Build AI RAG Apps with LangChain, Azure DocumentDB and Microsoft Foundry: Step-by-Step Guide

In this step, you'll:

• Fork the sample repository on GitHub.
• Create an Azure App Service resource with a deployment from GitHub.
• Modify Azure App Service Application settings in the Azure portal.
• Configure the workflow to deploy your application from GitHub.
• Test the website before and after adding the data.

Fork the Sample Repository on GitHub

In this step, you create a copy from the source code on your GitHub account to be able to edit it and use it later.

 

1. Visit the sample github.com/Azure-Samples/Cosmic-Food-RAG-app in your browser and sign in.

2. Select Fork from the top of the sample page.

3. Select an owner for the fork then, select Create fork.

Create an Azure App Service resource with a deployment from GitHub

In this step, you create an Azure App service resource and connect it with your GitHub account to deploy a Python application.

 

1. Type app service in the search bar at the top of the portal page and select App Services from the available options.

2. Select Create Web App from the toolbar to start provisioning a new web application.

3.  Add the following information to fill in the basic configuration of the application:

4. Add the following information to create the app service plan. You can scale it up later:

5. Select Deployment from the toolbar to move to the deployment configuration tab.

6. Add the following information to enable continuous deployment from GitHub:

7. Select Review + create.

8. Confirm your configuration settings and select Create to start provisioning the resource. Wait for the deployment to finish.

9. After the deployment finishes, select Go to resource to inspect your created resource. Here, you can manage your resource and find important information like the application settings and logs.

Modify Azure App service Application settings in the Azure portal

 In this step, you configure the Application settings to make the website able to communicate with other cloud resources.

 

1. In the Web App resource, select Environment variables from the left side menu.

 

2. Select + Add to add new environment variables to the function configuration.

 

3. Add the following names and values one by one and select Ok. Make sure to add your own values.

These application settings are for the Azure OpenAI resources that you created:

 

You can get the Azure OpenAI key from the Azure OpenAI resource page.

Select Keys and Endpoint  from the Resource Management section and copy any of the available keys.

These application settings are for Azure DocumentDB (with MongoDB compatibility):

 

 

These application settings are new and are used for resources that will be created when the application starts you can use any value for them:

4. Select Apply to save your newly added environment variables.

5. Select Configuration then Stack settings to edit the application startup command.

6. Type entrypoint.sh in the startup command field then select Apply.

Configure the Workflow to deploy your application from GitHub

In this step, you modify the GitHub deployment workflow to point to the folder that contains the application.

 

1. Visit your forked repository on GitHub and notice the failing workflow.

 

2. Open the workflow file .github/workflows/main_cosmic-food-rag.yml.

3.  Open the file and select the pen icon to edit it.

4. Modify line 41 from . to src/.

7. Select Commit changes, and review your commit message and description. Select Commit changes.

The final workflow file should look like this:

# Docs for the Azure Web Apps Deploy action: https://github.com/Azure/webapps-deploy
# More GitHub Actions for Azure: https://github.com/Azure/actions
# More info on Python, GitHub Actions, and Azure App Service: https://aka.ms/python-webapps-actions

name: Build and deploy Python app to Azure Web App - cosmic-food-rag

on:
  push:
    branches:
      - main
  workflow_dispatch:

jobs:
  build:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    permissions:
      contents: read #This is required for actions/checkout

    steps:
      - uses: actions/checkout@v4

      - name: Set up Node 22
        uses: actions/setup-node@v6
        with:
          node-version: 22

      - name: Install Node Packages & Build Static Site
        run: cd frontend && npm install && npm run build

      # By default, when you enable GitHub CI/CD integration through the Azure portal, the platform automatically sets the SCM_DO_BUILD_DURING_DEPLOYMENT application setting to true. This triggers the use of Oryx, a build engine that handles application compilation and dependency installation (e.g., pip install) directly on the platform during deployment. Hence, we exclude the antenv virtual environment directory from the deployment artifact to reduce the payload size. 
      - name: Upload artifact for deployment jobs
        uses: actions/upload-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: python-app
          path: |
            src/
            !antenv/

      # 🚫 Opting Out of Oryx Build
      # If you prefer to disable the Oryx build process during deployment, follow these steps:
      # 1. Remove the SCM_DO_BUILD_DURING_DEPLOYMENT app setting from your Azure App Service Environment variables.
      # 2. Refer to sample workflows for alternative deployment strategies: https://github.com/Azure/actions-workflow-samples/tree/master/AppService
      

  deploy:
    runs-on: ubuntu-latest
    needs: build
    permissions:
      id-token: write #This is required for requesting the JWT
      contents: read #This is required for actions/checkout

    steps:
      - name: Download artifact from build job
        uses: actions/download-artifact@v4
        with:
          name: python-app
      
      - name: Login to Azure
        uses: azure/login@v2
        with:
          client-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_CLIENTID_5672547ED09F46D59DD431ACF5A29F28 }}
          tenant-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_TENANTID_0059913572C8467882D3999D0E0DD5B8 }}
          subscription-id: ${{ secrets.AZUREAPPSERVICE_SUBSCRIPTIONID_7C42E3352C5D47F084CB0CD14F549D27 }}

      - name: 'Deploy to Azure Web App'
        uses: azure/webapps-deploy@v3
        id: deploy-to-webapp
        with:
          app-name: 'cosmic-food-rag'
          slot-name: 'Production'

 

8. Select Actions to review the workflow run status.

 

Test the website before and After adding the data

In this step, you test the application before adding the data, add the data, and test again.

 

1. Select the workflow name to open it and get the website URL.

2. Select any of the suggested messages or type your own and it should respond with No results found.

3. Navigate to your Azure App Service resource page and select SSH then select Go to open a new SSH page.

4. In the SSH terminal, run these commands:

5. Navigate back to the live website and type in the chat message Do you have any vegan food dishes? and it should respond with the correct answer now. 

Congratulations!! You successfully built the full application.

Clean Up

Once you finish experimenting on Microsoft Azure you might want to delete the resources to not consume any more money from your subscription.

You can delete the resource group and it will delete everything inside it or delete the resources one by one that's totally up to you.