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Microsoft Foundry solution design

Template id: foundry-solution-design

Responsible skill: ai-foundry:foundry-solution-assessment. Sections are detailed with ai-foundry:model-selection, ai-foundry:foundry-agent-architecture, ai-foundry:foundry-tool-design, ai-foundry:mcp-integration, ai-foundry:foundry-grounding-strategy, ai-foundry:retrieval-design, ai-foundry:foundry-prompt-engineering, ai-foundry:model-evaluation and ai-foundry:foundry-safety-evaluation.

Use this design from the moment a need reaches the Foundry rung until the solution is released, and keep it current after every material change. Every fact the organisation must supply is marked [To confirm: ...]; replace the marker when the fact is confirmed, and never fill it with a guess. Example rows are fictional and are there to be replaced or deleted. Where a design choice depends on a product feature, model, region, limit or price, record the source record checked and the date, because these change often. Licensing questions go to the Microsoft licensing guide or a licensing partner; data protection questions go to the DPO.

1. Summary

Field	Entry
Solution name	[To confirm: working name]
Problem statement and suitability record reference	[To confirm: reference and date]
Business owner (role)	[To confirm]
Product owner (role)	[To confirm]
Engineering team and technical owner	[To confirm]
Operations and support route	[To confirm]
Risk tier (0-4) and date classified	[To confirm]
Azure subscription, landing zone and Foundry project	[To confirm]
Design status	Draft / Agreed / Reviewed / Superseded
Version and date	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Solution name

[To confirm: working name]

Problem statement and suitability record reference

[To confirm: reference and date]

Business owner (role)

[To confirm]

Product owner (role)

[To confirm]

Engineering team and technical owner

[To confirm]

Operations and support route

[To confirm]

Risk tier (0-4) and date classified

[To confirm]

Azure subscription, landing zone and Foundry project

[To confirm]

Design status

Draft / Agreed / Reviewed / Superseded

Version and date

[To confirm]

2. Assessment

2.1 Capability drivers

Driver	Applies?	Evidence
Model choice beyond what configured agents expose	Yes / No	[To confirm]
Retrieval engineering	Yes / No	[To confirm]
Complex orchestration	Yes / No	[To confirm]
AI embedded in a product, API or batch process	Yes / No	[To confirm]
Production-grade evaluation and observability	Yes / No	[To confirm]

Driver

Applies?

Evidence

Model choice beyond what configured agents expose

Yes / No

[To confirm]

Retrieval engineering

Yes / No

[To confirm]

Complex orchestration

Yes / No

[To confirm]

AI embedded in a product, API or batch process

Yes / No

[To confirm]

Production-grade evaluation and observability

Yes / No

[To confirm]

2.2 Lower rungs tested

Option tried (Microsoft 365 agent, Copilot Studio agent, automation, hybrid)	What was tried	Why it fell short	Source record checked and date
Fictional example: Copilot Studio agent with SharePoint knowledge	Two-week spike on the claims library	Needed metadata filters by effective date that configured knowledge could not apply	Fictional example only
[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Option tried (Microsoft 365 agent, Copilot Studio agent, automation, hybrid)

What was tried

Why it fell short

Source record checked and date

Fictional example: Copilot Studio agent with SharePoint knowledge

Two-week spike on the claims library

Needed metadata filters by effective date that configured knowledge could not apply

Fictional example only

[To confirm]

2.3 Ownership conditions

Condition	Status (met / not met / partly)	Evidence or action
Product owner and engineering team named	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Azure foundation in place	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Running cost funded beyond the first year	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Operations route agreed	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Reviewer capacity available at this risk tier	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Condition

Status (met / not met / partly)

Evidence or action

Product owner and engineering team named

[To confirm]

Azure foundation in place

[To confirm]

Running cost funded beyond the first year

[To confirm]

Operations route agreed

[To confirm]

Reviewer capacity available at this risk tier

[To confirm]

2.4 Decision

Field	Entry
Decision (proceed / proceed with preconditions / use a lower rung / stop)	[To confirm]
Preconditions and owners	[To confirm]
What this assessment cannot determine	[To confirm]
Decision owner and date	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Decision (proceed / proceed with preconditions / use a lower rung / stop)

[To confirm]

Preconditions and owners

[To confirm]

What this assessment cannot determine

[To confirm]

Decision owner and date

[To confirm]

3. Model

Field Entry

Model selection record reference (model-selection-record) [To confirm]

Chosen model and version [To confirm]

Fallback model and version [To confirm]

Lifecycle review date and owner [To confirm]

Field	Entry
Model selection record reference (`model-selection-record`)	[To confirm]
Chosen model and version	[To confirm]
Fallback model and version	[To confirm]
Lifecycle review date and owner	[To confirm]

4. Agent architecture

Complete if the solution includes one or more agents.

Field	Entry
Responsibility statement (one sentence)	[To confirm]
What the agent must refuse or hand over, and to whom	[To confirm]
Shape (single agent / coordinating agent with specialists) and reason	[To confirm]
Conversation state and cross-session memory, with retention agreed	[To confirm]
Launch surface	[To confirm]
Architecture diagram reference	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Responsibility statement (one sentence)

[To confirm]

What the agent must refuse or hand over, and to whom

[To confirm]

Shape (single agent / coordinating agent with specialists) and reason

[To confirm]

Conversation state and cross-session memory, with retention agreed

[To confirm]

Launch surface

[To confirm]

Architecture diagram reference

[To confirm]

Action	Identity it runs under (user-delegated / managed identity)	Reason if not user-delegated	Human confirmation
[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No

Action

Identity it runs under (user-delegated / managed identity)

Reason if not user-delegated

Human confirmation

[To confirm]

Yes / No

5. Tool register

One row per function or tool the organisation hosts. MCP servers are recorded in section 6.

