Azure.Messaging.EventGrid (.NET)

Client library for publishing events to Azure Event Grid topics, domains, and namespaces.

Installation

# For topics and domains (push delivery)
dotnet add package Azure.Messaging.EventGrid

# For namespaces (pull delivery)
dotnet add package Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.Namespaces

# For CloudNative CloudEvents interop
dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.CloudNativeCloudEvents

Current Version: 4.28.0 (stable)

Environment Variables

EVENT_GRID_TOPIC_ENDPOINT=https://<topic-name>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net/api/events  # Required: Event Grid topic or domain endpoint
EVENT_GRID_TOPIC_KEY=<access-key>  # Only required for AzureKeyCredential auth
EVENT_GRID_NAMESPACE_ENDPOINT=https://<namespace>.<region>.eventgrid.azure.net  # Optional: Event Grid namespace endpoint
EVENT_GRID_TOPIC_NAME=<topic-name>  # Required: Event Grid topic name
EVENT_GRID_SUBSCRIPTION_NAME=<subscription-name>  # Optional: Event Grid subscription name
AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod  # Required only if DefaultAzureCredential is used in production

Client Hierarchy

Push Delivery (Topics/Domains)
└── EventGridPublisherClient
    ├── SendEventAsync(EventGridEvent)
    ├── SendEventsAsync(IEnumerable<EventGridEvent>)
    ├── SendEventAsync(CloudEvent)
    └── SendEventsAsync(IEnumerable<CloudEvent>)

Pull Delivery (Namespaces)
├── EventGridSenderClient
│   └── SendAsync(CloudEvent)
└── EventGridReceiverClient
    ├── ReceiveAsync()
    ├── AcknowledgeAsync()
    ├── ReleaseAsync()
    └── RejectAsync()

Authentication

API Key Authentication

using Azure;
using Azure.Messaging.EventGrid;

EventGridPublisherClient client = new(
    new Uri("https://mytopic.eastus-1.eventgrid.azure.net/api/events"),
    new AzureKeyCredential("<access-key>"));

Microsoft Entra Token Credential

using Azure.Identity;
using Azure.Messaging.EventGrid;

// Local dev: DefaultAzureCredential. Production: set AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=prod or AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS=<specific_credential>
var credential = new DefaultAzureCredential(
    DefaultAzureCredential.DefaultEnvironmentVariableName
);
// Or use a specific credential directly in production:
// See https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/overview/azure/identity-readme?view=azure-dotnet#credential-classes
// var credential = new ManagedIdentityCredential();
EventGridPublisherClient client = new(
    new Uri("https://mytopic.eastus-1.eventgrid.azure.net/api/events"),
    credential);

SAS Token Authentication

string sasToken = EventGridPublisherClient.BuildSharedAccessSignature(
    new Uri(topicEndpoint),
    DateTimeOffset.UtcNow.AddHours(1),
    new AzureKeyCredential(topicKey));

var sasCredential = new AzureSasCredential(sasToken);
EventGridPublisherClient client = new(
    new Uri(topicEndpoint),
    sasCredential);

Publishing Events

EventGridEvent Schema

EventGridPublisherClient client = new(
    new Uri(topicEndpoint),
    new AzureKeyCredential(topicKey));

// Single event
EventGridEvent egEvent = new(
    subject: "orders/12345",
    eventType: "Order.Created",
    dataVersion: "1.0",
    data: new { OrderId = "12345", Amount = 99.99 });

await client.SendEventAsync(egEvent);

// Batch of events
List<EventGridEvent> events = new()
{
    new EventGridEvent(
        subject: "orders/12345",
        eventType: "Order.Created",
        dataVersion: "1.0",
        data: new OrderData { OrderId = "12345", Amount = 99.99 }),
    new EventGridEvent(
        subject: "orders/12346",
        eventType: "Order.Created",
        dataVersion: "1.0",
        data: new OrderData { OrderId = "12346", Amount = 149.99 })
};

await client.SendEventsAsync(events);

CloudEvent Schema

CloudEvent cloudEvent = new(
    source: "/orders/system",
    type: "Order.Created",
    data: new { OrderId = "12345", Amount = 99.99 });

cloudEvent.Subject = "orders/12345";
cloudEvent.Id = Guid.NewGuid().ToString();
cloudEvent.Time = DateTimeOffset.UtcNow;

await client.SendEventAsync(cloudEvent);

