This sample demonstrates how to implement multi-turn conversations with AI agents, where context is preserved across multiple agent runs using threads and conversation IDs.

What this sample demonstrates

Creating an AI agent with instructions
Creating a project conversation to track conversations in the Foundry UI
Using threads with conversation IDs to maintain conversation context
Running multi-turn conversations with text output
Running multi-turn conversations with streaming output
Managing agent and conversation lifecycle (creation and deletion)

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

.NET 10 SDK or later
Azure Foundry service endpoint and deployment configured
Azure CLI installed and authenticated (for Azure credential authentication)

Note: This demo uses Azure CLI credentials for authentication. Make sure you're logged in with az login and have access to the Azure Foundry resource. For more information, see the Azure CLI documentation.

Set the following environment variables:

$env:AZURE_FOUNDRY_PROJECT_ENDPOINT="https://your-foundry-service.services.ai.azure.com/api/projects/your-foundry-project" # Replace with your Azure Foundry resource endpoint
$env:AZURE_FOUNDRY_PROJECT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="gpt-4o-mini"  # Optional, defaults to gpt-4o-mini

Run the sample

Navigate to the FoundryAgents sample directory and run:

cd dotnet/samples/GettingStarted/FoundryAgents
dotnet run --project .\FoundryAgents_Step02_MultiturnConversation

Expected behavior

The sample will:

Create an agent named "JokerAgent" with instructions to tell jokes
Create a project conversation to enable visibility in the Azure Foundry UI
Create a thread linked to the conversation ID for context tracking
Run the agent with a text prompt and display the response
Send a follow-up message to the same thread, demonstrating context preservation
Create a new thread sharing the same conversation ID and run the agent with streaming
Send a follow-up streaming message to demonstrate multi-turn streaming
Clean up resources by deleting the agent and conversation

Conversation ID vs PreviousResponseId

When working with multi-turn conversations, there are two approaches:

With Conversation ID: By passing a conversation.Id to CreateSessionAsync(), the conversation will be visible in the Azure Foundry Project UI. This is useful for tracking and debugging conversations.
Without Conversation ID: Sessions created without a conversation ID still work correctly, maintaining context via PreviousResponseId. However, these conversations may not appear in the Foundry UI.