Hello IBM Community,

I am currently working on creating a custom agent in IBM Orchestrate to integrate with an Azure Function, and I am seeking guidance on best practices for authentication and connectivity.

My challenges:

1. Authentication – I have attempted using the Azure Function key, but occasionally receive 401 Unauthorized errors. I am interested in understanding the recommended approach, including options such as managed identities or alternative authentication methods.

2. Connectivity – Even with proper credentials, the agent sometimes experiences timeouts or connection failures. Guidance on improving reliability and troubleshooting connectivity issues would be valuable.

3. Debugging – Orchestrate does not provide detailed logs for outbound requests, making it difficult to identify whether issues originate from Orchestrate or Azure. Any strategies for gaining more visibility would be appreciated.

Steps taken so far:

• Verified the Azure Function independently using Postman, which works as expected.

• Configured the Orchestrate agent with the function endpoint and key.

I would greatly appreciate insights from anyone who has experience integrating Orchestrate with Azure Functions, including recommended patterns, best practices, or troubleshooting tips.

Thank you in advance for your guidance. I look forward to applying the recommendations and contributing the learnings back to the community.

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Denitsa Draganova
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Hello Denitsa, thank you for your input and detailed information.

Was the connection with Azure successfully setup and working more of the time but failing occasionally?

Are you using a trial or paid instance? If latter I would recommend to open a support ticket as this is indeed unexpected.

If you have not done so, see our doc about connection setup @ https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/watsonx/watson-orchestrate/base?topic=managing-connections

Know we are working on improvement for connection & debugging UX, in meantime do not hesitate to contribute @ https://watson-orchestrate.ideas.ibm.com/

 Hope this helps,

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Laurent de Clermont-Tonnerre
watsonx Orchestrate Product Manager
IBM
San Francisco
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Original Message:
Sent: Sat August 23, 2025 08:49 AM
From: Denitsa Draganova
Subject: Looking for Tips: Connecting an IBM Orchestrate Agent to an Azure Function

Hello IBM Community,

I am currently working on creating a custom agent in IBM Orchestrate to integrate with an Azure Function, and I am seeking guidance on best practices for authentication and connectivity.

My challenges:

1. Authentication – I have attempted using the Azure Function key, but occasionally receive 401 Unauthorized errors. I am interested in understanding the recommended approach, including options such as managed identities or alternative authentication methods.

2. Connectivity – Even with proper credentials, the agent sometimes experiences timeouts or connection failures. Guidance on improving reliability and troubleshooting connectivity issues would be valuable.

3. Debugging – Orchestrate does not provide detailed logs for outbound requests, making it difficult to identify whether issues originate from Orchestrate or Azure. Any strategies for gaining more visibility would be appreciated.

Steps taken so far:

• Verified the Azure Function independently using Postman, which works as expected.

• Configured the Orchestrate agent with the function endpoint and key.

I would greatly appreciate insights from anyone who has experience integrating Orchestrate with Azure Functions, including recommended patterns, best practices, or troubleshooting tips.

Thank you in advance for your guidance. I look forward to applying the recommendations and contributing the learnings back to the community.

------------------------------
Denitsa Draganova
------------------------------