/azure-enterprise-infra-planner

Phase 3: Research Resources

The goal of this phase is to research Azure resources before generating the plan.

Step 1 - Resource Refinement

Cross reference WAF

Read WAF cross-cutting checklist. For every checklist item, either:

• Add missing resources / harden properties, or;
• Document the intentional omission in overallReasoning.tradeoffs and inputs.subGoals.

Insights Integration

Read .azure/insights.json produced by Phase 1 and evaluate each insight against the current workload and sub-goals identified in Phase 2:

• If an insight applies, prefer it over defaults — especially for region, SKU tier, security posture, naming, and tagging.
• If an insight doesn't apply, document the intentional omission in overallReasoning.tradeoffs.
• Insights can shape both resource selection and property configuration.
• Track each insight you apply in inputs.insightsApplied so the user can trace why a decision was made.

Mandatory Security rule: only apply a security-related insight if it results in an equal or stronger security posture than the alternatives. A weaker security posture from an insight is only acceptable when the user has explicitly requested it in the initial prompt.

Step 2 - Resource Lookup

Mandatory: Complete this step for every resource before generating the plan. WAF tools from Phase 2 provide architecture guidance, but do not provide ARM types, naming rules, or pairing constraints. This step fills those gaps.

For each resource identified since Phase 1:

1. Read the relevant resource reference file to get its ARM type, API version, and CAF prefix. Use resources/README.md as the index to help you find the right file (e.g., resources/compute-infra.md for AKS, resources/data-analytics.md for Cosmos DB).
2. Read the relevant pairing constraint file using constraints/README.md as the index. Each category file is <2K tokens, you must read the whole file for all resources in that category.
3. Required — for every resource, spawn a general-purpose sub-agent to fetch its naming rules. Pass the naming rules URL from the resource file and instruct the sub-agent to call microsoft_docs_fetch and return only the min/max length, allowed characters, and uniqueness scope. The resource file's CAF prefix is a style convention only — it does not capture these ARM-enforced constraints, so this step cannot be skipped.

Important Tip: Only load the category files you need. For a plan with AKS + Cosmos DB + VNet + Key Vault, you'd load 4 constraint files and 4 resource files (~5.5K tokens total) instead of the full catalog (~22K tokens).

After completing the steps above, verify from the tool results:

1. Type — Correct Microsoft.* resource type and API version
2. SKU — Available in target region, appropriate for workload
3. Region — Service available, data residency met
4. Name — CAF-compliant naming constraints
5. Dependencies — All prerequisites identified and ordered
6. Properties — Required properties per resource schema
7. Alternatives — At least one alternative with tradeoff documented

Gate

• Every resource has an ARM type, naming rules, and pairing constraints checked.
• Present the preliminary resource list to the user with brief justifications and wait for approval before proceeding.