Azure Event Grid SDK for Python

Event routing service for building event-driven applications with pub/sub semantics.

Installation

pip install azure-eventgrid azure-identity

Environment Variables

EVENTGRID_TOPIC_ENDPOINT=https://<topic-name>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net/api/events  # Required for Event Grid topic publishing
EVENTGRID_NAMESPACE_ENDPOINT=https://<namespace>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net  # Required for namespace operations
AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod # Required only if DefaultAzureCredential is used in production

Authentication & Lifecycle

🔑 Two rules apply to every code sample below:

1. Prefer DefaultAzureCredential. It works locally (Azure CLI / VS Code / Developer CLI) and in Azure (managed identity, workload identity) with no code change. Avoid connection strings, account/API keys — they bypass Entra audit and rotation.
   • Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential works as-is.
   • Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod (or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>) to constrain the credential chain to production-safe credentials.
2. Wrap every client in a context manager so HTTP transports, sockets, and token caches are released deterministically:
   • Sync: with <Client>(...) as client:
   • Async: async with <Client>(...) as client: and async with DefaultAzureCredential() as credential: (from azure.identity.aio)

Snippets may abbreviate this setup, but production code should always follow both rules.

import os
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential, ManagedIdentityCredential
from azure.eventgrid import EventGridPublisherClient

# Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential. Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>
credential = DefaultAzureCredential(require_envvar=True)
# Or use a specific credential directly in production:
# See https://learn.microsoft.com/python/api/overview/azure/identity-readme?view=azure-python#credential-classes
# credential = ManagedIdentityCredential()

endpoint = "https://<topic-name>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net/api/events"

with EventGridPublisherClient(endpoint, credential) as client:
    # Use client here (see following sections for operations)
    ...

Event Types

Format	Class	Use Case
Cloud Events 1.0	CloudEvent	Standard, interoperable (recommended)
Event Grid Schema	EventGridEvent	Azure-native format

Publish CloudEvents

from azure.eventgrid import EventGridPublisherClient, CloudEvent
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

with EventGridPublisherClient(endpoint, DefaultAzureCredential()) as client:
    # Single event
    event = CloudEvent(
        type="MyApp.Events.OrderCreated",
        source="/myapp/orders",
        data={"order_id": "12345", "amount": 99.99}
    )
    client.send(event)

    # Multiple events
    events = [
        CloudEvent(
            type="MyApp.Events.OrderCreated",
            source="/myapp/orders",
            data={"order_id": f"order-{i}"}
        )
        for i in range(10)
    ]
    client.send(events)

Publish EventGridEvents

from azure.eventgrid import EventGridEvent
from datetime import datetime, timezone

event = EventGridEvent(
    subject="/myapp/orders/12345",
    event_type="MyApp.Events.OrderCreated",
    data={"order_id": "12345", "amount": 99.99},
    data_version="1.0"
)

client.send(event)

Event Properties

CloudEvent Properties

event = CloudEvent(
    type="MyApp.Events.ItemCreated",      # Required: event type
    source="/myapp/items",                 # Required: event source
    data={"key": "value"},                 # Event payload
    subject="items/123",                   # Optional: subject/path
    datacontenttype="application/json",   # Optional: content type
    dataschema="https://schema.example",  # Optional: schema URL
    time=datetime.now(timezone.utc),      # Optional: timestamp
    extensions={"custom": "value"}         # Optional: custom attributes
)

EventGridEvent Properties

event = EventGridEvent(
    subject="/myapp/items/123",            # Required: subject
    event_type="MyApp.ItemCreated",        # Required: event type
    data={"key": "value"},                 # Required: event payload
    data_version="1.0",                    # Required: schema version
    topic="/subscriptions/.../topics/...", # Optional: auto-set
    event_time=datetime.now(timezone.utc)  # Optional: timestamp
)

Async Client

from azure.eventgrid.aio import EventGridPublisherClient
from azure.identity.aio import DefaultAzureCredential

async def publish_events():
    credential = DefaultAzureCredential()
    
    async with EventGridPublisherClient(endpoint, credential) as client:
        event = CloudEvent(
            type="MyApp.Events.Test",
            source="/myapp",
            data={"message": "hello"}
        )
        await client.send(event)

import asyncio
asyncio.run(publish_events())

Namespace Topics (Event Grid Namespaces)

For Event Grid Namespaces (pull delivery):

from azure.eventgrid import EventGridPublisherClient
from azure.identity import DefaultAzureCredential

# Namespace endpoint (different from custom topic)
namespace_endpoint = "https://<namespace>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net"
topic_name = "my-topic"

with EventGridPublisherClient(
    endpoint=namespace_endpoint,
    credential=DefaultAzureCredential()
) as client:
    client.send(
        event,
        namespace_topic=topic_name
    )

Best Practices

1. Pick sync OR async and stay consistent. Do not mix azure.xxx sync clients with azure.xxx.aio async clients in the same call path. Choose one mode per module.
2. Always use context managers for clients and async credentials. Wrap every client in with Client(...) as client: (sync) or async with Client(...) as client: (async). For async DefaultAzureCredential from azure.identity.aio, also use async with credential: so tokens and transports are cleaned up.
3. Use DefaultAzureCredential for portable auth across local dev and Azure (avoid connection strings / API keys when possible).
4. Use CloudEvents for new applications (industry standard)
5. Batch events when publishing multiple events
6. Include meaningful subjects for filtering
7. Use async client for high-throughput scenarios
8. Handle retries — Event Grid has built-in retry
9. Set appropriate event types for routing and filtering

Reference Files

File	Contents
references/capabilities.md	Additional non-hero capabilities, operation-group coverage, and production checklists.
references/non-hero-scenarios.md	Dedicated non-hero examples for secondary/advanced scenarios.