Azure Identity SDK for Rust

Name: azure-identity-rust
Rating: 78
Author: microsoft

Authentication library for Azure SDK clients using Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD).

Installation

cargo add azure_identity

Environment Variables

bash

# Service Principal (for production/CI)
AZURE_TENANT_ID=<your-tenant-id>
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=<your-client-id>
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET=<your-client-secret>

# User-assigned Managed Identity (optional)
AZURE_CLIENT_ID=<managed-identity-client-id>

DeveloperToolsCredential

The recommended credential for local development. Tries developer tools in order (Azure CLI, Azure Developer CLI):

rust

use azure_identity::DeveloperToolsCredential;
use azure_security_keyvault_secrets::SecretClient;

let credential = DeveloperToolsCredential::new(None)?;
let client = SecretClient::new(
    "https://my-vault.vault.azure.net/",
    credential.clone(),
    None,
)?;

Credential Chain Order

Order	Credential	Environment
1	AzureCliCredential	`az login`
2	AzureDeveloperCliCredential	`azd auth login`

Credential Types

Credential	Usage
`DeveloperToolsCredential`	Local development - tries CLI tools
`ManagedIdentityCredential`	Azure VMs, App Service, Functions, AKS
`WorkloadIdentityCredential`	Kubernetes workload identity
`ClientSecretCredential`	Service principal with secret
`ClientCertificateCredential`	Service principal with certificate
`AzureCliCredential`	Direct Azure CLI auth
`AzureDeveloperCliCredential`	Direct azd CLI auth
`AzurePipelinesCredential`	Azure Pipelines service connection
`ClientAssertionCredential`	Custom assertions (federated identity)

ManagedIdentityCredential

For Azure-hosted resources:

rust

use azure_identity::ManagedIdentityCredential;

// System-assigned managed identity
let credential = ManagedIdentityCredential::new(None)?;

// User-assigned managed identity
let options = ManagedIdentityCredentialOptions {
    client_id: Some("<user-assigned-mi-client-id>".into()),
    ..Default::default()
};
let credential = ManagedIdentityCredential::new(Some(options))?;

ClientSecretCredential

For service principal with secret:

rust

use azure_identity::ClientSecretCredential;

let credential = ClientSecretCredential::new(
    "<tenant-id>".into(),
    "<client-id>".into(),
    "<client-secret>".into(),
    None,
)?;

Best Practices

•Use DeveloperToolsCredential for local dev — automatically picks up Azure CLI
•Use ManagedIdentityCredential in production — no secrets to manage
•Clone credentials — credentials are Arc-wrapped and cheap to clone
•Reuse credential instances — same credential can be used with multiple clients
•Use tokio feature — cargo add azure_identity --features tokio

Reference Links

Resource	Link
API Reference	https://docs.rs/azure_identity
Source Code	https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-rust/tree/main/sdk/identity/azure_identity
crates.io	https://crates.io/crates/azure_identity