10.3.3.4 ACR Task Automation

ACR Task automation allows Azure Container Registry to automatically build and push an image directly within Azure, triggered by events like a source code commit or a base image update, without requiring a separately hosted build environment.

Defining a Task Triggered by a Source Code Commit

A task connects a source repository to a build definition, automatically triggering a new build whenever relevant changes occur.

az acr task create --registry myacrregistry --name build-myapp \
  --image myapp:{{.Run.ID}} \
  --context https://github.com/myorg/myapp.git \
  --file Dockerfile \
  --git-access-token <token>

This task automatically builds and pushes a new image to myacrregistry whenever the configured trigger (commits to the connected repository, by default) occurs.

Triggering a Task Manually

A defined task can also be run on demand, independent of its configured automatic triggers.

az acr task run --registry myacrregistry --name build-myapp

Triggering a Rebuild When a Base Image Updates

ACR Tasks can also detect when a base image referenced in the Dockerfile has been updated, automatically triggering a rebuild to pick up that update, even without any change to the application's own source code.

FROM node:20-alpine

A task configured this way automatically rebuilds and pushes a fresh image whenever a new node:20-alpine build becomes available, helping keep the application's base layer current with security patches.

Why This Removes the Need for a Separately Hosted Build System

Without this capability, achieving the same automatic build-on-commit or build-on-base-update behavior would require a separately configured CI system — ACR Tasks provides this directly within the registry service itself.

az acr task list --registry myacrregistry

Why ACR Task Automation Matters

This built-in build automation simplifies maintaining up-to-date images without necessarily requiring a separate, independently managed CI/CD pipeline just for triggering rebuilds in response to source or base image changes.