Azure DevOps Pipelines YAML Conventions

Follow these conventions when creating or modifying Azure DevOps Pipelines YAML to produce pipelines that are secure, maintainable, and performant.

Note: This skill focuses on YAML pipeline authoring conventions and best practices. For Azure Pipelines service reference documentation, see the azure-pipelines skill. For Azure DevOps CLI commands, see the azure-devops-cli skill.

General Guidelines

• Use YAML syntax with 2-space indentation consistently across all pipeline files
• Give every pipeline, stage, job, and step a meaningful name or displayName so the run UI is easy to scan
• Handle errors explicitly with condition, continueOnError, and status-check functions (succeeded(), failed(), always())
• Parameterize with variables and runtime parameters so pipelines are reusable without duplication
• Follow least-privilege for service connections -- grant only the permissions each pipeline actually needs

Pipeline Structure

Stages, Jobs, and Steps