New Breakpoint is a regular online show for Australian, Asian and New Zealand developers produced by local developers at Microsoft and in the community.
This repository hosts useful follow ups, links and other information from each episode.
We want everyone who comes along to feel welcome and safe. Please make sure to review our Code of Conduct before joining in and contributing to our discussion.
You can watch all our episodes via playlists on Microsoft ANZ's YouTube Channel - Season 1 | Season 2 | Season 3 | Season 4 | Season 5
You will be able to re-watch S5 on YouTube shortly
We would like to acknowledge that we record the show on the traditional lands of the Gadigal people of the Eora nation, and have guests from around Australia who join us from the traditional lands of their local people. We pay our respects to Elders past, present and future.
Season 5 kicked off July 2025. You will be able to register to watch the series via the Microsoft Reactor
In this season 5 premiere of New Breakpoint, Michelle Sandford and Graeme Foster unpack the fascinating world of AI agents. From what they are, to how they communicate, collaborate, and evolve.
Discover the Agent-to-Agent (A2A) protocol, agent cards, secure messaging, and the future of enterprise adoption. Whether you're building agents or just curious about how they work, this episode is your gateway to understanding the next wave of intelligent systems.
🎯 Perfect for developers, architects, and tech enthusiasts ready to talk nerdy and think big.
Register to watch the broadcast: Live Broadcast
- A2A (Agent-to-Agent) Protocol for Typescript - preview
- Empowering multi-agent apps with the open Agent2Agent A2A protocol
- Integrating Semantic Kernel Python with Google’s A2A Protocol
- Azure AI Foundry Agent Service documentation
- A2A protocol in Microsoft Azure
- The A2A Project
- The A2A Project on GitHub
If you enjoyed the episode and want more content like it? Try our monthly developer newsletter: Microsoft Source
What happens when GenAI meets robotics? In this episode, Daniel Fang walks us through how large language models can be transformed into intelligent agents that understand user intent, generate Python code, and control LEGO Spike Prime robots in real time. 🔍 Key takeaways for enterprise tech leaders:
- Architecting agentic AI systems that plan, reason, and act
- Integrating GPT with physical devices for real-world feedback loops
- Building scalable, student-friendly AI apps on Azure
- Inspiring the next generation of developers through hands-on learning
💡 Whether you're exploring AI in education, edge computing, or human-machine interaction, this episode offers practical insights into building intelligent, responsive systems that bridge the digital and physical worlds. 📅 Thursday 14th August 13:00 GMT+8
Register to watch the broadcast: Live Broadcast Watch it on demand on YouTube
- LEGO Agent Repo
- Microsoft Build: Scott and Mark Learn to...LIVE
- Microsoft Build: Best practices for building agentic apps with Azure AI Foundry
- LEGO Education - Spike Prime 3
- Create Agentic AI solutions by using Azure AI Foundry
- AI Agents for Beginners
- Lego Robotics League #MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub
Kubernetes is the new normal—but what’s next?
Join host Michelle Sandford as she welcomes Randy Bias and Bharath Nallapeta from Mirantis for a bold conversation on the evolution of platform engineering in the AI era.
💡 From deploying GPU-enabled clusters on Azure to orchestrating AI workloads with open-source tools like Cordant, this episode is packed with insights and a live demo you won’t want to miss.
🔍 Topics include: • The shift from DevOps to platform engineering • Balancing open-source innovation with enterprise reliability • How AI is transforming observability, automation, and developer experience
💬 Live Q&A included — bring your questions!
