Microsoft AI Tour 2026

🔥BRK441: Build and launch AI agents fast with Foundry Toolkit for VS Code

If you will be delivering this session, check the session-delivery-sources folder for slides, scripts, and other resources.

Session Description

Build and ship AI agents fast with Microsoft Foundry Models and Azure. Prototype with open models, scale with Foundry models, and streamline workflows using the Microsoft Foundry Toolkit in VS Code. Experiment with models and prompts, evaluate agent responses, then move from prototype to cloud with cutting-edge developer tools.

🧠 Learning Outcomes

By the end of this session, learners will be able to:

• Explore and compare models with the Microsoft Foundry Toolkit Playground; iterate over prompts using the Agent Builder and evaluate results on a test dataset.
• Move from prototype to code, combining your models and prompts with your app code with Visual Studio Code and Microsoft Foundry.
• Go smoothly into production by leveraging pre-built enterprise-ready features of Microsoft Foundry to deploy, safeguard and monitor your AI agent over time.

💻 Technologies Used

1. Visual Studio Code
2. Microsoft Foundry Toolkit extension for Visual Studio Code
3. GitHub Copilot Agent Mode
4. GitHub Copilot for Azure

🔗 Session Resources

Resources	Links	Description
Microsoft Foundry Toolkit	https://aka.ms/foundrytk	A comprehensive extension that empowers developers and AI engineers to build, test, and deploy intelligent applications using generative AI models
GitHub Copilot Agent Mode	https://code.visualstudio.com/docs/copilot/chat/chat-agent-mode	With chat agent mode in Visual Studio Code, you can use natural language to specify a high-level task, and let AI autonomously reason about the request, plan the work needed, and apply the changes to your codebase.
GitHub Copilot for Azure	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/developer/github-copilot-azure/get-started	Get started with GitHub Copilot for Azure to streamline your development workflow and enhance your productivity on the Azure platform.

📚 Continued Learning Resources

Resources	Links	Description
AI Tour 2026 Resource Center	https://aka.ms/AITour26-Resource-center	Links to all repos for AI Tour 26 Sessions
Microsoft Foundry Community Discord		Connect with the Microsoft Foundry Community!
Learn at AI Tour	https://aka.ms/LearnAtAITour	Continue learning on Microsoft Learn

🌐 Multi-Language Support

Additional languages are coming soon.

Content Owners

April Gittens 📢

Bethany Jepchumba 📢

🚀 Try Azure for Free!

You might need an Azure subscription to follow the steps in this repo. 👉 Start your free journey here: https://aka.ms/devrelft

This Azure Free Trial provides $200 credit for 30 days. Some features may incur costs after the trial. Check the Azure pricing calculator to estimate costs.

[!IMPORTANT]
Free Tier Limitations: The Azure free subscription has significant constraints that may prevent full implementation of this repo:

• Model access: Some advanced models (e.g., GPT-5, Claude) may not be available or have very limited quotas
• Rate limits: Strict API call limi