prefect-azure

What it is and what it does

prefect-azure is an official Prefect integration that extends Prefect's workflow orchestration capabilities to Azure services. It provides task and flow abstractions for Azure Blob Storage (download/upload), Azure Container Instances (job execution), Cosmos DB, and ML Datastore, plus a managed identity authentication plugin that lets the Prefect server connect to Azure Database for PostgreSQL using short-lived Entra tokens instead of passwords. The package ships as a pure-Python wheel with low install friction and depends on Prefect, Azure SDK libraries (azure-identity, azure-mgmt-containerinstance, azure-mgmt-resource), and aiohttp for async operations.

You use it by installing prefect-azure, configuring Azure credentials as Prefect blocks, and then writing Prefect flows that call Azure-specific tasks or use Azure Container Instances as execution infrastructure. It's designed for teams running Prefect on Azure who want native integration with Azure storage, compute, and database services without writing custom connectors.

Use it for:

• Download or upload files from Azure Blob Storage as part of a Prefect workflow without manual SDK setup.
• Run containerized tasks on Azure Container Instances directly from Prefect flows, scaling compute on demand.
• Authenticate Prefect server to Azure PostgreSQL using managed identity tokens, eliminating password storage.
• Deploy Prefect flows to run on Azure Container Instance workers for cloud-native orchestration.
• Integrate Cosmos DB or ML Datastore operations into Prefect workflows with pre-built tasks.

Worth the install?

AI-flagged interpretation of the facts on this page — verify before relying

Prefect integrations for orchestrating workflows on Azure, including blob storage, container instances, Cosmos DB, and managed identity authentication for Prefect server databases.

Yes, if you run Prefect on Azure and need native integration with Azure services. The package is actively maintained, has no known vulnerabilities, uses a permissive license, and low install friction. It's a first-party Prefect integration with clear documentation and examples. Install it if your workflows depend on Azure storage, compute, or database services; skip it if you're not using Prefect or don't need Azure-specific tasks.

Install

prefect-azure on PyPI

pip install prefect-azure

uv add prefect-azure

poetry add prefect-azure

Installing prefect-azure

Before you install

Low install friction with a pure-Python wheel distribution. Active maintenance with a release 30 days ago and ongoing commits. Requires Prefect and several Azure SDK packages as runtime dependencies.

License in practice

Apache License 2.0 (permissive) allows use in commercial and private projects with minimal restrictions; you must include a copy of the license and state significant changes.

Quickstart

pip install prefect-azure

from prefect import flow
from prefect_azure import AzureBlobStorageCredentials
from prefect_azure.blob_storage import blob_storage_download

@flow
def download_blob():
    creds = AzureBlobStorageCredentials(connection_string="...")
    return blob_storage_download(blob="file.txt", container="data", azure_credentials=creds)

download_blob()

Requires Prefect to be installed and configured; Azure credentials (connection string or managed identity) must be available at runtime.

Verify before relying

• Whether optional extras (blob_storage, cosmos_db, ml_datastore) are included by default or require separate installation.
• Exact scope of Azure services supported beyond those explicitly documented in the excerpt.
• Performance characteristics when running large-scale workflows on Azure Container Instances.

Package facts

Evidence: prefect_azure-0.4.12-py3-none-any.whl

Keywords: prefect

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