed agent

You can monitor your deployed agent using the Durable Task Scheduler dashboard in Azure.

1. Get the name of your Durable Task Scheduler instance:

   azd env get-value DTS_NAME
   

2. Open the Azure portal and search for the Durable Task Scheduler name from the previous step.

3. In the overview blade of the Durable Task Scheduler resource, select the default task hub from the list.

4. Select Open Dashboard at the top of the task hub page to open the monitoring dashboard.

5. View your agent's conversations just as you did with the local emulator.

The Azure-hosted dashboard provides the same debugging and monitoring capabilities as the local emulator, allowing you to inspect conversation history, trace tool calls, and analyze performance in your production environment.

Tutorial: Orchestrate durable agents

This tutorial shows you how to orchestrate multiple durable AI agents using the fan-out/fan-in pattern. You'll extend the durable agent from the previous tutorial to create a multi-agent system that processes a user's question, then translates the response into multiple languages concurrently.

Understanding the orchestration pattern

The orchestration you'll build follows this flow:

1. User input - A question or message from the user
2. Main agent - The MyDurableAgent from the first tutorial processes the question
3. Fan-out - The main agent's response is sent concurrently to both translation agents
4. Translation agents - Two specialized agents translate the response (French and Spanish)
5. Fan-in - Results are aggregated into a single JSON response with the original response and translations

This pattern enables concurrent processing, reducing total response time compared to sequential translation.

Register agents at startup

To properly use agents in durable orchestrations, register them at application startup. They can be used across orchestration executions.

using System;
using Azure.AI.OpenAI;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.Hosting.AzureFunctions;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker.Builder;
using Microsoft.Extensions.Hosting;
using OpenAI;
using OpenAI.Chat;

// Get the Azure OpenAI configuration
string endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT is not set.");
string deploymentName = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT")
    ?? "gpt-4o-mini";

// Create the Azure OpenAI client
AzureOpenAIClient client = new(new Uri(endpoint), new DefaultAzureCredential());
ChatClient chatClient = client.GetChatClient(deploymentName);

// Create the main agent from the first tutorial
AIAgent mainAgent = chatClient.AsAIAgent(
    instructions: "You are a helpful assistant that can answer questions and provide information.",
    name: "MyDurableAgent");

// Create translation agents
AIAgent frenchAgent = chatClient.AsAIAgent(
    instructions: "You are a translator. Translate the following text to French. Return only the translation, no explanations.",
    name: "FrenchTranslator");

AIAgent spanishAgent = chatClient.AsAIAgent(
    instructions: "You are a translator. Translate the following text to Spanish. Return only the translation, no explanations.",
    name: "SpanishTranslator");

// Build and configure the Functions host
using IHost app = FunctionsApplication
    .CreateBuilder(args)
    .ConfigureFunctionsWebApplication()
    .ConfigureDurableAgents(options =>
    {
        // Register all agents for use in orchestrations and HTTP endpoints
        options.AddAIAgent(mainAgent);
        options.AddAIAgent(frenchAgent);
        options.AddAIAgent(spanishAgent);
    })
    .Build();

app.Run();

import os
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
from agent_framework.azure import AzureOpenAIChatClient, AgentFunctionApp

# Get the Azure OpenAI configuration
endpoint = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT")
if not endpoint:
    raise ValueError("AZURE_OPENAI_ENDPOINT is not set.")
deployment_name = os.getenv("AZURE_OPENAI_DEPLOYMENT", "gpt-4o-mini")

# Create the Azure OpenAI client
chat_client = AzureOpenAIChatClient(
    endpoint=endpoint,
    deployment_name=deployment_name,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
)

# Create the main agent from the first tutorial
main_agent = chat_client.as_agent(
    instructions="You are a helpful assistant that can answer questions and provide information.",
    name="MyDurableAgent"
)

# Create translation agents
french_agent = chat_client.as_agent(
    instructions="You are a translator. Translate the following text to French. Return only the translation, no explanations.",
    name="FrenchTranslator"
)

spanish_agent = chat_client.as_agent(
    instructions="You are a translator. Translate the following text to Spanish. Return only the translation, no explanations.",
    name="SpanishTranslator"
)

# Create the function app and register all agents
app = AgentFunctionApp(agents=[main_agent, french_agent, spanish_agent])

Create an orchestration function

An orchestration function coordinates the workflow across multiple agents. It retrieves registered agents from the durable context and orchestrates their execution, first calling the main agent, then fanning out to translation agents concurrently.

using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.DurableTask;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;
using Microsoft.DurableTask;

namespace MyDurableAgent;

public static class AgentOrchestration
{
    // Define a strongly-typed response structure for agent outputs
    public sealed record TextResponse(string Text);

    [Function("agent_orchestration_workflow")]
    public static async Task<Dictionary<string, string>> AgentOrchestrationWorkflow(
        [OrchestrationTrigger] TaskOrchestrationContext context)
    {
        var input = context.GetInput<string>() ?? throw new ArgumentNullException(nameof(context), "Input cannot be null");

        // Step 1: Get the main agent's response
        DurableAIAgent mainAgent = context.GetAgent("MyDurableAgent");
        AgentResponse<TextResponse> mainResponse = await mainAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>(input);
        string agentResponse = mainResponse.Result.Text;

        // Step 2: Fan out - get the translation agents and run them concurrently
        DurableAIAgent frenchAgent = context.GetAgent("FrenchTranslator");
        DurableAIAgent spanishAgent = context.GetAgent("SpanishTranslator");

