Background

Code deploy (source ZIP upload) for hosted agents has been available for a couple of weeks. Telemetry looks healthy and the service team has confirmed there are no concerns with making it the default path.

Motivation

Right now, when users run azd ai agent init, the default deploy mode is container (Docker image + ACR). That means every new Python or .NET agent project gets wired up with Azure Container Registry by default — even when the user has no need for a custom container.

Code deploy is simpler: no Dockerfile, no ACR, no image push. The agent source code is uploaded as a ZIP and the platform handles the rest. It's a better out-of-the-box experience for the vast majority of users.

Since the service only supports code deploy for Python and .NET projects, non-Python/.NET projects will continue to fall back to container deploy. Users who specifically need a container image can always opt in via --deploy-mode container.

What we want to change

• Make code deploy the default for Python and .NET hosted agents across all init flows: interactive prompt, --no-prompt, and -m manifest auto-select.
• Relax the requirement to explicitly pass --runtime and --entry-point with --deploy-mode code --no-prompt — auto-detect them from the project instead, so a minimal CI deploy needs no extra flags.
• Update help text, examples, and docs to reflect the new default.

Acceptance criteria

• A Python or .NET project initialized with no --deploy-mode flag defaults to code deploy.
• Passing --deploy-mode container still works and selects container deploy.
• --runtime and --entry-point are optional in --no-prompt mode and are auto-detected when omitted.
• Non-Python/.NET projects continue to use container deploy.