// Batch of CloudEvents
List<CloudEvent> cloudEvents = new()
{
    new CloudEvent("/orders", "Order.Created", new { OrderId = "1" }),
    new CloudEvent("/orders", "Order.Updated", new { OrderId = "2" })
};

await client.SendEventsAsync(cloudEvents);

Publishing to Event Grid Domain

// Events must specify the Topic property for domain routing
List<EventGridEvent> events = new()
{
    new EventGridEvent(
        subject: "orders/12345",
        eventType: "Order.Created",
        dataVersion: "1.0",
        data: new { OrderId = "12345" })
    {
        Topic = "orders-topic"  // Domain topic name
    },
    new EventGridEvent(
        subject: "inventory/item-1",
        eventType: "Inventory.Updated",
        dataVersion: "1.0",
        data: new { ItemId = "item-1" })
    {
        Topic = "inventory-topic"
    }
};

await client.SendEventsAsync(events);

Custom Serialization

using System.Text.Json;

var serializerOptions = new JsonSerializerOptions
{
    PropertyNamingPolicy = JsonNamingPolicy.CamelCase
};

var customSerializer = new JsonObjectSerializer(serializerOptions);

EventGridEvent egEvent = new(
    subject: "orders/12345",
    eventType: "Order.Created",
    dataVersion: "1.0",
    data: customSerializer.Serialize(new OrderData { OrderId = "12345" }));

await client.SendEventAsync(egEvent);

Pull Delivery (Namespaces)

Send Events to Namespace Topic

using Azure;
using Azure.Messaging;
using Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.Namespaces;

var senderClient = new EventGridSenderClient(
    new Uri(namespaceEndpoint),
    topicName,
    new AzureKeyCredential(topicKey));

// Send single event
CloudEvent cloudEvent = new("employee_source", "Employee.Created", 
    new { Name = "John", Age = 30 });
await senderClient.SendAsync(cloudEvent);

// Send batch
await senderClient.SendAsync(new[]
{
    new CloudEvent("source", "type", new { Name = "Alice" }),
    new CloudEvent("source", "type", new { Name = "Bob" })
});

Receive and Process Events

var receiverClient = new EventGridReceiverClient(
    new Uri(namespaceEndpoint),
    topicName,
    subscriptionName,
    new AzureKeyCredential(topicKey));

// Receive events
ReceiveResult result = await receiverClient.ReceiveAsync(maxEvents: 10);

List<string> lockTokensToAck = new();
List<string> lockTokensToRelease = new();

foreach (ReceiveDetails detail in result.Details)
{
    CloudEvent cloudEvent = detail.Event;
    string lockToken = detail.BrokerProperties.LockToken;
    
    try
    {
        // Process the event
        Console.WriteLine($"Event: {cloudEvent.Type}, Data: {cloudEvent.Data}");
        lockTokensToAck.Add(lockToken);
    }
    catch (Exception)
    {
        // Release for retry
        lockTokensToRelease.Add(lockToken);
    }
}

// Acknowledge successfully processed events
if (lockTokensToAck.Any())
{
    await receiverClient.AcknowledgeAsync(lockTokensToAck);
}

// Release events for retry
if (lockTokensToRelease.Any())
{
    await receiverClient.ReleaseAsync(lockTokensToRelease);
}

Reject Events (Dead Letter)

// Reject events that cannot be processed
await receiverClient.RejectAsync(new[] { lockToken });

Consuming Events (Azure Functions)

EventGridEvent Trigger

using Azure.Messaging.EventGrid;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs;
using Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.EventGrid;

public static class EventGridFunction
{
    [FunctionName("ProcessEventGridEvent")]
    public static void Run(
        [EventGridTrigger] EventGridEvent eventGridEvent,
        ILogger log)
    {
        log.LogInformation($"Event Type: {eventGridEvent.EventType}");
        log.LogInformation($"Subject: {eventGridEvent.Subject}");
        log.LogInformation($"Data: {eventGridEvent.Data}");
    }
}

CloudEvent Trigger

using Azure.Messaging;
using Microsoft.Azure.Functions.Worker;

public class CloudEventFunction
{
    [Function("ProcessCloudEvent")]
    public void Run(
        [EventGridTrigger] CloudEvent cloudEvent,
        FunctionContext context)
    {
        var logger = context.GetLogger("ProcessCloudEvent");
        logger.LogInformation($"Event Type: {cloudEvent.Type}");
        logger.LogInformation($"Source: {cloudEvent.Source}");
        logger.LogInformation($"Data: {cloudEvent.Data}");
    }
}

