npx skills add ...
npx skills add microsoft/agent-skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py
npx skills add microsoft/agent-skills --skill azure-ai-contentunderstanding-py
Azure AI Content Understanding SDK for Python. Use for multimodal content extraction from documents, images, audio, and video. Triggers: "azure-ai-contentunderstanding", "ContentUnderstandingClient", "multimodal analysis", "document extraction", "video analysis", "audio transcription".
Multimodal AI service that extracts semantic content from documents, video, audio, and image files for RAG and automated workflows.
🔑 Two rules apply to every code sample below:
- Prefer
DefaultAzureCredential. It works locally (Azure CLI / VS Code / Developer CLI) and in Azure (managed identity, workload identity) with no code change. Avoid connection strings, account/API keys — they bypass Entra audit and rotation.
- Local dev:
DefaultAzureCredentialworks as-is.- Production: set
AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod(orAZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>) to constrain the credential chain to production-safe credentials.- Wrap every client in a context manager so HTTP transports, sockets, and token caches are released deterministically:
- Sync:
with <Client>(...) as client:- Async:
async with <Client>(...) as client:andasync with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential:(fromazure.identity.aio)Snippets may abbreviate this setup, but production code should always follow both rules.
Content Understanding operations are asynchronous long-running operations:
begin_analyze() (returns a poller).result())AnalyzeResult.contents| Analyzer | Content Type | Purpose |
|---|---|---|
prebuilt-documentSearch | Documents | Extract markdown for RAG applications |
prebuilt-imageSearch | Images | Extract content from images |
prebuilt-audioSearch | Audio | Transcribe audio with timing |
prebuilt-videoSearch | Video | Extract frames, transcripts, summaries |
prebuilt-invoice | Documents | Extract invoice fields |
Create custom analyzers with field schemas for specialized extraction:
| Class | For | Provides |
|---|---|---|
DocumentContent | PDF, images, Office docs | Pages, tables, figures, paragraphs |
AudioVisualContent | Audio, video files | Transcript phrases, timing, key frames |
Both derive from MediaContent which provides basic info and markdown representation.
| Client | Purpose |
|---|---|
ContentUnderstandingClient | Sync client for all operations |
ContentUnderstandingClient (aio) | Async client for all operations |
azure.ai.contentunderstanding sync clients with azure.ai.contentunderstanding.aio async clients in the same call path. Choose one mode per module.with ContentUnderstandingClient(...) as client: (sync) or async with ContentUnderstandingClient(...) as client: (async). For async DefaultAzureCredential from azure.identity.aio, also use async with credential: so tokens and transports are cleaned up.begin_analyze with AnalyzeInput — this is the correct method signatureresult.contents[0] — results are returned as a listazure.identity.aio credentials| File | Contents |
|---|---|
| references/capabilities.md | Additional non-hero capabilities, operation-group coverage, and production checklists. |
| references/non-hero-scenarios.md | Dedicated non-hero examples for secondary/advanced scenarios. |
import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential, ManagedIdentityCredential
endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
# Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential. Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>
credential = DefaultAzureCredential(require_envvar=True)
# Or use a specific credential directly in production:
# See https://learn.microsoft.com/python/api/overview/azure/identity-readme?view=azure-python#credential-classes
# credential = ManagedIdentityCredential()
with ContentUnderstandingClient(endpoint=endpoint, credential=credential) as client:
analyzers = list(client.list_analyzers())import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential
endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
with ContentUnderstandingClient(
endpoint=endpoint,
credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
) as client:
# Analyze document from URL
poller = client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="prebuilt-documentSearch",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/document.pdf")]
)
result = poller.result()
# Access markdown content (contents is a list)
content = result.contents[0]
print(content.markdown)from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import MediaContentKind, DocumentContent
content = result.contents[0]
if content.kind == MediaContentKind.DOCUMENT:
document_content: DocumentContent = content # type: ignore
print(document_content.start_page_number)from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
poller = client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="prebuilt-imageSearch",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/image.jpg")]
)
result = poller.result()
content = result.contents[0]
print(content.markdown)from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
poller = client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="prebuilt-videoSearch",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/video.mp4")]
)
result = poller.result()
# Access video content (AudioVisualContent)
content = result.contents[0]
# Get transcript phrases with timing
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
print(f"[{phrase.start_time} - {phrase.end_time}]: {phrase.text}")
# Get key frames (for video)
for frame in content.key_frames:
print(f"Frame at {frame.time}: {frame.description}")from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
poller = client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="prebuilt-audioSearch",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/audio.mp3")]
)
result = poller.result()
# Access audio transcript
content = result.contents[0]
for phrase in content.transcript_phrases:
print(f"[{phrase.start_time}] {phrase.text}")# Create custom analyzer
analyzer = client.create_analyzer(
analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
analyzer={
"description": "Custom invoice analyzer",
"base_analyzer_id": "prebuilt-documentSearch",
"field_schema": {
"fields": {
"vendor_name": {"type": "string"},
"invoice_total": {"type": "number"},
"line_items": {
"type": "array",
"items": {
"type": "object",
"properties": {
"description": {"type": "string"},
"amount": {"type": "number"}
}
}
}
}
}
}
)
# Use custom analyzer
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
poller = client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="my-invoice-analyzer",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/invoice.pdf")]
)
result = poller.result()
# Access extracted fields
print(result.fields["vendor_name"])
print(result.fields["invoice_total"])# List all analyzers
analyzers = client.list_analyzers()
for analyzer in analyzers:
print(f"{analyzer.analyzer_id}: {analyzer.description}")
# Get specific analyzer
analyzer = client.get_analyzer("prebuilt-documentSearch")
# Delete custom analyzer
client.delete_analyzer("my-custom-analyzer")import asyncio
import os
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.aio import ContentUnderstandingClient
from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import AnalyzeInput
from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential
async def analyze_document():
endpoint = os.environ["CONTENTUNDERSTANDING_ENDPOINT"]
async with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential:
async with ContentUnderstandingClient(
endpoint=endpoint,
credential=credential
) as client:
poller = await client.begin_analyze(
analyzer_id="prebuilt-documentSearch",
inputs=[AnalyzeInput(url="https://example.com/doc.pdf")]
)
result = await poller.result()
content = result.contents[0]
return content.markdown
asyncio.run(analyze_document())from azure.ai.contentunderstanding.models import (
AnalyzeInput,
AnalyzeResult,
MediaContentKind,
DocumentContent,
AudioVisualContent,
)