[Azure Resource Manager (ARM) templates](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/overview) – Infrastructure-as-code (IaC) for your Azure solutions – are JSON files that define the infrastructure and configuration for your Azure deployments. The Template BPA is an ARM template validator that scans ARM and Bicep templates to ensure security and best practice checks are being followed before deployment.
The Template BPA provides a simple and extensible solution to improve the security of your Azure resources before deployment and ensures your ARM templates follow best practices. The Template BPA is designed to be customizable - users can write their own checks and/or enforce only the checks that are relevant for them.
`<directory-path>` | The directory in which to search for ARM and Bicep templates (recursively finds and analyzes all ARM and Bicep templates in the directory and its subdirectories).<br/>ARM Templates are identified by a '.json' file extension and a [valid top-level *$schema* property](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/syntax#template-format)>. Bicep Templates are identified by a '.bicep' file extension.
**(Optional)** `-p` or `--parameters-file-path` | A [parameters file](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/parameter-files)
**(Optional)** `-c` or `--config-file-path` | A [configuration file](docs/customizing-evaluation-outputs.md) which sets custom settings for the analyzer.<br/>**If argument is not provided, the Template BPA will attempt to load a configuration from *<_ExecutablePath_>/configuration.json* if the file exists.**.
**(Optional)** `--report-format` | Valid formats:<br/>*Console*: output results to the console in plain text. **(default)**<br/>*Sarif*: output results to a file in [SARIF](https://sarifweb.azurewebsites.net) format.
The Template BPA runs the [configured rules](#understanding-and-customizing-rules) against the provided ARM or Bicep template and its corresponding [template parameters](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/parameter-files), if specified. If no template parameters are specified, then the Template BPA generates the minimum number of placeholder parameters to properly evaluate [template functions](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/template-functions) in the ARM template.
**Note**: Providing the Template BPA with template parameter values will result in more accurate results as it will more accurately represent your deployments. The values provided to parameters may affect the evaluation of the Template BPA rule, altering its results. That said, **DO NOT** save sensitive data (passwords, connection strings, etc.) in parameter files in your repositories. Instead, [retrieve these values from your ARM template from Azure Key Vault](https://docs.microsoft.com/azure/azure-resource-manager/templates/key-vault-parameter?tabs=azure-cli#reference-secrets-with-static-id).
Results can be output in plain text to the console, or output to a file in SARIF format. Template BPA will exit with an error code if any errors or violations are found during a scan.
The Template BPA outputs the results of violated rules, the corresponding line numbers where rules failed, and a recommendation to remediate each violation.
For a template which deploys an API App that does not require HTTPS, running the Template BPA on the template would produce output which looks similar to the following:
The analysis rules used by the Template BPA are written in JSON, located in *Rules/BuiltInRules.json* (starting from the directory *TemplateAnalyzer.exe* is in). This file can be added to and/or modified to change the rules that are run. See the [documentation for more information about how to author Template BPA JSON rules](./docs/authoring-json-rules.md).
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Please see the [Contribution Guide](./CONTRIBUTING.md) for more details about how to contribute to the Template BPA. Most contributions require you to
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