Azure CLI

By the end of this stage your terminal is connected to the correct Azure subscription and the project's resource group exists. Every resource you create from here on is one inspectable command instead of a sequence of portal clicks.

Cloud setup should be scriptable. The CLI makes the resource names, region, tier, and cleanup scope explicit, and it gives you commands you can paste into documentation, exactly like the ones on this page. The portal is for exploring; the CLI is for provisioning.

Install

Microsoft's current instructions live at learn.microsoft.com/cli/azure/install-azure-cli. The short version:

brew update && brew install azure-cli

If you would rather not install anything, Azure Cloud Shell in the portal runs the same CLI in the browser.

Verify and sign in:

az version
az login

az login opens a browser window for authentication. When it finishes, confirm the CLI landed on the subscription you expect:

az account show --output table

If you have several subscriptions, list them and pick the right one explicitly:

az account list --output table
az account set --subscription "<subscription-name-or-id>"

This matters more than it looks. Provisioning into the wrong subscription is a classic mistake in real client work, where your login often has access to the client's tenants as well as your own.

Create the resource group

Everything in this project lives in one resource group in one region:

az group create \
  --name rg-invoice-review \
  --location westeurope \
  --output table

Two choices worth explaining. The rg- prefix follows Microsoft's common naming convention, where the resource type is visible in the name. And westeurope is the region used throughout this build; pick a region near you, but remember it, because some services and models are only available in certain regions. You will hit exactly that constraint in the next stage.

Confirm it exists:

az group list --output table

The cleanup command

Learn the exit before you enter. When the project is over, this single command deletes the group and every resource inside it:

az group delete --name rg-invoice-review

Do not run it now. Knowing it exists is the reason we keep everything in one group.

Checkpoint

• az account show prints the subscription you intend to use
• az group list shows rg-invoice-review in westeurope (or your chosen region)
• You know the one command that removes everything later