Bicep — 100 Operations for AI Agents

Bicep is Azure infrastructure as code without the ARM JSON — resources, modules, parameters in readable form. act101 navigates those declarations structurally, so agents trace what a deployment actually provisions.

This page is the canonical reference an AI coding agent uses to refactor, query, and analyze Bicep code through the act MCP server. 100 operations available: 26 refactor, 18 query, 42 analysis, 14 verification. Each operation is callable from Claude Code, Cursor, Codex, OpenCode, or any MCP-compatible agent host. Click any operation for a stable anchor link suitable for citation.

Worked Bicep examples

act101 edits Bicep templates the way Azure IaC authors would: it can extract a hardcoded resource property into a top-level param and rewire the resource to reference it, or delete a param declaration that no resource in the file references at all. It can also reorder a file's param or output declarations alphabetically, leaving the resource block that references them untouched, and remove a var declaration nothing in the file reads. Every operation in this deck edits a top-level param, var, or output declaration — extracting one, reordering a set of them, or deleting one nothing references — while the resource block that consumes them stays untouched. Each example below is the verbatim output of the command shown, run against the file shown.

Extract a hardcoded value into a parameter

sa's location is hardcoded to 'eastus', so redeploying to another region means editing the resource body directly.

$ act refactor-lang extract_parameter --file storageAccount.bicep --params '{"param_name":"location","param_type":"string","value":"'"'"'eastus'"'"'","line":3,"column":1,"symbol":"sa"}'

Before

resource sa 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'mystorage'
  location: 'eastus'
  sku: { name: 'Standard_LRS' }
  kind: 'StorageV2'
}

After

param location string = 'eastus'

resource sa 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'mystorage'
  location: location
  sku: { name: 'Standard_LRS' }
  kind: 'StorageV2'
}

A param location string = 'eastus' declaration is added above the resource, and the resource's location: property now reads location instead of the literal string.

Reorder parameters alphabetically

skuName, environment, and location are declared in the order they were first needed, not alphabetically.

$ act refactor-lang reorder_parameters --file deploy.bicep --params '{"line":1,"column":1}'

Before

param skuName string
param environment string
param location string

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'st${environment}'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: skuName
  }
}

After

param environment string
param location string
param skuName string

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'st${environment}'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: skuName
  }
}

The three param declarations are reordered to environment, location, skuName; the resource block that references them is untouched.

Remove an unused parameter

storageDeploy.bicep declares an unusedTag parameter that no resource in the file references.

$ act refactor-lang remove_unused_parameter --file storageDeploy.bicep --params '{"param_name":"unusedTag","line":2,"column":7,"symbol":"unusedTag"}'

Before

param location string
param unusedTag string

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'staccount01'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_LRS'
  }
}

After

param location string

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'staccount01'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_LRS'
  }
}

The param unusedTag string declaration is deleted; the location parameter and the storageAccount resource that references it are untouched.

Reorder outputs alphabetically

keyVault.bicep's Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults resource declares vaultUri, resourceId, and keyVaultName outputs in that order.

$ act refactor-lang reorder_outputs --file keyVault.bicep --params '{"line":16,"column":1}'

Before

param location string

resource keyVault 'Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults@2023-07-01' = {
  name: 'kv-myapp'
  location: location
  properties: {
    sku: {
      family: 'A'
      name: 'standard'
    }
    tenantId: subscription().tenantId
  }
}

output vaultUri string = keyVault.properties.vaultUri
output resourceId string = keyVault.id
output keyVaultName string = keyVault.name

After

param location string

resource keyVault 'Microsoft.KeyVault/vaults@2023-07-01' = {
  name: 'kv-myapp'
  location: location
  properties: {
    sku: {
      family: 'A'
      name: 'standard'
    }
    tenantId: subscription().tenantId
  }
}

output keyVaultName string = keyVault.name
output resourceId string = keyVault.id
output vaultUri string = keyVault.properties.vaultUri

The three output declarations are reordered to keyVaultName, resourceId, vaultUri; the keyVault resource block above them is untouched.

Remove an unused variable

storage.bicep declares a complexConfig object variable — tier, replication, accessTier, minimumTlsVersion — that nothing in the file reads.

$ act refactor-lang remove_unused_variable --file storage.bicep --params '{"variable_name":"complexConfig","line":3,"column":5,"symbol":"complexConfig"}'

Before

param location string

var complexConfig = {
  tier: 'Standard'
  replication: 'LRS'
  accessTier: 'Hot'
  minimumTlsVersion: 'TLS1_2'
}

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'staccount01'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_LRS'
  }
}

After

param location string

resource storageAccount 'Microsoft.Storage/storageAccounts@2023-01-01' = {
  name: 'staccount01'
  location: location
  kind: 'StorageV2'
  sku: {
    name: 'Standard_LRS'
  }
}

The var complexConfig = { ... } declaration is deleted; the location parameter and the storageAccount resource are untouched.

Query

18 query tools, the same on every supported language. Descriptions live in the shared reference: /docs/query-tools.

callers control_flow data_flow definition diagnostics effect_closure effect_summary fix_auto get_type graph import_organize interface mutations references repo_outline skeleton symbols symbols_batch

Refactor

Analysis

42 analysis tools, the same on every supported language. Descriptions live in the shared reference: /docs/analysis-tools.

analyze_api_diff analyze_chokepoints analyze_clones analyze_clusters analyze_cohesion analyze_conformance analyze_coupling analyze_cycle_risk analyze_cycles analyze_dead_code analyze_depth analyze_entry_points analyze_export analyze_extraction analyze_fan_balance analyze_features analyze_hotspots analyze_impact analyze_inconsistencies analyze_inheritance analyze_interface_bloat analyze_interfaces analyze_layers analyze_orphan_types analyze_patterns analyze_platform_deps analyze_readiness analyze_roles analyze_seams analyze_stability analyze_surface analyze_test_gaps analyze_thickness analyze_type_completeness churn_hotspots co_change_clusters coverage_overlay ownership_map profile_overlay simulate split_module trace_overlay

Verify

14 verify tools, the same on every supported language. Descriptions live in the shared reference: /docs/verification.

bisect_regression gate generate_test_harness scan secret_surface summarize_pr taint_flow unsafe_surface verify_behavioral_equivalence verify_contract_preserved verify_diff_semantics verify_port_parity verify_side_effects verify_test_impact