Azure DevOps CLI Setup (macOS)

Install Azure CLI via Homebrew, add the Azure DevOps extension, log in, configure defaults, and verify the full setup with a sanity check. macOS only.

Announce at start: "I'm using the azure-devops-cli skill to set up Azure DevOps CLI tools."

Prerequisites — macOS Guard

Before anything else, confirm the OS is macOS:

if [ "$(uname -s)" != "Darwin" ]; then
  echo "ERROR: This skill is macOS-only. Detected OS: $(uname -s)" >&2
  exit 1
fi

If not macOS, stop and inform the user this skill only supports macOS with Homebrew.

Step 1 — Homebrew

Check if Homebrew is installed:

command -v brew

If missing, install it:

/bin/bash -c "$(curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/Homebrew/install/HEAD/install.sh)"

After install, ensure brew is on PATH by evaluating the shellenv:

eval "$(/opt/homebrew/bin/brew shellenv)"

Step 2 — Install Azure CLI

Check if az is already installed:

az --version 2>/dev/null

If not installed, run:

brew update && brew install azure-cli

If already installed, skip and move on.

Step 3 — Install Azure DevOps Extension

Check if the extension is present:

az extension show --name azure-devops 2>/dev/null

If not present, install it:

az extension add --name azure-devops

Step 4 — Login

Check if the user is already logged in:

az account show 2>/dev/null

If not logged in (command fails), run interactive login:

az login

This opens a browser window for authentication. Wait for the user to complete the flow.

After login, display the active subscription:

az account show --query "{Subscription:name, TenantId:tenantId}" -o table

Step 5 — Configure Defaults

Ask the user for their Azure DevOps organization URL and project name:

What is your Azure DevOps organization URL?
(e.g. https://dev.azure.com/my-org)

What is your default project name?
(e.g. my-project)

Then configure:

az devops configure --defaults organization=<ORG_URL> project=<PROJECT_NAME>

Verify the defaults were saved:

az devops configure --list

Step 6 — Sanity Check

Run all checks and collect pass/fail results. Present as a summary table.

echo "=== Azure DevOps CLI Sanity Check ==="

# 1. CLI installed
echo -n "az CLI installed ........... "
az --version >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "PASS" || echo "FAIL"

# 2. DevOps extension
echo -n "azure-devops extension ..... "
az extension show --name azure-devops >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "PASS" || echo "FAIL"

# 3. Logged in
echo -n "Logged in .................. "
az account show >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "PASS" || echo "FAIL"

# 4. Defaults configured
echo -n "Defaults configured ........ "
az devops configure --list 2>/dev/null | grep -q "organization" && echo "PASS" || echo "FAIL"

# 5. End-to-end connectivity
echo -n "DevOps connectivity ........ "
az devops project list --top 1 >/dev/null 2>&1 && echo "PASS" || echo "FAIL"

echo "======================================"

Troubleshooting Failures

Check	Fix
az CLI installed	Run `brew install azure-cli`
azure-devops extension	Run `az extension add --name azure-devops`
Logged in	Run `az login`
Defaults configured	Run `az devops configure --defaults organization=<URL> project=<NAME>`
DevOps connectivity	Verify org URL is correct and you have network access

If any check fails, re-run the corresponding step above, then re-run the sanity check.

Quick Reference

Task	Command
List projects	`az devops project list`
List repos	`az repos list`
Create a repo	`az repos create --name <name>`
List pipelines	`az pipelines list`
Trigger a pipeline run	`az pipelines run --name <name>`
List work items (query)	`az boards query --wiql "SELECT ... FROM WorkItems"`
Create a work item	`az boards work-item create --type Task --title "<title>"`
List PRs	`az repos pr list`
Create a PR	`az repos pr create --title "<title>" --source-branch <branch>`
Show current defaults	`az devops configure --list`
Switch organization	`az devops configure --defaults organization=<URL>`
Switch project	`az devops configure --defaults project=<NAME>`

azure-devops-cli