Azure AI Search — .NET SDK Quick Reference

Condensed from azure-search-documents-dotnet. Full patterns (FieldBuilder, hybrid search, semantic answers) in the azure-search-documents-dotnet plugin skill if installed.

Install

dotnet add package Azure.Search.Documents

Quick Start

using Azure.Search.Documents;
using Azure.Search.Documents.Indexes;
var client = new SearchClient(new Uri(endpoint), indexName, credential);

Non-Obvious Patterns

• FieldBuilder + model attributes ([SimpleField], [SearchableField], [VectorSearchField]) for type-safe index definitions
• VectorizedQuery for vector search; set via SearchOptions.VectorSearch.Queries
• Semantic answers: result.Value.SemanticSearch.Answers / captions on each result

Best Practices

1. Use DefaultAzureCredential for local development only. In production, use ManagedIdentityCredential — see auth-best-practices.md
2. Use FieldBuilder with model attributes for type-safe index definitions
3. Use CreateOrUpdateIndexAsync for idempotent index creation
4. Batch document operations for better throughput
5. Use Select to return only needed fields
6. Configure semantic search for natural language queries
7. Combine vector + keyword + semantic for best relevance