        Task<AgentResponse<TextResponse>> frenchTask = frenchAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>(agentResponse);
        Task<AgentResponse<TextResponse>> spanishTask = spanishAgent.RunAsync<TextResponse>(agentResponse);

        // Step 3: Wait for both translation tasks to complete (fan-in)
        await Task.WhenAll(frenchTask, spanishTask);

        // Get the translation results
        TextResponse frenchResponse = (await frenchTask).Result;
        TextResponse spanishResponse = (await spanishTask).Result;

        // Step 4: Combine results into a dictionary
        var result = new Dictionary<string, string>
        {
            ["original"] = agentResponse,
            ["french"] = frenchResponse.Text,
            ["spanish"] = spanishResponse.Text
        };

        return result;
    }
}

import azure.durable_functions as df

@app.orchestration_trigger(context_name="context")
def agent_orchestration_workflow(context: df.DurableOrchestrationContext):
    """
    Orchestration function that coordinates multiple agents.
    Returns a dictionary with the original response and translations.
    """
    input_text = context.get_input()

    # Step 1: Get the main agent's response
    main_agent = app.get_agent(context, "MyDurableAgent")
    main_response = yield main_agent.run(input_text)
    agent_response = main_response.text

    # Step 2: Fan out - get the translation agents and run them concurrently
    french_agent = app.get_agent(context, "FrenchTranslator")
    spanish_agent = app.get_agent(context, "SpanishTranslator")

    parallel_tasks = [
        french_agent.run(agent_response),
        spanish_agent.run(agent_response)
    ]

    # Step 3: Wait for both translation tasks to complete (fan-in)
    translations = yield context.task_all(parallel_tasks) # type: ignore

    # Step 4: Combine results into a dictionary
    result = {
        "original": agent_response,
        "french": translations[0].text,
        "spanish": translations[1].text
    }

    return result

Test the orchestration

Ensure your local development dependencies from the first tutorial are still running:

• Azurite in one terminal window
• Durable Task Scheduler emulator in another terminal window

With your local development dependencies running:

1. Start your Azure Functions app in a new terminal window:

   func start
   

2. The Durable Functions extension automatically creates built-in HTTP endpoints for managing orchestrations. Start the orchestration using the built-in API:

   • Bash
   • PowerShell

   curl -X POST http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/orchestrators/agent_orchestration_workflow \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '"\"What are three popular programming languages?\""'
   

1. The response includes URLs for managing the orchestration instance:

   {
     "id": "abc123def456",
     "statusQueryGetUri": "http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/instances/abc123def456",
     "sendEventPostUri": "http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/instances/abc123def456/raiseEvent/{eventName}",
     "terminatePostUri": "http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/instances/abc123def456/terminate",
     "purgeHistoryDeleteUri": "http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/instances/abc123def456"
   }
   

2. Query the orchestration status using the statusQueryGetUri (replace abc123def456 with your actual instance ID):

   • Bash
   • PowerShell

   curl http://localhost:7071/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/instances/abc123def456
   

1. Poll the status endpoint until runtimeStatus is Completed. When complete, you'll see the orchestration output with the main agent's response and its translations:

   {
     "name": "agent_orchestration_workflow",
     "instanceId": "abc123def456",
     "runtimeStatus": "Completed",
     "output": {
       "original": "Three popular programming languages are Python, JavaScript, and Java. Python is known for its simplicity...",
       "french": "Trois langages de programmation populaires sont Python, JavaScript et Java. Python est connu pour sa simplicité...",
       "spanish": "Tres lenguajes de programación populares son Python, JavaScript y Java. Python es conocido por su simplicidad..."
     }
   }
   

Monitor the orchestration in the dashboard

The Durable Task Scheduler dashboard provides visibility into your orchestration:

1. Open http://localhost:8082 in your browser.

2. Select the "default" task hub.

3. Select the "Orchestrations" tab.

4. Find your orchestration instance in the list.

5. Select the instance to see:

   • The orchestration timeline
   • Main agent execution followed by concurrent translation agents
   • Each agent execution (MyDurableAgent, then French and Spanish translators)
   • Fan-out and fan-in patterns visualized
   • Timing and duration for each step

Deploy the orchestration to Azure

Deploy the updated application using Azure Developer CLI:

azd deploy

This deploys your updated code with the new orchestration function and additional agents to the Azure Functions app created in the first tutorial.

Test the deployed orchestration

After deployment, test your orchestration running in Azure.

1. Get the system key for the durable extension:

   • Bash
   • PowerShell

   SYSTEM_KEY=$(az functionapp keys list --name $(azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME) --resource-group $(azd env get-value AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP) --query "systemKeys.durabletask_extension" -o tsv)
   

1. Start the orchestration using the built-in API:

   • Bash
   • PowerShell

   curl -X POST "https://$(azd env get-value AZURE_FUNCTION_NAME).azurewebsites.net/runtime/webhooks/durabletask/orchestrators/agent_orchestration_workflow?code=$SYSTEM_KEY" \
     -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
     -d '"\"What are three popular programming languages?\""'
   

1. Use the statusQueryGetUri from the response to poll for completion and view the results with translations.

Next steps

Additional resources:

• Durable Task Scheduler Overview
• Durable Task Scheduler Dashboard
• Azure Functions Flex Consumption Plan
• Durable Functions patterns and concepts