Declarative

In the Ultra Transcenders books

AZ-400

Each book explains Declarative in context, with comparison tables and the common traps.

Terms in this definition

• Terraform

  HashiCorp's open-source tool for describing infrastructure declaratively in HCL. For Azure it relies on four providers: AzureRM, AzAPI, AzureAD and AzureDevops.

• Bicep

  Domain-specific language for declaring Azure infrastructure as code, which is compiled into ARM templates.

• OVER

  Gives a T-SQL window function its window: PARTITION BY, ORDER BY and, if wanted, a ROWS or RANGE frame. Rankings and running totals can then be worked out while every row is kept.

• Imperative

  An automation approach that spells out every step in order, like a run of CLI commands. Declarative templates are the opposite, stating only the desired end result.

Related terms

• Agent Builder

  A Microsoft Copilot tool where people describe a declarative agent in plain language, or fill in a Configure tab, and ground it in sources like SharePoint or Copilot connectors. If the agent later needs actions or workflows, a copy moves into Copilot Studio.

• Binding

  A declarative way to bring data into a function as an input or to write results out as an output. None are required: the code is always free to talk to the target service by using an SDK client from Azure.

• Custom variables

  Values you define once in a Declarative Automation Bundle, under variables, and reuse anywhere as ${var.<name>}. A variable can carry a fallback value, fetch an object's ID by lookup, or be declared type: complex, and everything is filled in when you deploy.

• Foundry workflows

  Preview Foundry feature that orchestrates agents and logic in a fixed, declarative order, supporting variables, if/else branches and human-in-the-loop steps. Workflows are being retired on 1 December 2026 and Agent Framework replaces them.

• Hosted agent

  A Foundry agent whose code and framework are your own, packaged as a container that Foundry runs behind a managed endpoint. Declarative prompt agents are the alternative.

• IaC

  Infrastructure as code means deploying resources from declarative files, for example Bicep or ARM templates.

• SDP

  Spark Declarative Pipelines: open-source Apache Spark tooling to declare batch or streaming data flows in Python or SQL. Databricks extends it as Lakeflow Spark Declarative Pipelines, adding AUTO CDC, expectations and a queryable event log.

• SQL database project

  Declarative database code held as .sql files, with one file per object, which is checked for valid syntax and references against a target platform and then compiled to a .dacpac. Fabric source control stores warehouses and SQL databases in the SDK-style Microsoft.Build.Sql format, which the SQL Database Projects extension in VS Code also uses.