Tool	Purpose and model-facing description	Effect class (read low / read sensitive / reversible write / irreversible)	Identity	Controls (limits, idempotency, confirmation, audit)	Failure behaviour	System owner agreed	Test evidence
Fictional example: get_policy_section	Returns one section of a named policy by identifier	Read low	User-delegated	Result size limit	Structured "not found"	Yes, fictional	Fictional example only
[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No	[To confirm]

Tool

Purpose and model-facing description

Effect class (read low / read sensitive / reversible write / irreversible)

Identity

Controls (limits, idempotency, confirmation, audit)

Failure behaviour

System owner agreed

Test evidence

Fictional example: get_policy_section

Returns one section of a named policy by identifier

Read low

User-delegated

Result size limit

Structured "not found"

Yes, fictional

Fictional example only

[To confirm]

Yes / No

[To confirm]

6. MCP server register

Server	Owner and hosting	Terms and data handling reviewed by	Allowed tools	Effect class	Identity and authentication	Approval rule	Version pin or tool-list fingerprint	Change check rhythm
[To confirm, or "none"]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Server

Owner and hosting

Terms and data handling reviewed by

Allowed tools

Effect class

Identity and authentication

Approval rule

Version pin or tool-list fingerprint

Change check rhythm

[To confirm, or "none"]

[To confirm]

7. Grounding and retrieval

Field	Entry
Grounding approach and reason	[To confirm]
Content left in place rather than indexed, and why	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Grounding approach and reason

[To confirm]

Content left in place rather than indexed, and why

[To confirm]

Source	Owner	Readiness verdict	Classification	Permission trimming (per user / open to all users, confirmed by owner)	Refresh and deletion route
[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Source

Owner

Readiness verdict

Classification

Permission trimming (per user / open to all users, confirmed by owner)

Refresh and deletion route

[To confirm]

Retrieval design item	Entry
Cleaning rules	[To confirm]
Chunking approach	[To confirm]
Metadata kept on every chunk	[To confirm]
Search method and ranking	[To confirm]
Embedding model and version	[To confirm]
Passages passed to the model and citation format	[To confirm]
Retrieval test set reference and baseline	[To confirm]

Retrieval design item

Entry

Cleaning rules

[To confirm]

Chunking approach

[To confirm]

Metadata kept on every chunk

[To confirm]

Search method and ranking

[To confirm]

Embedding model and version

[To confirm]

Passages passed to the model and citation format

[To confirm]

Retrieval test set reference and baseline

[To confirm]

8. Prompts and output contract

Field	Entry
Prompt location in source control and current version	[To confirm]
Prompt owner (role)	[To confirm]
Output schema and version, and consuming systems	[To confirm, or "free text only"]
How untrusted content is delimited	[To confirm]
Evidence required per change type	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Prompt location in source control and current version

[To confirm]

Prompt owner (role)

[To confirm]

Output schema and version, and consuming systems

[To confirm, or "free text only"]

How untrusted content is delimited

[To confirm]

Evidence required per change type

[To confirm]

9. Evaluation and safety

Field Entry

Evaluation plan reference (evaluation-plan) [To confirm]

Quality thresholds and date agreed [To confirm]

Harm profile summary [To confirm]

Field	Entry
Evaluation plan reference (`evaluation-plan`)	[To confirm]
Quality thresholds and date agreed	[To confirm]
Harm profile summary	[To confirm]

Safety control	Setting	Reason	Behaviour when it fires	Last changed, by whom, with what evidence
Input and output content filtering	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Prompt attack detection	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Groundedness or protected material checks	[To confirm, or not used with reason]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Blocklists	[To confirm, or "none"]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Safety control

Setting

Reason

Behaviour when it fires

Last changed, by whom, with what evidence

Input and output content filtering

[To confirm]

Prompt attack detection

[To confirm]

Groundedness or protected material checks

[To confirm, or not used with reason]

[To confirm]

Blocklists

[To confirm, or "none"]

[To confirm]

Untested harms and residual risks: [To confirm]

10. Deployment, observability and cost

Field	Entry
Environments and deployment topology	[To confirm]
Tracing and monitoring owner	[To confirm]
Running cost estimate, budget owner and source records used	[To confirm]
Pipeline and release process reference	[To confirm]

Field

Entry

Environments and deployment topology

[To confirm]

Tracing and monitoring owner

[To confirm]

Running cost estimate, budget owner and source records used

[To confirm]

Pipeline and release process reference

[To confirm]

11. Reviewer gates

Reviewer	Required from tier	Finding summary	Blocking / advisory	Resolved?
Design authority	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No
Security and privacy	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No
Responsible AI	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No
Evaluation and quality	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]	Yes / No

Reviewer

Required from tier

Finding summary

Blocking / advisory

Resolved?

Design authority

[To confirm]

Yes / No

Security and privacy

[To confirm]

Yes / No

Responsible AI

[To confirm]

Yes / No

Evaluation and quality

[To confirm]

Yes / No

12. Open questions and preconditions

Item	Owner	Due
[To confirm]	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Item

Owner

Due

[To confirm]

13. Agreement

Role	Name	Date
Business owner	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Product owner	[To confirm]	[To confirm]
Technical owner	[To confirm]	[To confirm]

Role

Name

Date

Business owner

[To confirm]

Product owner

[To confirm]

Technical owner

[To confirm]

Credit: Template from CopilotForge by Simon Foote (https://github.com/SimonFoote-greensparx/CopilotForge), licensed under CC BY 4.0. Keep this credit when you share or adapt the template; in your own completed document you may keep it as a footer or remove it.

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