📍 Add to your calendar and join us live! https://msft.it/6042sw2I4 Watch it on demand on YouTube
- Microsoft Learn Platform Engineering Resources
- Foundations of Platform Engineering
- DevOps Engineers Training Plan
- k0rdent GitHub Repo
- KCM
- k0rdent Catalogue
- k0rdent Webpage
- Azure SRE Agent
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub
Join host Michelle Sandford in this episode of New Breakpoint, where we welcome Rakesh Lakshminarayana, Principal Architect at Agile Insights, to unpack the building blocks of intelligent applications. From model selection and prompt engineering to context management and multiagent orchestration, Rakesh walks us through the latest advancements in AI development. Discover how tools like MCP enhance model capabilities, explore best practices for testing and evaluation, and dive into a hands-on demo using Azure AI Foundry to build a custom AI assistant. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your approach, this session is packed with insights, resources, and practical guidance to help you build smarter, more effective AI solutions.
🔍 Topics include:
• The building blocks for building Intelligent applications
• Context Model Management
• What problems does MCP solve?
• Testing and Evaluating Intelligent Apps
💬 Live Q&A included — bring your questions!
📍 Add to your calendar and join us live! Watch it on demand on YouTube
- Develop AI apps using Azure services
- Build Agents using Model Context Protocol on Azure
- AI agent orchestration patterns
- Secure your AI App with keyless authentication
- Evaluate your Chat App
- Create OpenAI powered Agents using MCP
- Introduction to AI agent orchestration patterns
- Build a multiple-agent workflow automation solution with Semantic Kernel
- AI Foundry Agent using MCP Tools
- Samples - Azure AI Agents
- MCP Documentation
- MCP Servers
- AI Agent Workshop
- Binary Trails Blog
- RAG Overview
- RAG Grounding
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub
Join host Michelle Sandford in this episode of New Breakpoint, where we welcome Scott Holden, Developer Solution Engineer Lead, to show how GitHub Copilot has revolutionized how we code by bringing agent powered assistance directly into our editors. Now, that same magic is coming to your terminal unlocking a new level of speed, precision, and automation for command-line workflows. In this session we will take a deep dive into GitHub Copilot CLI, how to get the best use out of it from your terminal, how to unlock the power of MCPs from the CLI in a secure manner, and a peek at automating GitHub Copilot CLI via programmatic mode.
🔍 Topics include:
• Guiding you through the common GitHub Copilot CLI commands
• Exploring configuration options enabling you to make the most of GitHub Copilot directly from your terminal
💬 Live Q&A included — bring your questions!
📍 Add to your calendar and join us live! Watch it on demand on YouTube
- GitHub Copilot Across Environments: IDE, Chat, GitHub.com, and Command Line Techniques
- GitHub Copilot CLI: How to get started
- About GitHub Copilot CLI
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #CLI #Copilot #GHCP
Think Azure Static Web Apps are just for hobby sites? Not anymore.
Join Microsoft Microsoft Most Valuable Professional, Stacy Cashmore and Me! - Your host Michelle Sandford at Øredev Developers Conference as we show you how to:
• Automate deployments with Infrastructure as Code
• Customize pipelines for unit testing & multi-environment builds
• Implement Custom Authentication using Auth0 + Azure Functions
• Use GitHub Codespaces & Actions for enterprise-ready workflows
Packed with live demos, this session will help you build secure, scalable apps for real-world enterprise needs.
💬 Live Q&A included — bring your questions!
📍 Add to your calendar and join us live! Watch it on demand on YouTube
The example below shows the code for building both out of the box, and custom auth Azure static web apps using Blazor, .NET functions and authentication
Example repos showing how to attach a WebPubSub service to Azure Static Web Apps using Blazor and .NET Functions.
A simple application showing how to use WebPubSub to communicate between clients for point to point, group, and broadcast messages
Taking the concept from the Avengers chat and joining it with real world auth an use cases to manage a library of books.
I'm Stacy Cashmore, I have been playing with Azure Static Web Apps since they were in preview and have writen and given multiple talks on the resource.
You can best me best here:
I am currently finishing the second edition of my book on getting started, which covers everything from the basics, through to making your own professional pipeline.
