Azure Cosmos DB Resource Manager .NET: Account & Container Management

What This Skill Does

Azure Resource Manager SDK for Cosmos DB in .NET. Use for MANAGEMENT PLANE operations: creating/managing Cosmos DB accounts, databases, containers, throughput settings, and RBAC via Azure Resource Manager. NOT for data plane operations (CRUD on documents) - use Microsoft.Azure.Cosmos for that. Triggers: "Cosmos DB account", "create Cosmos account", "manage Cosmos resources", "ARM Cosmos", "CosmosDBAccountResource", "provision Cosmos DB".

Important: This is a management plane SDK. It handles resource provisioning, configuration, and lifecycle management through Azure Resource Manager. For data plane operations (working with the data itself), use the corresponding client SDK.

When to Use It

This skill is designed for .NET/C# developers working with Azure cloud services. Reach for it when you need to:

• Integrate Azure Resource Manager Cosmosdb capabilities into your application
• Follow SDK best practices for authentication, error handling, and resource management
• Understand the correct API patterns and client initialization

Key Capabilities

Authentication

Azure SDK skills use DefaultAzureCredential for flexible authentication that works across development and production:

# Supports managed identity, CLI credentials, environment variables
# No hardcoded keys needed

Core Operations

The skill covers the primary operations for this service:

Client initialization — Proper setup with credential providers and configuration

Resource operations — Create, read, update, and delete operations specific to this service

Error handling — Azure-specific exception patterns and retry strategies

Async support — Both synchronous and asynchronous client patterns where available

Best Practices

• Use managed identity in production — Avoid storing credentials in code or config files
• Handle throttling gracefully — Azure services have rate limits; implement exponential backoff
• Log operations — Enable SDK logging for debugging without exposing sensitive data
• Pin SDK versions — Use specific versions in production to avoid breaking changes

Common Patterns

Resource Lifecycle

Most Azure SDK operations follow a consistent pattern:

Create a credential object

Initialize the service client with the credential and endpoint

Perform operations through the client

Handle responses and errors consistently

Configuration

Keep service endpoints, resource names, and other configuration in environment variables or Azure App Configuration rather than hardcoding them.

When NOT to Use

• Data plane operations — Use the corresponding client SDK for working with data directly
• Multi-cloud deployments — Consider cloud-agnostic abstractions if you need portability
• Simple HTTP calls — If you only need one API call, the REST API might be simpler than the full SDK

Related Resources

• Azure SDK for .NET/C# documentation
• Azure Resource Manager Cosmosdb documentation