I know that when I started building web apps, actually deploying my app to the web was the part that seemed the most out of reach. Speaking to a lot of other developers about their early experiences of web dev, I hear that story again and again. I even have many friends who are accomplished software engineers who don’t want anyone to know that they have never deployed a personal project to the web.
 
Once you’ve deployed something once, you’ll realise that it’s not so hard to get something up and running on the web, but the world of dev ops is growing and there is aways more to learn about how to manage your deployment. Whether you’re just getting started or expanding your skill set, there’s always room for a bit of help!
 
Over the last few months, I’ve been excited to play with the GitHub Copilot for Azure extension in VS Code, which is now in public preview!
 
Putting this extension through its paces, I tried to relive my first experiences of working with web apps now with GitHub Copilot for Azure on my team. After this experience, here are my top five prompt topics that I think are really great for new web app developers that I wish I had 10 years ago when I got started!
 

1. Skip the search engines and get relevant info right from your IDE.



For those who are new to deploying something  a web search of “how do I deploy a web app” seems pretty likely! Maybe you’ve heard about a few different deployment options, but how to actually get started with them is going to need a bit of research.

But the wider internet is full of people with a huge range of set ups, deploying a wide range of projects with different requirements and complexities. It’s easy to get lost in a Stack Overflow thread thinking “is this relevant to me???”.

Asking GitHub Copilot for Azure “Can you help me put my website on the internet” told me about the simplest service to use, provided me a link to the Azure Developer CLI documentation, and gave me suggested questions for my next steps!

Reflecting on my first experiences, knowing that you are following the right path and knowing what are useful things to think about and ask were the things I was the most uncertain about, so this was a great first step.





2. Discover services and templates you wouldn’t otherwise know about!


A simple statement like “I want to make a web app with Python”, could help you discover a bunch of resources that already exist! This response told me about AZD (Azure Developer CLI) as well as a template that exists for a Python Django web app that deploys on Azure App Service. 





If you haven’t heard of AZD before, this could be a game changer! AZD help you deploy from the command line in only a few keystrokes, and it has a best buddy, Awesome AZD, where a bunch of AZD templates live! Awesome AZD is full of different templates for common combinations of tech, for example here Python, Django, and Azure App Service. When it comes to dev ops there is a lot to know, but there’s no reason that you need to reinvent the wheel, especially if you are getting started and building a basic app. Awesome AZD apps have the dev ops covered for you by including infrastructure as code files (like Bicep files), that will configure your resources for you when you deploy your app using AZD. 



Once you see the different template options available on Awesome AZD, you might have questions on what is the best service to deploy your web app with, which you can once again ask to GitHub Copilot for Azure to get well informed and concise answers, as well as suggestions for questions on other topics you might want to consider, like cost management.

  



3. Get the step-by-step instruction you need and skip the copy and paste!


I am really loving not leaving VS Code as I go through the process of deploying something using the command line. Not only does the GitHub Copilot for Azure give you all the steps you need to deploy a web app (based on the actual documentation), all without having to leave your IDE, it also means you can skip the copy-paste routine that is normally associated with using command line prompts for the first time (at least for me!).

It gives you the necessary steps in a quickly easy to read format, but it also gives you the “Insert in Terminal” button (and keyboard shortcut) to make it easier, faster, and just less fiddly!

What is really great is it also crafts its answers based on the knowledge of your code base. If you have a file open it will automatically include that context when it creates a response for you. For projects started from AZD templates it will be able to give you all the quick and easy steps for initialising your project with AD, logging into to Azure from the terminal, and then deploying your web app right there in the command line.

This has to be the best thing by far for beginner deployers. With a few clicks of “Insert into Terminal” you can get your template up and running on the web. Then you have all the tools you need to build on your template and to continue to deploy new versions.




4. Interrogate your own Azure account in natural language to get IDs, app names, and more 



Sometimes you just want a bit of information about a resource you have deployed, like what region it is in. Or maybe you want a list of all the resources you have on a particular service, or subscription.

You could get all that info by trawling through the Azure portal manually or jumping into the Azure Resource Graph and crafting a query. But I’d personally rather just have the answer!


It's super-fast to get questions like that answered now without leaving VS Code, with quick natural language questions.

Once you have the name of a resource it’s easy to ask even more questions about it. Like getting the region it’s deployed in, or the date the resource was created.

I think this is the biggest time saver of all the prompts. The questions are so simple, but finding what you need in the Azure portal might take you a while, especially if you are new to it!



5. Get tips on how to use the Azure portal! 


Sometimes GitHub Copilot for Azure isn’t the right tool for the question you have. But you’re not all alone now! 

If you are new to the Azure portal, you might not know where everything is (I know I still find new things all the time!). When GitHub Copilot for Azure can’t give you the answer directly inside VS Code, it will give you instructions on how to get to the location in the Azure portal that will help you get your task done, and allow you to engage with a more rich Azure experience in the portal for seeing visualisations, building more sophisticated queries in for Azure Resource Graph, and more.

The Azure portal is really powerful once you know how to use it, so having a guide to where you need to look and what options you need to select is a huge help in getting your configuration set up and interacting with the full breadth of Azure functionality.

Give it a try!

These are just a few of the things I have tried with the GitHub Copilot for Azure extension in VS Code, and are some of the greatest things I’ve seen for new web developers hoping to deploy their first few web apps (and also just for anyone who is deploying things on Azure!). I hope you give these and many more prompts a try! I’ve had a lot of fun seeing what GitHub Copilot for Azure extension in VS Code can do as well as learning myself the best way to ask questions to get some spot-on answers!