The personal blog and portfolio of Russ Rimmerman, a Microsoft Cloud Solution Architect sharing the latest learnings on Azure, AI, and cloud engineering.https://www.russrimmerman.com/en-ushttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/excel-compliance-calendar-managed-app/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/excel-compliance-calendar-managed-app/A customer's Excel tracker became a testable app in 25 minutes. Here's how Copilot Studio, Cowork, code apps, and GitHub Copilot compare.Sat, 24 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioCoworkPower PlatformCode AppsGitHub CopilotMicrosoft FoundryMicrosoft 365PlannerSharePointAgentshttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/sonnet-5-5-vs-opus-5-5-energy-profit-twin/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/sonnet-5-5-vs-opus-5-5-energy-profit-twin/I compared two finished apps built from the same brief, one with Claude Sonnet 5.5 and one with Claude Opus 5.5, screen by screen. Both work, and the gaps are specific.Tue, 06 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTGitHub CopilotAIVibe CodingAgentshttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/six-copilot-studio-apps-one-sunday/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/six-copilot-studio-apps-one-sunday/I had an agent build six demo apps in Copilot Studio in one day, then wire one to live energy data through custom connectors. Here's what review taught me.Sun, 04 Oct 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioPower PlatformAgentsVibe CodingAIDataversehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/csp-reporting-server/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/csp-reporting-server/Power Platform sends CSP violation reports from code, model-driven, and canvas apps. Here's the small open source collector I built to triage them.Tue, 29 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTPower PlatformPower AppsSecurityAzureEntraOpen Sourcehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/open-notebook-self-hosted-research-notebook/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/open-notebook-self-hosted-research-notebook/A field guide to InfiniAIBook, the AI research notebook you host yourself: cited chat, live voice discussions, Studio formats, videos, and Azure deployment.Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTAIOpen SourceAzureSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/ai-harness-helper/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/ai-harness-helper/AI Harness Helper brings your coding tool settings into one view, finds duplicate MCP servers, and estimates how much context your instruction files use.Thu, 17 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTGitHub CopilotMCPVibe CodingAIAgentsVS Codehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/managing-github-copilot-credit-consumption/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/managing-github-copilot-credit-consumption/Plan GitHub Copilot credit consumption with real-user pilots, measure savings alongside costs, and use budgets and focused tasks to manage spending.Wed, 16 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTGitHub CopilotAIAgentshttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/copilot-studio-transcript-replication/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/copilot-studio-transcript-replication/Compare Copilot Studio transcript replication through Fabric and Azure Functions, with practical guidance on retention, identity, parsing, and Power BI costs.Wed, 09 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioDataversePower PlatformMicrosoft FabricPower BIAzureAzure FunctionsArchitecturehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/estimating-copilot-studio-agent-costs/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/estimating-copilot-studio-agent-costs/Estimate Copilot Studio agent costs from business tasks, measure cost per successful outcome, and refine production budgets with observed credit consumption.Tue, 08 Sep 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioCopilot Agent KitPower PlatformAgentshttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/microsoft-communications-portal/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/microsoft-communications-portal/What the Microsoft Communications Portal is, how it aggregates Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Azure, and Fabric update feeds into one dashboard, its defense-in-depth security model, deployment options with Azure Developer CLI or Docker, and how to contribute on GitHub.Tue, 25 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPower PlatformAzureMicrosoft GraphEntraSecurityGitHubOpen Sourcehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/power-platform-api-came-a-long-way/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/power-platform-api-came-a-long-way/A technical tour of every Power Platform and Copilot Studio API surface behind Portal 360° — BAP, api.powerplatform.com, RBAC, the inventory query endpoint, Dataverse, and the tenant-scoped usage host — with real, sanitized calls and screenshots.Mon, 24 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPower PlatformCopilot StudioAPIsDataverseSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/azure-sre-agent-first-look/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/azure-sre-agent-first-look/What Azure SRE Agent is, what setup actually looks like, and what happened when I pointed it at my own repo, my Application Insights telemetry across Dataverse, Copilot Studio, and Foundry, and then asked it for a health check on everything at once. Plus what connecting an incident platform buys you — autonomous mitigation, a verification loop, and a handoff straight to the GitHub Copilot coding agent — the five switches worth flipping that you don't get turned on by default, and what the newly published Zero Ops framework recommends, including the two governance layers above per-tool Allow and Ask and three details worth verifying