Chapter 3: From Script to Agent In the previous post, the Azure OpenAI quota watchdog was a script with if pct_of_tpm > 0.8: alert. That works, but it has the same flaw every blunt monitoring rule has: context does not exist. A batch job that predictably eats 90% of TPM for 10 minutes at month-end looks identical to an agent gone feral and burning tokens all afternoon. Both cross the threshold. Only one should wake somebody up. ...
Three years ago, the question I heard most was: “what’s the best prompt?” Two years ago, it shifted to: “how do I do RAG?” Last year: “how do I build an agent?” This year, the conversation is different. People are asking how to transform an entire organization to operate with agents. Not a chatbot on the website. Dozens of agents embedded in business processes, with governance, observability, granular permissions. That progression tells a story, and we often discuss each phase as if it appeared out of nowhere. ...
Chapter 1: MCP and AI Agents 101 At some point in the last few months, someone on your team probably showed up talking about an “AI agent” or an “MCP server” and asked for cluster access, a deployment, or an explanation for the CISO. I wish I’d had a clean mental model before I touched any of this. That’s what this post is: no hype, and a real Azure example so this does not stay in slideware. ...