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Visual Studio Code and Bicep extension

To create Bicep files, you need a good Bicep editor. We recommend:

To walk through a tutorial, see Quickstart: Create Bicep files with Visual Studio .

Azure CLI

When you use Azure CLI with Bicep, you have everything you need to deploy and decompile Bicep files. Azure CLI automatically installs the Bicep CLI when a command is executed that needs it.

You must have Azure CLI version 2.20.0 or later installed. To install or update Azure CLI, see:

To verify your current version, run:

az --version
To validate your Bicep CLI installation, use:
az bicep version
To upgrade to the latest version, use:
az bicep upgrade
For more commands, see Bicep CLI.
Important
Azure CLI installs a self-contained instance of the Bicep CLI. This instance doesn't conflict with any versions you may have manually installed. Azure CLI doesn't add Bicep CLI to your PATH.
You're done with setting up your Bicep environment. The rest of this article describes installation steps that you don't need when using Azure CLI.
Azure PowerShell
You must have Azure PowerShell version 5.6.0 or later installed. To update or install, see Install Azure PowerShell.
Azure PowerShell doesn't automatically install the Bicep CLI. Instead, you must manually install the Bicep CLI.
Important
The self-contained instance of the Bicep CLI installed by Azure CLI isn't available to PowerShell commands. Azure PowerShell deployments fail if you haven't manually installed the Bicep CLI.
When you manually install the Bicep CLI, run the Bicep commands with the bicep syntax, instead of the az bicep syntax for Azure CLI.
To check your Bicep CLI version, run:
bicep --version
Install manually
The following methods install the Bicep CLI and add it to your PATH. You must manually install for any use other than Azure CLI.
When installing manually, select a location that is different than the one managed by Azure CLI. All of the following examples use a location named bicep or .bicep. This location won't conflict with the location managed by Azure CLI, which uses .azure.
Linux
macOS
Windows
Linux
# Fetch the latest Bicep CLI binary
curl -Lo bicep https://github.com/Azure/bicep/releases/latest/download/bicep-linux-x64
# Mark it as executable
chmod +x ./bicep
# Add bicep to your PATH (requires admin)
sudo mv ./bicep /usr/local/bin/bicep
# Verify you can now access the 'bicep' command
bicep --help
# Done!
For lightweight Linux distributions like Alpine, use bicep-linux-musl-x64 instead of bicep-linux-x64 in the preceding script.
macOS
Via homebrew
# Add the tap for bicep
brew tap azure/bicep
# Install the tool
brew install bicep
Via BASH
# Fetch the latest Bicep CLI binary
curl -Lo bicep https://github.com/Azure/bicep/releases/latest/download/bicep-osx-x64
# Mark it as executable
chmod +x ./bicep
# Add Gatekeeper exception (requires admin)
sudo spctl --add ./bicep
# Add bicep to your PATH (requires admin)
sudo mv ./bicep /usr/local/bin/bicep
# Verify you can now access the 'bicep' command
bicep --help
# Done!
Windows
Windows Installer
Download and run the latest Windows installer. The installer doesn't require administrative privileges. After the installation, Bicep CLI is added to your user PATH. Close and reopen any open command shell windows for the PATH change to take effect.
Chocolatey
choco install bicep
Winget
winget install -e --id Microsoft.Bicep
Manual with PowerShell
# Create the install folder
$installPath = "$env:USERPROFILE\.bicep"
$installDir = New-Item -ItemType Directory -Path $installPath -Force
$installDir.Attributes += 'Hidden'
# Fetch the latest Bicep CLI binary
(New-Object Net.WebClient).DownloadFile("https://github.com/Azure/bicep/releases/latest/download/bicep-win-x64.exe", "$installPath\bicep.exe")
# Add bicep to your PATH
$currentPath = (Get-Item -path "HKCU:\Environment" ).GetValue('Path', '', 'DoNotExpandEnvironmentNames')
if (-not $currentPath.Contains("%USERPROFILE%\.bicep")) { setx PATH ($currentPath + ";%USERPROFILE%\.bicep") }
if (-not $env:path.Contains($installPath)) { $env:path += ";$installPath" }
# Verify you can now access the 'bicep' command.
bicep --help
# Done!
Install on air-gapped cloud
The bicep install and bicep upgrade commands don't work in an air-gapped environment. To install Bicep CLI in an air-gapped environment, you need to download the Bicep CLI executable manually and save it to .azure/bin. This location is where the instance managed by Azure CLI is installed.
Linux
Download bicep-linux-x64 from the Bicep release page in a non-air-gapped environment.
Copy the executable to the $HOME/.azure/bin directory on an air-gapped machine. Rename file to bicep.
macOS
Download bicep-osx-x64 from the Bicep release page in a non-air-gapped environment.
Copy the executable to the $HOME/.azure/bin directory on an air-gapped machine. Rename file to bicep.
Windows
Download bicep-win-x64.exe from the Bicep release page in a non-air-gapped environment.
Copy the executable to the %UserProfile%/.azure/bin directory on an air-gapped machine. Rename file to bicep.exe.
When using the Azure CLI task on air-gapped cloud, you must set the useGlobalConfig property of the task to true. The default value is false. See CI/CD with Azure Pipelines and Bicep files for an example.
Install the nightly builds
If you'd like to try the latest pre-release bits of Bicep before they're released, see Install nightly builds.
Warning
These pre-release builds are much more likely to have known or unknown bugs.
Install the NuGet package
The Bicep team has made the Azure.Bicep.Core NuGet package publicly available on nuget.org. While it is public, it is not a supported package. Any dependency you take on this package will be done at your own risk and we reserve the right to push breaking changes to this package at any time.
For more information about installing and consuming NuGet packages, see Consume packages.
Next steps
For more information about using Visual Studio Code and the Bicep extension, see Quickstart: Create Bicep files with Visual Studio Code.
If you have problems with your Bicep installation, see Troubleshoot Bicep installation.
To deploy Bicep files from an Azure Pipeline, see Integrate Bicep with Azure Pipelines. To deploy Bicep files through GitHub Actions, see Deploy Bicep files by using GitHub Actions.