Credential chains in the Azure Identity client library for Python

The Azure Identity client library provides credentials—public classes that implement the Azure Core library's TokenCredential protocol. A credential represents a distinct authentication flow for acquiring an access token from Microsoft Entra ID. These credentials can be chained together to form an ordered sequence of authentication mechanisms to be attempted.

How a chained credential works

At runtime, a credential chain attempts to authenticate using the sequence's first credential. If that credential fails to acquire an access token, the next credential in the sequence is attempted, and so on, until an access token is successfully obtained. The following sequence diagram illustrates this behavior:

Why use credential chains

A chained credential can offer the following benefits:

• Environment awareness: Automatically selects the most appropriate credential based on the environment in which the app is running. Without it, you'd have to write code like this:

  # Set up credential based on environment (Azure or local development)
  if os.getenv("WEBSITE_HOSTNAME"):
      credential = ManagedIdentityCredential(client_id=user_assigned_client_id)
  else:
      credential = AzureCliCredential()
  

• Seamless transitions: Your app can move from local development to your staging or production environment without changing authentication code.

• Improved resiliency: Includes a fallback mechanism that moves to the next credential when the prior fails to acquire an access token.

How to choose a chained credential

There are two disparate philosophies to credential chaining:

• "Tear down" a chain: Start with a preconfigured chain and exclude what you don't need. For this approach, see the DefaultAzureCredential overview section.
• "Build up" a chain: Start with an empty chain and include only what you need. For this approach, see the ChainedTokenCredential overview section.

DefaultAzureCredential overview

DefaultAzureCredential is an opinionated, preconfigured chain of credentials. It's designed to support many environments, along with the most common authentication flows and developer tools. In graphical form, the underlying chain looks like this:

The order in which DefaultAzureCredential attempts credentials follows.

In its simplest form, you can use the parameterless version of DefaultAzureCredential as follows:

from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
from azure.storage.blob import BlobServiceClient

# Acquire a credential object
credential = DefaultAzureCredential()

blob_service_client = BlobServiceClient(
    account_url="https://<my_account_name>.blob.core.windows.net",
    credential=credential
)

How to customize DefaultAzureCredential

To remove a credential from DefaultAzureCredential, use the corresponding exclude-prefixed keyword parameter. For example:

credential = DefaultAzureCredential(
    exclude_environment_credential=True, 
    exclude_workload_identity_credential=True,
    managed_identity_client_id=user_assigned_client_id
)

In the preceding code sample, EnvironmentCredential and WorkloadIdentityCredential are removed from the credential chain. As a result, the first credential to be attempted is ManagedIdentityCredential. The modified chain looks like this:

As more exclude-prefixed keyword parameters are set to True (credential exclusions are configured), the advantages of using DefaultAzureCredential diminish. In such cases, ChainedTokenCredential is a better choice and requires less code. To illustrate, these two code samples behave the same way:

credential = DefaultAzureCredential(
    exclude_environment_credential=True,
    exclude_workload_identity_credential=True,
    exclude_shared_token_cache_credential=True,
    exclude_azure_powershell_credential=True,
    exclude_azure_developer_cli_credential=True,
    managed_identity_client_id=user_assigned_client_id
)

credential = ChainedTokenCredential(
    ManagedIdentityCredential(client_id=user_assigned_client_id),
    AzureCliCredential()
)

ChainedTokenCredential overview

ChainedTokenCredential is an empty chain to which you add credentials to suit your app's needs. For example:

credential = ChainedTokenCredential(
    ManagedIdentityCredential(client_id=user_assigned_client_id),
    AzureCliCredential()
)

The preceding code sample creates a tailored credential chain comprised of two credentials. The user-assigned managed identity variant of ManagedIdentityCredential is attempted first, followed by AzureCliCredential, if necessary. In graphical form, the chain looks like this:

Usage guidance for DefaultAzureCredential

DefaultAzureCredential is undoubtedly the easiest way to get started with the Azure Identity client library, but with that convenience comes tradeoffs. Once you deploy your app to Azure, you should understand the app's authentication requirements. For that reason, strongly consider moving from DefaultAzureCredential to one of the following solutions:

• A specific credential implementation, such as ManagedIdentityCredential.
• A pared-down ChainedTokenCredential implementation optimized for the Azure environment in which your app runs.

Here's why:

• Debugging challenges: When authentication fails, it can be challenging to debug and identify the offending credential. You must enable logging to see the progression from one credential to the next and the success/failure status of each. For more information, see Debug a chained credential.
• Performance overhead: The process of sequentially trying multiple credentials can introduce performance overhead. For example, when running on a local development machine, managed identity is unavailable. Consequently, ManagedIdentityCredential always fails in the local development environment, unless explicitly disabled via its corresponding exclude-prefixed property.
• Unpredictable behavior: DefaultAzureCredential checks for the presence of certain environment variables. It's possible that someone could add or modify these environment variables at the system level on the host machine. Those changes apply globally and therefore alter the behavior of DefaultAzureCredential at runtime in any app running on that machine.

Debug a chained credential

To diagnose an unexpected issue or to understand what a chained credential is doing, enable logging in your app. Optionally, filter the logs to only those events emitted from the Azure Identity client library. For example:

import logging
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

# Set the logging level for the Azure Identity library
logger = logging.getLogger("azure.identity")
logger.setLevel(logging.DEBUG)

# Direct logging output to stdout. Without adding a handler,
# no logging output is visible.
handler = logging.StreamHandler(stream=sys.stdout)
logger.addHandler(handler)

# Optional: Output logging levels to the console.
print(
    f"Logger enabled for ERROR={logger.isEnabledFor(logging.ERROR)}, "
    f"WARNING={logger.isEnabledFor(logging.WARNING)}, "
    f"INFO={logger.isEnabledFor(logging.INFO)}, "
    f"DEBUG={logger.isEnabledFor(logging.DEBUG)}"
)

For illustration purposes, assume the parameterless form of DefaultAzureCredential is used to authenticate a request to a blob storage account. The app runs in the local development environment, and the developer authenticated to Azure using the Azure CLI. Assume also that the logging level is set to logging.DEBUG. When the app is run, the following pertinent entries appear in the output:

Logger enabled for ERROR=True, WARNING=True, INFO=True, DEBUG=True
No environment configuration found.
ManagedIdentityCredential will use IMDS
EnvironmentCredential.get_token failed: EnvironmentCredential authentication unavailable. Environment variables are not fully configured.
Visit https://aka.ms/azsdk/python/identity/environmentcredential/troubleshoot to troubleshoot this issue.
ManagedIdentityCredential.get_token failed: ManagedIdentityCredential authentication unavailable, no response from the IMDS endpoint.     
SharedTokenCacheCredential.get_token failed: SharedTokenCacheCredential authentication unavailable. No accounts were found in the cache.
AzureCliCredential.get_token succeeded
[Authenticated account] Client ID: 00001111-aaaa-2222-bbbb-3333cccc4444. Tenant ID: aaaabbbb-0000-cccc-1111-dddd2222eeee. User Principal Name: unavailableUpn. Object ID (user): aaaaaaaa-0000-1111-2222-bbbbbbbbbbbb
DefaultAzureCredential acquired a token from AzureCliCredential

In the preceding output, notice that:

• EnvironmentCredential, ManagedIdentityCredential, and SharedTokenCacheCredential each failed to acquire a Microsoft Entra access token, in that order.
• The AzureCliCredential.get_token call succeeds and the output also indicates that DefaultAzureCredential acquired a token from AzureCliCredential. Since AzureCliCredential succeeded, no credentials beyond it were tried.