Configuration and report tiers

How to pin an assessment's configuration so a run is reproducible, and what each output tier produces.

Assessment config load/save

Import-ScoutConfig / Export-ScoutConfig (AB#373–375) let you save and reload the effective assessment config — an alternative benchmark, rule-selection glob patterns, and per-rule threshold overrides — as a single JSON file, mirroring exactly what the engine already consumes (no new schema invented):

# Load a config (falls back to the built-in ALZ reference benchmark if the
# file is absent, missing, or unparsable -- never throws)
$config = Import-ScoutConfig -ConfigPath ./my-config.json

# Round-trip: save the effective config back out
Export-ScoutConfig -Config $config -Path ./my-config.json -Force

Every key (benchmark, rulePatterns, ruleOverrides) is optional and independently overridable. A missing/invalid -ConfigPath degrades to "run with defaults" with a Write-Warning rather than aborting the assessment.

Report tiers

The React/HTML report is the one supported deliverable

Word, PDF, Excel, PowerPoint, Power BI, standalone HTML, ECharts dashboard, Markdown-file, AsciiDoc, and governance-report renderers are ON HOLD (AB#6922) and are not emitted. This is a global contract; inventory-only runs do not bypass the hold.

Azure Scout produces one report: a self-contained HTML/React document — a multi-page application in a single file — that hosts the inventory and every assessment behind one shell, and exports to Markdown, JSON, CSV, PDF (print) and a standalone HTML copy from the page itself. The standalone document renderers still exist and are still tested, but they are being rebuilt to generate from that report rather than alongside it, so a document and the page it came from can never disagree.

Asking for a held format by name still binds — the run warns, skips it, and renders the React report so you always get a deliverable. -OutputFormat All renders the React report plus the machine-readable data exports. Json / JsonEvidence are data, not documents, and are never held.

The report's structure is normative — see the React report section contract.

Available now

Tier	Output	Notes
React	report-react.html	The deliverable. Self-contained (CSS/JS inline, findings embedded as a JSON blob, no external/CDN requests) and a multi-page application in one file: Overview, Inventory & audit (a blade per Azure portal category), Assessments (landing tiles into a full conformance register per assessment), Diagrams, Data & drift, and a Remediation plan. Navigation is built from what actually ran. An Executive / Consultant / Data view-depth toggle, a light/dark theme toggle, and exports to Markdown, JSON, findings CSV, evidence CSV, Print/PDF and a standalone HTML copy. Every register lists every check — passes, fails and manual questions — with a gap block for each fail carrying its evidence, why it matters, a numbered fix and a Microsoft Learn link, and every score shown alongside its own arithmetic and what was excluded from the denominator. See Cross-run drift and the section contract.
JSON	AzureScout_Report_<timestamp>.json for inventory-only; findings.json when assessments run	Machine-readable results. Inventory-only preserves the established AzureScout inventory JSON schema; assessment output carries assessment metadata, scores, and findings. Data, not a document; never held.
JSON evidence	evidence.json (Export-JsonEvidence)	Resources-only canonical Collect export (AB#396), including collection provenance and already-collected Entra rows — no scores, rules, or findings.

Coming soon

These renderers exist and are still tested, but are not emitted while the reporting engine is rebuilt. They will return generated from the React report's model, so a document and the page it came from can no longer disagree.

Tier	Output	Status
PDF	assessment_report.pdf	Coming soon. Export to PDF from the React report today.
Word	assessment_report.docx	Coming soon. No Word artifact is emitted today; a native .docx is tracked as AB#6923.
Excel	assessment_evidence.xlsx	Coming soon. Export findings to CSV from the React report today.
PowerPoint	assessment_deck.pptx	Coming soon.
Power BI	powerbi/*.csv + .pbit	Coming soon.
HTML	report.html	Coming soon — superseded by the React report.
ECharts dashboard	assessment_dashboard.html	Coming soon.
Governance report	governance_report.html	Coming soon.
Markdown file	*.md	Coming soon. Export Markdown from the React report today.
AsciiDoc	*.adoc	Coming soon.