Available from other bookstores, but this is the easiest to link to
2026-01-08: New Breakpoint S5 Ep 7: Microsoft Agent Framework Explained: Smarter Workflows, Better Tools, Bigger Demo
In this episode we dive into the evolution from Azure AI Foundry-built agents to the newly upgraded Microsoft Agent Framework, using the refreshed Contoso Bike Store demo to spotlight what’s changed, what gaps are now filled, and how workflows, hosting, DevUI, and the new AG‑UI all come together to create production‑ready agent experiences.
We explore why workflows still matter even when agents can choose their own next step, how Foundry agents and the Framework complement each other, what new tooling exists for runtime observability, and the fastest path for developers to get started.
Join us for a practical, future‑focused tour of how Microsoft is redefining the agent development stack:
🔍 Topics include:
• The building blocks for building Intelligent applications
• Foundry Agents and the Microsoft Agent Framework
• What problems does Microsoft Agent Framework solve?
• AG-UI and Dev-UI
💬 Live Q&A included — bring your questions!
📍 Add to your calendar and join us live! Watch it on demand on YouTube
- 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
- 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 - 𝐏𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐧 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞s
- 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 - .𝐍𝐄𝐓 𝐒𝐚𝐦𝐩𝐥𝐞𝐬
- 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭–𝐔𝐬𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐏𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐨𝐜𝐨𝐥 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
- 𝐂𝐨𝐩𝐢𝐥𝐨𝐭𝐊𝐢𝐭 𝐃𝐨𝐜𝐮𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧
- 𝐁𝐥𝐨𝐠 𝐏𝐨𝐬𝐭 - 𝐁𝐮𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐞 𝐀𝐩𝐩𝐫𝐨𝐯𝐚𝐥 𝐖𝐨𝐫𝐤𝐟𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐌𝐢𝐜𝐫𝐨𝐬𝐨𝐟𝐭 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐅𝐫𝐚𝐦𝐞𝐰𝐨𝐫𝐤 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐀𝐆-𝐔𝐈
- Episode Source Code
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #CLI #Copilot #GHCP
Join Michelle Sandford and April Yoho for the newest episode of New Breapoint, Breaking the Build: Azure Dev Ops to GitHub Migration Unplugged” – a practical, no-fluff session designed for developers, architects, and engineering teams who want a clear path to migration.
In this session, you’ll learn: ✅ How feature parity between Azure DevOps and GitHub really looks ✅ What’s better in GitHub right now (and why it matters for your workflow) ✅ Who should migrate now – and who should wait ✅ Which features are still on the roadmap ✅ Actionable tips to avoid common migration pitfalls ✅ How GitHub Copilot can support and accelerate your day-to-day development
Whether you’re just considering a move or actively planning a migration in 2026, this is your hands-on guide to making the transition as seamless as possible.
🎯 Perfect for:
- Engineering & DevOps teams
- Solution and software architects
- Developers evaluating their next toolchain
🔗 Save your spot & register here: https://msft.it/6041tCV2B
- Migrations Documentation
- Azure DevOps to GitHub migration Playbook
- ADO to GitHub Cloud
- Overview of a Migration
- Introduction to Migration on Microsoft Learn
- Well Archtected Migrations Guide
- GitHub Coding Agents
Agent-powered development changes how we build - but clarity still starts with humans. In this upcoming New Breakpoint, Arnaud Lheureux joins me to share a practical playbook for treating the spec as the product and using agents to do the heavy lifting.
🔍 You’ll learn: • What makes a spec implementable (outcomes, non-goals, edge cases & acceptance criteria) • How to translate specs into high-quality agent tasks • Prompting patterns and review checkpoints that actually work • How to avoid scope creep and “plausible but wrong” code • How teams operationalize this approach with GitHub Enterprise
If you want a repeatable way to go from spec → merged PR with less toil and fewer surprises, this session is for you. 👉 Secure your spot now! https://msft.it/6044QZHQe
- GitHub Spec Kit
- Implement spec-driven development using the GitHub Spec Kit - Microsoft Learn Path
- Spec-driven development with AI: Get started with a new open source toolkit
GitHub Copilot is great in the editor, but what if you want Copilot inside your product or workflow? Let us introduce you to the Copilot SDK!
