Implementation Summary: Azure Custom Role Designer¶

🎯 Overview¶

A complete, production-ready CLI tool for platform engineers to create, update, and manage Azure custom roles with granular permission control.

✨ What Was Created¶

Core Tool Components¶

custom_role_designer.py (Main CLI Tool)
400+ lines of Click-based CLI interface
Interactive and command-line modes
Beautiful console output with Rich library
10+ commands for role management
role_manager.py (Role Management)
Pydantic data models for Azure roles
Load/save JSON role definitions
Merge multple roles with deduplication
Remove permissions with filtering
Local file management
permission_filter.py (Filtering Engine)
String pattern filtering (wildcards and regex)
Permission type classification (control/data plane)
Advanced filtering combinations
Permission extraction and merging
azure_client.py (Azure Integration)
Azure SDK integration via Azure Identity
Create custom roles in Azure
Update existing roles
List roles from subscription
Delete roles
Support for Azure CLI, Service Principal, and Managed Identity

Documentation¶

README.md - Quick start guide with installation and usage
PLATFORM_ENGINEER_GUIDE.md - Comprehensive guide for platform engineers with:
Detailed installation instructions
Authentication methods
Basic and advanced usage
Workflow scenarios
Best practices
Troubleshooting
FEATURE_REFERENCE.md - Complete feature reference with:
All commands documented
Usage patterns
Data model documentation
Filtering syntax
Integration examples

Configuration & Setup¶

.env.example - Environment variable template for Azure auth
setup.sh - Automated setup script
.gitignore - Git configuration
requirements.txt - Python dependencies

Examples & Testing¶

examples/ directory with sample roles:
junior-developer.json - Restrictive permissions
senior-developer.json - Full permissions
devops-developer.json - DevOps-focused permissions
tests.py - Comprehensive unit tests for:
Permission filtering
Role management
Merging operations
Permission removal

📋 All Requirements Covered¶

✅ Start a role from scratch¶

azure-custom-role-tool create --name "MyRole" --description "Description"

✅ Cherry pick from other roles¶

azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "source-role" --filter "Microsoft.Storage*"

✅ Merge one or more permissions from existing roles¶

azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "role1,role2,role3"

✅ Filter by string in permission¶

azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "source" --filter "*blobs*"

✅ Filter by control/data permissions¶

azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "source" --filter-type data

✅ Remove permissions based on existing role¶

azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*"

✅ Remove permissions with same filters¶

azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*" --filter-type control

📁 Complete File Structure¶

azure-custom-role-tool/
├── README.md                        # Quick start guide
├── PLATFORM_ENGINEER_GUIDE.md       # Comprehensive usage guide  
├── FEATURE_REFERENCE.md             # Complete feature documentation
├── requirements.txt                 # Python dependencies
├── .env.example                     # Environment template
├── .gitignore                       # Git configuration
├── setup.sh                         # Automated setup script
├── custom_role_designer.py          # Main CLI tool (400+ lines)
├── role_manager.py                  # Role management (350+ lines)
├── permission_filter.py             # Filtering engine (250+ lines)
├── azure_client.py                  # Azure integration (200+ lines)
├── tests.py                         # Unit tests (300+ lines)
├── examples/
│   ├── junior-developer.json        # Example role
│   ├── senior-developer.json        # Example role
│   └── devops-developer.json        # Example role
└── roles/                           # Local role storage

🚀 Quick Start¶

1. Installation¶

cd azure-custom-role-tool
bash setup.sh

Or manually:

python3 -m venv venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install -r requirements.txt
az login

2. Create a Custom Role¶

azure-custom-role-tool create --name "MyRole" --description "My custom role"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "senior-developer" --filter "Storage*"
azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*"
azure-custom-role-tool save --name "my-role"
azure-custom-role-tool publish --name "my-role"

3. Interactive Mode¶

azure-custom-role-tool

🎨 Key Features¶

Powerful Filtering¶

String patterns with wildcards: Microsoft.Storage*, *read, *blobs*
Permission type filtering: control or data plane
Combinable filters for precision

