Azure OpenAI

This guide explains how to set up Azure OpenAI for use with Ascend.

Prerequisites

• Azure account with permission to create Azure resources

Create an Azure OpenAI resource

1. Navigate to the Azure portal
2. Search for and select Azure OpenAI
3. Click Create to create a new instance
4. Configure basic settings:
   • Select your Subscription
   • Choose a Resource Group
   • Select your Region
   • Select your Pricing tier
5. Click Next to Network. Leave as "All networks" unless you are running self-hosted instances and specifically know how to restrict this further
6. Click Next to Tags and add any tags you want

note

For more details, reference the Azure OpenAI documentation.

Set up model deployments

1. Click Explore Azure AI Foundry portal
2. Click on Deployments in the far left navigation
3. Select Deploy model and deploy a base model
4. Select gpt-4.1 and deploy

note

The deployment name must exactly match the model name for all models

1. Repeat for gpt-4.1-mini, gpt-4o, and o4-mini
2. At the end, your Azure OpenAI deployments should look like this:
3. Select any one of your deployments
4. Copy the target URI as you will need the hostname later (i.e., https://[your_service_name_and_region].cognitiveservices.azure.com/)
5. Copy the key to place in your Instance Vault in the next section

note

For more details, reference the [Azure OpenAI model deployments documentation]https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/ai-services/openai/how-to/create-resource?pivots=web-portal#deploy-a-model

Connect Azure OpenAI to your Ascend Instance

1. Open your Ascend Instance. In the top-right corner, click on your profile picture and select Settings
2. Navigate to Secrets & Vaults and select the Instance Vault
3. Click Add secret on the right
4. Add your OpenAI secret with a name such as openai-api-key and click Create
5. Navigate to the AI & models section
6. Scroll down to the Azure OpenAI section
7. Set your Azure OpenAI endpoint to the target URI you copied earlier (e.g., https://[your_service_name_and_region].cognitiveservices.azure.com/)
8. Select the Instance Vault secret you just created (openai-api-key) as the Azure OpenAI API key
9. Click Verify to ensure your key is valid, then click Save to store it securely
10. Confirm you can now chat with Otto in the sidebar using OpenAI models

🎉 Congratulations! You've set up an Azure OpenAI resource with Ascend!