Parsing Events

Parse EventGridEvent

// From JSON string
string json = "..."; // Event Grid webhook payload
EventGridEvent[] events = EventGridEvent.ParseMany(BinaryData.FromString(json));

foreach (EventGridEvent egEvent in events)
{
    if (egEvent.TryGetSystemEventData(out object systemEvent))
    {
        // Handle system event
        switch (systemEvent)
        {
            case StorageBlobCreatedEventData blobCreated:
                Console.WriteLine($"Blob created: {blobCreated.Url}");
                break;
        }
    }
    else
    {
        // Handle custom event
        var customData = egEvent.Data.ToObjectFromJson<MyCustomData>();
    }
}

Parse CloudEvent

CloudEvent[] cloudEvents = CloudEvent.ParseMany(BinaryData.FromString(json));

foreach (CloudEvent cloudEvent in cloudEvents)
{
    var data = cloudEvent.Data.ToObjectFromJson<MyEventData>();
    Console.WriteLine($"Type: {cloudEvent.Type}, Data: {data}");
}

System Events

// Common system event types
using Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.SystemEvents;

// Storage events
StorageBlobCreatedEventData blobCreated;
StorageBlobDeletedEventData blobDeleted;

// Resource events
ResourceWriteSuccessEventData resourceCreated;
ResourceDeleteSuccessEventData resourceDeleted;

// App Service events
WebAppUpdatedEventData webAppUpdated;

// Container Registry events
ContainerRegistryImagePushedEventData imagePushed;

// IoT Hub events
IotHubDeviceCreatedEventData deviceCreated;

Key Types Reference

Type	Purpose
EventGridPublisherClient	Publish to topics/domains
EventGridSenderClient	Send to namespace topics
EventGridReceiverClient	Receive from namespace subscriptions
EventGridEvent	Event Grid native schema
CloudEvent	CloudEvents 1.0 schema
ReceiveResult	Pull delivery response
ReceiveDetails	Event with broker properties
BrokerProperties	Lock token, delivery count

Event Schemas Comparison

Feature	EventGridEvent	CloudEvent
Standard	Azure-specific	CNCF standard
Required fields	subject, eventType, dataVersion, data	source, type
Extensibility	Limited	Extension attributes
Interoperability	Azure only	Cross-platform

Best Practices

1. Use CloudEvents — Prefer CloudEvents for new implementations (industry standard)
2. Batch events — Send multiple events in one call for efficiency
3. Use Entra ID — Prefer managed identity over access keys
4. Idempotent handlers — Events may be delivered more than once
5. Set event TTL — Configure time-to-live for namespace events
6. Handle partial failures — Acknowledge/release events individually
7. Use dead-letter — Configure dead-letter for failed events
8. Validate schemas — Validate event data before processing

Error Handling

using Azure;

try
{
    await client.SendEventAsync(cloudEvent);
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex) when (ex.Status == 401)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Authentication failed - check credentials");
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex) when (ex.Status == 403)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Authorization failed - check RBAC permissions");
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex) when (ex.Status == 413)
{
    Console.WriteLine("Payload too large - max 1MB per event, 1MB total batch");
}
catch (RequestFailedException ex)
{
    Console.WriteLine($"Event Grid error: {ex.Status} - {ex.Message}");
}

Failover Pattern

try
{
    var primaryClient = new EventGridPublisherClient(primaryUri, primaryKey);
    await primaryClient.SendEventsAsync(events);
}
catch (RequestFailedException)
{
    // Failover to secondary region
    var secondaryClient = new EventGridPublisherClient(secondaryUri, secondaryKey);
    await secondaryClient.SendEventsAsync(events);
}

Related SDKs

SDK	Purpose	Install
Azure.Messaging.EventGrid	Topics/Domains (this SDK)	dotnet add package Azure.Messaging.EventGrid
Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.Namespaces	Pull delivery	dotnet add package Azure.Messaging.EventGrid.Namespaces
Azure.Identity	Authentication	dotnet add package Azure.Identity
Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.EventGrid	Azure Functions trigger	dotnet add package Microsoft.Azure.WebJobs.Extensions.EventGrid

Reference Links

Resource	URL
NuGet Package	https://www.nuget.org/packages/Azure.Messaging.EventGrid
API Reference	https://learn.microsoft.com/dotnet/api/azure.messaging.eventgrid
Quickstart	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/event-grid/custom-event-quickstart
Pull Delivery	https://learn.microsoft.com/azure/event-grid/pull-delivery-overview
GitHub Source	https://github.com/Azure/azure-sdk-for-net/tree/main/sdk/eventgrid/Azure.Messaging.EventGrid