AZD: AI assistant

AZD uses AI to write pull request text and commit messages, review pull requests and explain pipeline logs. It works right after installation with the built-in AZD provider. You can add your own providers and edit the prompts.

Write: Pull request titles and descriptions, updated descriptions and commit messages; see AZD: Generate titles, descriptions and commit messages.
Review: AI Chat about a pull request, the guided AI Auto Review and AI draft comments; see AZD: Review pull requests with AI. To polish a comment, see Polish a comment with AI.
Act: With MCP tools, AI Chat can read and change work items, pull requests and pipelines; see Let AI act on Azure DevOps with MCP tools.
Explain pipelines: Chat about a pipeline log; see Analyze a stage log with AI.

Data and privacy

AI features send the text they work on, such as commit messages, diffs, pull request descriptions and comments, to the AI provider you select.

The built-in AZD provider runs a GPT model deployed on the plugin author's Azure subscription. No data is stored or collected; the endpoint only serves each request and response.
With OpenAI, Claude or Gemini, the data goes to that service under your own API key and its terms.
With Ollama or another server on your machine or local network, the data stays on that server.

While the AZD provider is active, AZD shows the notification AZD AI uses a cloud model by default once per IDE session. Click Open AI settings to change the provider, or Don't show again to hide the notification. For details, see the privacy policy.

To stop sending data to the AZD provider, add and enable another provider, or turn AI off; see Turn AI features on or off.

Turn AI features on or off

Turn AI assistance on or off

Open the Settings dialog (Ctrl+Alt+S, macOS: ⌘ ,) and select Version Control | AZD | AI Settings.
Select or clear Enable AI assistance. AI is on by default.
Click OK.

When AI is off, AZD hides the AI generation buttons and the Review with AI item of the right-click menus. The Pull Request Actions (⋮) menu still lists Review with AI, but its AI Chat items are disabled. The page also has these options:

Enable MCP Tools: Lets AI Chat act on Azure DevOps through MCP tools. Off by default; see Let AI act on Azure DevOps with MCP tools.
Show illustrations in AI review tour: Shows a cover image on the first card of AI Auto Review; see Run AI Auto Review.

Configure AI providers

The AI Providers table on the AI Settings page lists the configured providers with their Provider, Model and Enabled state. On first start, the table has one row: the AZD provider with the AZD GPT-5.4 Mini model, enabled and active.

Enabled providers appear in the provider lists of the AI buttons and menus. The provider you select there becomes the active one. Selecting the Enabled checkbox in the table also makes that provider active.

Add an AI provider

In Settings | Version Control | AZD | AI Settings, click + above the AI Providers table.
In the Add AI Provider dialog, select the Provider and the Model, and fill in the fields that the provider needs; see AZD: AI assistant.
Click Test Connection.
Select Enabled and click OK. If you enable a provider without a successful test, AZD asks whether to continue; click Test First or Continue.

The Add AI Provider and Edit AI Provider dialogs have these fields:

Provider: AZD, OpenAI, Claude, Gemini or Ollama.
Model: The models that AZD knows for the provider. You can also type a model name. For Ollama, click Fetch Models to list the models installed on the server.
API Key: Your key for the provider. The AZD and Ollama providers do not need one. OpenAI, Claude and Gemini need one for their official endpoints, but not for a custom URL on localhost or a private network. AZD stores keys in the IDE password safe.
API URL: Leave it blank to use the provider's default URL. Enter a URL to use a proxy or a compatible server, for example http://localhost:11434 for Ollama.
Enabled: Makes the provider available in the AI buttons and menus.
Test Connection: Sends a test request with the current values. If the test fails, the message names the cause, for example Authentication failed. Please check your API key. or Your API key's plan has no quota for this model.

To edit, remove or reorder providers, select a row and use the buttons above the table.

Configure prompts

Expand Configure Prompts on the AI Settings page. Select a prompt on the left to edit its text on the right. Clearing the checkbox of a prompt makes its text read-only. For some prompts it also turns off the features that use them, as listed below.

Pull Request title prompt: Generates pull request titles. Placeholders: {commits}, {diffs}. Clearing the checkbox only makes the prompt read-only; title generation stays available.
Pull Request Description Prompt: Generates and updates pull request descriptions. Placeholders: {existingDescription}, {commits}, {diffs}. Clearing the checkbox hides the description AI buttons.
Commit message prompt: Generates commit messages. Placeholders: {workItem}, {diffs}. Clearing the checkbox hides the commit message AI button.
PR Code Review: Not used by the current AI features. AI Chat and AI Auto Review use built-in review instructions.
Diff Comment Review: The default prompt of the Generate AI Code Review dialog. Placeholder: {diff}. Clearing the checkbox removes AI Auto Review from the right-click menu, and turns off the AI draft comments button and the AI button in comment editors.

Keep the placeholders in your text; AZD replaces them with the data of the current pull request or commit.

02 October 2026