Azure has some pretty strict internal requirements around resource creation that make this possible. Every service must provide a "Resource Provider"[0] API tha

Azure has some pretty strict internal requirements around resource creation that make this possible. Every service must provide a "Resource Provider"[0] API that supports idempotent creation operations and standardized query patterns for read operations. Whether you create a resource through an ARM template, in the portal, or via the CLI, it's going through the same unified API surface. So, there is definitely still state, it's just stored centrally. [0]: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manager/management/resource-providers-and-types https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/azure-resource-manage...