against the current docs.Fri, 14 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTAzureAzure SRE AgentAgentsApplication InsightsCopilot StudioDataverseMicrosoft FoundryGitHubSecurityDevOpshttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/power-apps-code-apps/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/power-apps-code-apps/Code apps let you build a React or Vue app in your own IDE and run it on Power Platform, with Entra ID sign-in, 1,400+ connectors, and DLP handled for you.Tue, 11 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTPower PlatformPower AppsVibe CodingGitHub CopilotIdentitySecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/find-github-copilot-harness-agents-resource-graph/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/find-github-copilot-harness-agents-resource-graph/The Power Platform admin center still doesn't flag which Copilot Studio agents run on the GitHub Copilot harness. The isCLIAgent property does, and Microsoft has now published governance guidance built on it.Mon, 10 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioPower PlatformGitHub CopilotAgentsAzureSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/customizing-github-copilot-app-quickstart/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/customizing-github-copilot-app-quickstart/A 20-minute quickstart for customizing the GitHub Copilot app as a non-coder: instructions, agent skills, MCP servers, custom agents, and plugins.Sun, 09 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTGitHub CopilotAIAgentsMCPVibe Codinghttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/microsoft-foundry-canvas/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/microsoft-foundry-canvas/Foundry Canvas puts model selection, toolboxes, guardrails, testing, and deployment in a Copilot side panel while leaving you the actual agent code.Fri, 07 Aug 2026 00:00:00 GMTMicrosoft FoundryAgentsGitHub CopilotAzureAIhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/foundry-agents-teams-private-endpoint/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/foundry-agents-teams-private-endpoint/Disabling public network access removes the Foundry portal's Teams publish button. Here's the REST path that replaces it and the inbound design you now own.Wed, 29 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTMicrosoft FoundryAgentsAzureSecurityM365 Copilothttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/servicenow-copilot-studio-user-login-sso/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/servicenow-copilot-studio-user-login-sso/Connect ServiceNow to Copilot Studio with Microsoft Entra ID User Login so requests honor each user's roles, ACLs, and audit trail.Wed, 22 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioServiceNowIdentitySecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-code-your-blog-part-2-deploy/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-code-your-blog-part-2-deploy/Create an Astro blog with GitHub Copilot, put it on GitHub, and deploy it to Azure Static Web Apps with OIDC and least-privilege access.Mon, 20 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVibe CodingAzureStatic Web AppsSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/favorite-ai-tools-for-vibe-coding/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/favorite-ai-tools-for-vibe-coding/The AI tools I use to design, ground, review, and ship vibe-coded projects, from Impeccable and Microsoft Foundry to MCPs and Power Platform Skills.Fri, 17 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVibe CodingAIGitHub CopilotMicrosoft Foundryhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/copilot-studio-sso-changes-your-client/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/copilot-studio-sso-changes-your-client/Turning on authentication breaks the Copilot Studio SDK with EnvironmentSettingViolation. Here's why Direct Line and a server-side token exchange are the fix.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTCopilot StudioAIAgentsSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/intune-graph-scope-is-only-half-the-permission/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/intune-graph-scope-is-only-half-the-permission/A field report on diagnosing an Intune Graph 403 after granting DeviceManagementManagedDevices.Read.All, with instrumentation patterns for missing access.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTIntuneMicrosoft GraphIdentitySecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/portal-of-portals-deep-dive/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/portal-of-portals-deep-dive/A tour of Portal 360°: multi-tenant admin, config drift, CVE tracking, and the BFF-secured Next.js architecture behind one Microsoft cloud console.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAzureIntunePower PlatformMicrosoft GraphSecurityhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-code-your-blog-part-1-setup/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-code-your-blog-part-1-setup/Set up GitHub Copilot to vibe code a blog, an app, or your own project. Learn the tools, agents, and skills; install Astro only for the blog example.Wed, 15 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVibe CodingAIGitHub CopilotAzurehttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-coding-lessons/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/vibe-coding-lessons/Field-tested lessons from shipping with AI: use plan mode, build reusable skills, choose models deliberately, and keep a reviewer in the loop.Sat, 11 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTVibe CodingAIAzureMCPGitHub CopilotMicrosoft Foundryhttps://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/starting-a-new-blog/https://www.russrimmerman.com/blog/starting-a-new-blog/Why I finally started writing after years of putting it off, plus a tour of what I built with AI: Pulse 360°, Portal 360°, and the Microsoft Communications Portal.Fri, 10 Jul 2026 00:00:00 GMTAzurePower PlatformVibe Coding