Document all azd environment variables

[Copilot]

Consolidates and documents all environment variables used by azd for community visibility. Previously, only 11 variables were documented.

Changes

Expanded documentation (cli/azd/docs/environment-variables.md):

• Added 45+ undocumented environment variables across 12 categories
• Organized by purpose: Configuration, Authentication, Azure Resources, Platform, CI/CD Integration, Extensions, Debug/Development
• Added usage context and deprecation notes where applicable

Key additions:

• Authentication: AZURE_DEV_COLLECT_TELEMETRY, AZURE_DEV_USER_AGENT (standardization candidates)
• Azure Resources: AZURE_ENV_NAME, AZURE_SUBSCRIPTION_ID, AZURE_RESOURCE_GROUP, container/AKS endpoints
• CI/CD: GitHub Actions, Azure Pipelines OIDC (SYSTEM_ACCESSTOKEN, AZURESUBSCRIPTION_*), Terraform auth (ARM_*)
• Output Control: NO_COLOR, FORCE_COLOR, COLUMNS, BROWSER
• Extensions: AZD_EXT_DEBUG, AZD_EXT_TIMEOUT, AZD_SERVER, AZD_ACCESS_TOKEN
• Debug: 9 AZD_DEBUG_* variables for troubleshooting

Standardization notes:

• ✅ Tool paths already follow AZD_<tool>_TOOL_PATH pattern
• ⚠️ AZURE_DEV_COLLECT_TELEMETRY and AZURE_DEV_USER_AGENT remain as outliers (use AZURE_DEV_ vs standard AZD_ prefix)

Test-only variables (AZD_TEST_*, AZD_FUNC_TEST) intentionally excluded.

Original prompt

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This section details on the original issue you should resolve

<issue_title>consolidate and document all azd environment variables </issue_title>
<issue_description>Let's consolidate and document all existing azd environment variables for our community and users.

This is primarily an "under-the-covers" documentation, preferably we should have a pristine copy of this in the codebase repository. We can also expand our footprint to our learn docs.

The final stretch goal: we should be able to surface in-terminal help, an idea is presented in #4319

Tasks:

• Document existing
• Discuss and standardize outliers:
  • AZD_<tool>_TOOL_PATH
  • AZURE_DEV_COLLECT_TELEMETRY -> AZD_COLLECT_TELEMETRY
  • AZURE_DEV_USER_AGENT -> AZD_USER_AGENT</issue_description>

<agent_instructions>Are there additional env variables we'd want to document. check the code and please advise. </agent_instructions>

Comments on the Issue (you are @copilot in this section)

@weikanglim Existing issue: #589 @rajeshkamal5050 @weikanglim Moving this to backlog. Please pull this into sprints when addressing remaining items. @kristenwomack @alexwolfmsft - will you review this? @alexwolfmsft Some common environment variables are captured in this document: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/azure-developer-cli/manage-environment-variables?tabs=bash#standard-environment-variables

Do we need to add more? What would that list look like?</comment_new>

• Fixes consolidate and document all azd environment variables  #4320

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[microsoft-github-policy-service]

Hi @@copilot. Thank you for your interest in helping to improve the Azure Developer CLI experience and for your contribution. We've noticed that there hasn't been recent engagement on this pull request. If this is still an active work stream, please let us know by pushing some changes or leaving a comment. Otherwise, we'll close this out in 7 days.