agent-framework/dotnet/samples/04-hosting/FoundryHostedAgents/responses/Hosted-Workflow-Simple

Hosted-Workflow-Simple

A hosted agent that demonstrates multi-agent workflow orchestration. Three translation agents are composed into a sequential pipeline: English → French → Spanish → English, showing how agents can be chained as workflow executors using WorkflowBuilder.

Prerequisites

• .NET 10 SDK
• An Azure AI Foundry project with a deployed model (e.g., hosted-workflow-simple)
• Azure CLI logged in (az login)

Configuration

Copy the template and fill in your project endpoint:

cp .env.example .env

Edit .env and set your Azure AI Foundry project endpoint:

AZURE_AI_PROJECT_ENDPOINT=https://<your-account>.services.ai.azure.com/api/projects/<your-project>
ASPNETCORE_URLS=http://+:8088
ASPNETCORE_ENVIRONMENT=Development
AZURE_AI_MODEL_DEPLOYMENT_NAME=hosted-workflow-simple

Note: .env is gitignored. The .env.example template is checked in as a reference.

Running directly (contributors)

cd dotnet/samples/04-hosting/FoundryHostedAgents/responses/Hosted-Workflow-Simple
AGENT_NAME=hosted-workflow-simple dotnet run

The agent will start on http://localhost:8088.

Test it

Using the Azure Developer CLI:

azd ai agent invoke --local "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog"

Or with curl:

curl -X POST http://localhost:8088/responses \
  -H "Content-Type: application/json" \
  -d '{"input": "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog", "model": "hosted-workflow-simple"}'

The text will be translated through the chain: English → French → Spanish → English.

Running with Docker

1. Publish for the container runtime

dotnet publish -c Debug -f net10.0 -r linux-musl-x64 --self-contained false -o out

2. Build the Docker image

docker build -f Dockerfile.contributor -t hosted-workflow-simple .

3. Run the container

export AZURE_BEARER_TOKEN=$(az account get-access-token --resource https://ai.azure.com --query accessToken -o tsv)

docker run --rm -p 8088:8088 \
  -e AGENT_NAME=hosted-workflow-simple \
  -e AZURE_BEARER_TOKEN=$AZURE_BEARER_TOKEN \
  --env-file .env \
  hosted-workflow-simple

4. Test it

azd ai agent invoke --local "Hello, how are you today?"

How the workflow works

Input text
    │
    ▼
┌─────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐    ┌──────────────┐
│ French Agent │ →  │ Spanish Agent │ →  │ English Agent │
│ (translate)  │    │ (translate)   │    │ (translate)   │
└─────────────┘    └──────────────┘    └──────────────┘
                                              │
                                              ▼
                                        Final output
                                     (back in English)

Each agent in the chain receives the output of the previous agent. The final result demonstrates how meaning is preserved (or subtly shifted) through multiple translation hops.

Deploying to Foundry (azd spec)

This sample includes an azd manifest (agent.manifest.yaml) and hosted agent spec (agent.yaml) for deployment to Foundry.

Initialize an azd project from this sample's manifest:

mkdir hosted-workflows && cd hosted-workflows
azd ai agent init -m https://github.com/microsoft/agent-framework/blob/main/dotnet/samples/04-hosting/FoundryHostedAgents/responses/Hosted-Workflow-Simple/agent.manifest.yaml

Then deploy:

azd deploy

If you need to override defaults, set deployment-time environment variables in the azd environment before deploying:

azd env set AGENT_NAME hosted-workflow-simple
azd env set AZURE_AI_MODEL_DEPLOYMENT_NAME hosted-workflow-simple

For end-to-end hosted agent deployment guidance, see the official deployment guide.

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NuGet package users

Use the standard Dockerfile instead of Dockerfile.contributor. See the commented section in HostedWorkflowSimple.csproj for the PackageReference alternative.