Fix panic in agent.yaml parsing and enable CI tests for azure.ai.agents

[Copilot]

This PR fixes a panic that occurred when parsing agent.yaml files that don't have a template field, and enables CI tests for the azure.ai.agents extension.

Changes

Bug Fixes

• Fix panic when template field is missing: The parser previously crashed with a nil pointer dereference when processing YAML files without a template field. Now it returns a clear error message with documentation links.
• Fix duplicate error message fragments: Removed redundant error wrapping that caused messages like "YAML content does not conform to AgentManifest format: YAML content does not conform to AgentManifest format: ..." to appear.
• Update sample agent.yaml files: Changed agent: to template: in test samples to match the correct AgentManifest schema.

Improvements

• Better error messages: Error messages now include links to the AgentManifest schema documentation and example repositories.
• Enable CI tests: Added ci-test.ps1 to run unit tests for the azure.ai.agents extension in the CI pipeline.
• Add comprehensive tests: New tests cover:
  • Valid manifest with template field
  • Empty/null template field
  • Missing template field
  • Invalid template field type
  • The exact YAML from the original issue

Testing

• All new unit tests pass
• Tested manually with agent.yaml files both with and without template fields

Original prompt

---

This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>[azure.ai.agents] azd ai agent init panics during agent.yaml parsing with interface conversion error</issue_title>
<issue_description>## Description

When running azd ai agent init -m <path-to-agent.yaml>, the command panics during YAML parsing with an interface conversion error. This happens before any Azure resources are accessed, immediately after reading the agent.yaml file.

Environment

Component	Version
azd	1.23.3 (commit c53baf4)
azure.ai.agents extension	0.1.8-preview
OS	Windows 11

Steps to Reproduce

1. Install the azure.ai.agents extension: azd ext install azure.ai.agents
2. Create an agent.yaml file (see below)
3. Run: azd ai agent init -m "path/to/agent.yaml" --no-prompt

agent.yaml content

# yaml-language-server: $schema=https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/AgentSchema/refs/heads/main/schemas/v1.0/ContainerAgent.yaml

kind: hosted
name: lego-social-media-agent
description: |
    An AI-powered social media content generator for LEGO products.
metadata:
    authors:
        - LEGO Social Media Team
    example:
        - content: Generate a Twitter post about Star Wars LEGO sets
          role: user
    tags:
        - Social Media
        - Content Generation
protocols:
    - protocol: responses
      version: v1
environment_variables:
    - name: POSTGRES_SERVER
      value: ${POSTGRES_SERVER}
    - name: POSTGRES_DATABASE
      value: ${POSTGRES_DATABASE}

Error Output

Initializing AI agent project...

Reading agent.yaml from local file: D:\git\demos\zap1\SocialMediaAgentPython\agent.yaml
panic: interface conversion: interface {} is nil, not map[string]interface {}

goroutine 1 [running]:
azureaiagent/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml.ExtractAgentDefinition({0xc0002c8380, 0x376, 0x377})
        azureaiagent/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml/parse.go:50 +0x725
azureaiagent/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml.LoadAndValidateAgentManifest({0xc0002c8380, 0x376, 0x377})
        azureaiagent/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml/parse.go:23 +0xb0
azureaiagent/internal/cmd.(*InitAction).downloadAgentYaml(0xc000743b30, {0x7ff7ccafe300, 0xc00047a180}, {0xc000134080, 0x33}, {0x0, 0x0})
        azureaiagent/internal/cmd/init.go:1040 +0x1233
azureaiagent/internal/cmd.(*InitAction).Run(0xc000743b30, {0x7ff7ccafe300, 0xc00047a180})
        azureaiagent/internal/cmd/init.go:213 +0x219
azureaiagent/internal/cmd.newInitCommand.func1(0xc00030db08, {0xc00047a0f0?, 0x4?, 0x7ff7cc72f429?})
        azureaiagent/internal/cmd/init.go:150 +0x678
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).execute(0xc00030db08, {0xc00047a090, 0x3, 0x3})
        github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.10.1/command.go:1015 +0xb02
github.com/spf13/cobra.(*Command).ExecuteC(0xc00030cf08)
        github.com/spf13/cobra@v1.10.1/command.go:1148 +0x465

