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Jeremiah Justin Barias
Jeremiah Justin Barias

Posted on • Originally published at justinbarias.github.io on

From YAML to Production: Deploying HoloDeck Agents to Azure Container Apps

#agents #ai #azure #devops

From YAML to Production: Deploying HoloDeck Agents to Azure Container Apps

Your agent works locally. The evaluations pass. Chat sessions flow smoothly. Now comes the question every agent developer faces: how do I get this thing into production?

Traditionally, this is where the real work begins—Dockerfiles, container registries, Kubernetes manifests, ingress controllers, health checks. But with HoloDeck's new deploy command, you can go from a local YAML configuration to a production endpoint in a few commands. No Kubernetes required.

In this guide, we'll walk through deploying a customer support agent to Azure Container Apps.

The Customer Support Agent

Let's start with what we're deploying. The customer-support agent in sample/customer-support/ollama/ (from github.com/justinbarias/holodeck-samples) is a context-aware support chatbot with:

  • Knowledge base search via vector stores for product documentation
  • FAQ lookup for quick answers to common questions
  • Product catalog search for subscription plans and pricing
  • Conversation memory via MCP for context persistence

Here's the core configuration:

name: customer-support
description: Context-aware customer support agent with knowledge base integration

model:
  provider: ollama
  name: gpt-oss:20b
  temperature: 0.3
  max_tokens: 4096
  endpoint: http://truenas.home:11434

instructions:
  file: instructions/system-prompt.md

tools:
  # Knowledge Base - Product documentation and support articles
  - name: knowledge_base
    type: vectorstore
    description: Search product documentation and support articles
    database: chromadb
    embedding_model: nomic-embed-text:latest
    top_k: 5
    source: data/knowledge_base.md

  # FAQ Database - Frequently asked questions
  - name: faq
    type: vectorstore
    description: Search frequently asked questions for quick answers
    database: chromadb
    embedding_model: nomic-embed-text:latest
    source: data/faq.json
    top_k: 3

  # Memory - Conversation persistence via MCP
  - name: memory
    type: mcp
    description: Store and retrieve conversation context
    command: npx
    args:
      - "-y"
      - "@modelcontextprotocol/server-memory"
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No Python code. Just YAML. The agent knows how to search documentation, look up FAQs, and remember conversation context—all defined declaratively.

Adding Deployment Configuration

To deploy this agent, we add a deployment section to agent.yaml. This tells HoloDeck where to push the container image and which cloud provider to use:

deployment:
  registry:
    url: ghcr.io
    repository: justinbarias/customer-support-agent
  target:
    provider: azure
    azure:
      subscription_id: <guid-of-subscription-id>
      resource_group: holodeck-aca
      environment_name: holodeck-env
      location: australiaeast
  protocol: rest
  port: 8080
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Let's break this down:

Field Description
registry.url Container registry (GitHub Container Registry in this case)
registry.repository Repository name for the image
target.provider Cloud provider (azure, aws, or gcp)
target.azure.* Azure-specific settings—subscription, resource group, environment
protocol API protocol (rest or ag-ui for CopilotKit)
port Port the agent listens on

Building the Container Image

With the deployment configuration in place, building the image is a single command:

holodeck deploy build agent.yaml
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Here's what happens:

Loading agent configuration from agent.yaml...

Build Configuration:
  Agent: customer-support
  Image: ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda
  Platform: linux/amd64
  Protocol: rest
  Port: 8080

Preparing build context...
Connecting to Docker...
Building image ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda...

============================================================
  Build Successful!
============================================================

  Image: ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda
  ID: sha256:b7e145183148...

  Next steps:
    Run locally: docker run -p 8080:8080 ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda
    Push to registry: docker push ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda
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Behind the scenes, HoloDeck:

  1. Generates a Dockerfile using the holodeck-base image
  2. Copies your agent files (agent.yaml, instructions, data directories)
  3. Creates an entrypoint script that runs holodeck serve
  4. Builds the image with OCI-compliant labels
  5. Tags it with the current git SHA (3443eda)

Want to see what would be built without actually building? Use --dry-run:

holodeck deploy build agent.yaml --dry-run
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This shows the generated Dockerfile and build context without executing anything.

Pushing to Registry

The holodeck deploy push command is planned but not yet implemented. For now, use Docker directly:

# Login to GitHub Container Registry
docker login ghcr.io -u USERNAME

# Push the image
docker push ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda


The push refers to repository [ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent]
c57f153dc3b1: Pushed
cab5b36daf6a: Pushed
0190bcbc478d: Pushed
...
3443eda: digest: sha256:d807e905fed0... size: 4080
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Deploying to Azure Container Apps

With the image in the registry, deployment is another single command:

holodeck deploy run agent.yaml


Deploy Configuration:
  Agent: customer-support
  Image: ghcr.io/justinbarias/customer-support-agent:3443eda
  Tag: 3443eda
  Platform: linux/amd64
  Provider: azure
  Port: 8080

Deployment Successful!
  Service: customer-support
  Status: Succeeded
  URL: https://customer-support.nicerock-800c6f60.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io
  Health: https://customer-support.nicerock-800c6f60.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/health
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HoloDeck creates an Azure Container App with:

  • External ingress with automatic HTTPS
  • Health checks on /health
  • Auto-scaling based on HTTP traffic
  • Environment variables for LLM API keys (passed through securely)

The agent is now live at the generated URL.

Testing the Deployed Agent

Let's verify the deployment with a health check:

curl https://customer-support.nicerock-800c6f60.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/health


{
  "status": "healthy",
  "agent_name": "customer-support",
  "agent_ready": true,
  "active_sessions": 0,
  "uptime_seconds": 14.41
}
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The agent is healthy and ready to receive requests.

To chat with the agent:

curl -X POST https://customer-support.nicerock-800c6f60.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io/chat \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"message": "What is your return policy?"}'
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Managing Deployments

Check Status

At any time, you can check the deployment status:

holodeck deploy status agent.yaml


Deployment Status
  Service: customer-support
  Provider: azure
  Status: Succeeded
  URL: https://customer-support.nicerock-800c6f60.australiaeast.azurecontainerapps.io
  Updated: 2026-01-28T00:27:28.537340+00:00
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Tear Down

When you're done, clean up the deployment:

holodeck deploy destroy agent.yaml
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This removes the Container App from Azure. The image remains in the registry for future deployments.

State Tracking

HoloDeck tracks deployment state locally in .holodeck/deployments.json. This allows it to manage updates and teardowns without querying the cloud provider each time.

What About AWS and GCP?

AWS App Runner and GCP Cloud Run support are coming soon. The configuration looks similar:

# AWS App Runner (planned)
deployment:
  target:
    provider: aws
    aws:
      region: us-east-1
      cpu: 1
      memory: 2048

# GCP Cloud Run (planned)
deployment:
  target:
    provider: gcp
    gcp:
      project_id: my-project
      region: us-central1
      memory: 512Mi
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For now, you can use holodeck deploy build to create the container image, push it to any registry, and deploy manually to your preferred platform. See the DIY Deployment section in the deployment guide for details.

Conclusion

We went from a YAML configuration to a production API endpoint in four steps:

  1. Add deployment config to agent.yaml
  2. Build with holodeck deploy build
  3. Push the image to a registry
  4. Deploy with holodeck deploy run

No Dockerfiles to write. No Kubernetes to configure. No infrastructure to manage.

The full deployment documentation is available in the Deployment Guide. Give it a try with your own agents—and let us know how it goes.

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