In this episode, Aaron Powell joins host Michelle Sandford to explore the GitHub Copilot SDK, the building blocks you need to create custom Copilot powered experiences, and the real world gotchas that show up after the demo works.
Expect clear explanations, practical examples, and a roadmap for going from idea to shipped feature.
🔍 You’ll learn: • How to add Agents to Anything • The GitHub Copilot SDK • Awesome Copilot Repo
If you want a repeatable way to go from spec → merged PR with less toil and fewer surprises, this session is for you. 👉 Secure your spot now! https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/series/s-1565/
- GitHub Copilot SDK
- Really Awesome GHCP CLI Course
- Awesome Copilot Repository - Agents, Hooks, Skills, Instructions, Plugins, Agentic Workflows, Cookbook and more
- Build an agent into any app with the GitHub Copilot SDK
- GitHub Copilot SDK Docs
- Develop AI-enabled apps using the GitHub Copilot SDK
- Home Assistant Helper Demo
- Copilot SDK Web App
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #CLI #Copilot #GHCP
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🎙️ Michelle Sandford is joined by Ayodeji Ayodele (GitHub Senior Customer Success Architect, author of the GitHub Foundations Certification Guide) to cover what developers actually need:
• Git vs GitHub (what matters in practice) • Cleaner repos & faster collaboration • Pull requests that speed teams up •Quick wins with GitHub Actions •Security basics: dependency, secret & code scanning • Using GitHub Copilot responsibly • First steps into open source
👉 Watch it on YouTube here and level up your GitHub foundations! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W86EkkBdquo
- GitHub Copilot Certification Learning Path
- GitHub Foundations Certification Learning Path
- GitHub Foundations Certification Guide on Amazon
- GitHub Copilot SDK
- Really Awesome GHCP CLI Course
- Awesome Copilot Repository - Agents, Hooks, Skills, Instructions, Plugins, Agentic Workflows, Cookbook and more
- Build an agent into any app with the GitHub Copilot SDK
- GitHub Copilot SDK Docs
- Develop AI-enabled apps using the GitHub Copilot SDK
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #CLI #Copilot #GHCP
2026-06-11: New Breakpoint S5 Ep 11: Platform Engineering Rewritten: From Pipelines to Prompts with Arnaud Lheureux.
Platform engineering has always been about turning intent into secure, compliant infrastructure but it has come at the cost of complexity, time, and endless templates.
🎙️In this episode of New Breakpoint, Michelle Sandford is joined by Arnaud Lheureux to explore how agentic AI is redefining that model. Instead of manually stitching together infrastructure components, what if agents could orchestrate everything for you - safely, transparently, and in minutes instead of weeks?
Through a live demo of GitApe, we see how teams can go from a simple prompt to a fully deployed, policy-compliant architecture, complete with validation, cost insights, documentation, and traceability. But this isn’t about replacing engineers. It’s about elevating them. As automation takes over repetitive tasks, platform teams shift towards designing guardrails, shaping context, and making better-informed decisions.
If you’re building, operating, or evolving platforms in the age of AI, this episode will challenge how you think about speed, responsibility, and what it really means to engineer at scale.
👉 Register here and level up your Agentic Platform Engineering skills https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/reactor/events/27318/?wt.mc_id=linkedin_27318_social_reactor
- Git Ape Website
- Git-Ape Repository on GitHub
- Git-Ape on VS Code Marketplace
- Platform Engineering on Microsoft Learn
- Really Awesome GHCP CLI Course
- Awesome Copilot Repository - Agents, Hooks, Skills, Instructions, Plugins, Agentic Workflows, Cookbook and more
#MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #MicrosoftAustralia #MicrosoftNZ #MSDeveloperANZ #NewBreakpoint #DevOps #DevSecOps #Azure #GitHub #CLI #Copilot #GHCP