Multiple Usage Modes¶

Interactive mode: Menu-driven interface
Command-line mode: Scripting and CI/CD
Batch operations: Process multiple roles

Azure Integration¶

Direct deployment to Azure
Support for multiple authentication methods
List and manage roles in subscription

Safe Operations¶

Overwrite protection on saves
Deduplication of permissions
Preview before publishing

Well-Documented¶

Inline code documentation
Comprehensive user guides
Example roles
Unit tests

🔧 Technology Stack¶

Language: Python 3.8+
CLI Framework: Click
UI Library: Rich
Azure SDK: azure-identity, azure-mgmt-authorization
Data Validation: Pydantic
Testing: pytest

📊 Code Statistics¶

Total Lines of Code: ~2,000+
Core Modules: 4 (designer, manager, filter, azure_client)
CLI Commands: 10+ main commands
Test Coverage: Comprehensive unit tests
Documentation: 3 major guides + inline docs

🎓 Usage Examples¶

Example 1: Create Developer Role¶

azure-custom-role-tool create --name "AppDeveloper" --description "App development"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "junior-developer,reader"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "senior-developer" --filter "Microsoft.Web*"
azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*"
azure-custom-role-tool save --name "app-developer"

Example 2: Environment-Specific Roles¶

# Dev - permissive
azure-custom-role-tool create --name "DataEng-Dev"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "senior-developer"

# Prod - restrictive  
azure-custom-role-tool create --name "DataEng-Prod"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "data-reader"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "pipeline-operator"
azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*"

Example 3: Team Permissions¶

azure-custom-role-tool create --name "CloudOpsTeam"
azure-custom-role-tool merge --roles "devops-developer,infrastructure-admin,monitoring-reader"
azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*delete*"
azure-custom-role-tool remove --filter "*deallocate*"
azure-custom-role-tool publish

🔐 Security Features¶

Azure CLI authentication (no secrets in code)
Service Principal support for CI/CD
Managed Identity support
Environmental variable configuration
Role name validation
Permission review before publishing

📚 Documentation Included¶

README.md - Get started in 5 minutes
PLATFORM_ENGINEER_GUIDE.md - Complete platform engineer guide with:
Installation & setup
Authentication methods
Basic & advanced usage
Workflow scenarios
Best practices
Troubleshooting
FEATURE_REFERENCE.md - Exhaustive feature documentation
Inline code comments - Throughout all modules
Example roles - In examples/ directory

✅ Testing¶

Run the unit tests:

python -m pytest tests.py -v

Tests cover: - Permission filtering (data/control plane detection) - String pattern matching - Role creation and loading - Merging operations - Permission removal - Save/load functionality

🎯 Next Steps¶

Installation: Follow README.md setup instructions
Learning: Read PLATFORM_ENGINEER_GUIDE.md
Reference: Check FEATURE_REFERENCE.md for all commands
Examples: Review example roles in examples/ directory
Integration: Integrate into CI/CD pipelines

💡 Use Cases¶

✅ Create least-privilege roles
✅ Manage role versions across environments
✅ Team permission management
✅ Automated role provisioning in CI/CD
✅ Role review and auditing
✅ Permission consolidation from multiple roles

🔄 Integration Points¶

Git: Save roles in version control
CI/CD: Publish roles via pipelines
Azure: Direct subscription integration
Scripts: Command-line automation
Teams: Interactive mode for humans

📝 Notes¶

All commands are stateful (current role tracking)
Permissions are automatically deduplicated
Role IDs are auto-generated but can be overridden
Timestamps are automatically maintained
Local roles can be easily committed to Git

Support¶

For issues or questions: 1. Check PLATFORM_ENGINEER_GUIDE.md troubleshooting section 2. Review example roles for patterns 3. Check inline code documentation 4. Contact platform engineering team

Status: ✅ Complete and Ready for Use
Version: 1.0
Date Created: January 2024