Additional Notes

• I also tested with a known-working agent.yaml from the copilot-hosted-agent sample and received the same error
• The panic occurs in parse.go:50 during ExtractAgentDefinition, suggesting the YAML parser expects a specific structure that isn't being found
• This is different from issue azd ai agent init - panic when initializing agent #6050 which panicked later in the flow (after model SKU selection)

Expected Behavior

The command should either:

1. Successfully parse the agent.yaml and proceed with initialization, or
2. Provide a helpful error message if the YAML format is invalid

Impact

This bug completely blocks the azd ai agent workflow for deploying hosted agents to Azure AI Foundry.</issue_description>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

• Fixes [azure.ai.agents] azd ai agent init panics during agent.yaml parsing with interface conversion error #6679

---

✨ Let Copilot coding agent set things up for you — coding agent works faster and does higher quality work when set up for your repo.

[Copilot]

Pull request overview

This PR fixes a panic in azd ai agent init that occurred when parsing agent.yaml files without a template field. The panic was caused by attempting to convert a nil interface{} to a map without proper nil checking.

Changes:

• Updated ExtractAgentDefinition to handle three YAML formats: manifest with template field, manifest with agent field (alias), and standalone agent definition
• Added comprehensive test coverage for different YAML parsing scenarios
• Implemented proper nil checks and type assertions with error messages

Reviewed changes

Copilot reviewed 2 out of 2 changed files in this pull request and generated 4 comments.

File	Description
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml/parse.go	Added logic to handle multiple YAML formats with proper nil checks and type validation to prevent panic
cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml/parse_test.go	Added comprehensive test suite covering all three YAML formats and edge cases

Comments suppressed due to low confidence (1)

cli/azd/extensions/azure.ai.agents/internal/pkg/agents/agent_yaml/parse_test.go:267

• The custom contains and stringContains helper functions are unnecessary. The standard library's strings.Contains function should be used instead, which is already imported and used extensively throughout the codebase (e.g., in init.go, helpers.go, and parser.go). Replace calls to the custom contains function with strings.Contains directly.

---

💡 Add Copilot custom instructions for smarter, more guided reviews. Learn how to get started.

[rajeshkamal5050]

@copilot looks like you weren't able to apply this feedback - #6683 (comment) can you try again?

[Copilot]

@copilot looks like you weren't able to apply this feedback - #6683 (comment) can you try again?

Applied the feedback in commit 859d1e8. The code now returns a proper error message when neither template nor agent field exists, instead of attempting to parse the whole document as a standalone agent definition. This prevents the undefined behavior that would occur since the rest of the code assumes manifest format.

[rajeshkamal5050]

@vhvb1989 @JeffreyCA can we do error with suggestion from extensions? So we could also suggest users to look at the foundry-samples repo link for valid agent yamls

[JeffreyCA]

@vhvb1989 @JeffreyCA can we do error with suggestion from extensions? So we could also suggest users to look at the foundry-samples repo link for valid agent yamls

Yes would be great if we could reuse the enhanced ErrorWithSuggestion changes in #6700. Currently it's in internal package which makes it so it can't be used outside of azd core.

[rajeshkamal5050]

@vhvb1989 @JeffreyCA can we do error with suggestion from extensions? So we could also suggest users to look at the foundry-samples repo link for valid agent yamls

Yes would be great if we could reuse the enhanced ErrorWithSuggestion changes in #6700. Currently it's in internal package which makes it so it can't be used outside of azd core.

Thanks @JeffreyCA got it.

Lets may be fix the panic right now with error message and pointers to agentschema and the foundry-samples repo links.

We can probably enhance using suggestions on a later PR.

[JeffreyCA]

@copilot can we clean up these changes and emit an appropriate error message pointing to https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/reference/agentmanifest and https://github.com/microsoft-foundry/foundry-samples for valid sample AgentManifests?

References:

• https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/guides/example/
• https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/guides/qna-agent/
• https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/guides/travel-agent/
• https://raw.githubusercontent.com/microsoft/AgentSchema/refs/heads/main/schemas/v1.0/ContainerAgent.yaml

[Copilot]

@copilot can we clean up these changes and emit an appropriate error message pointing to https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/reference/agentmanifest and https://github.com/microsoft-foundry/foundr...

Updated error messages in commit dc2875d to include links to both the AgentManifest reference documentation (https://microsoft.github.io/AgentSchema/reference/agentmanifest) and the foundry-samples repository for working examples.

Addressed feedback