hi guys, is there any guidance on when to use the resource getter, e.g.

AzureNative.Resources.ResourceGroup.Get(name, id)

and when to use the getresource function, e.g. https://www.pulumi.com/docs/reference/pkg/azure/network/getvirtualnetwork/#example-usage? I am not sure, when to use which of both.

If you look at the Get reference: https://www.pulumi.com/docs/reference/pkg/azure/network/virtualnetwork/#look-up It says:

Get an existing VirtualNetwork resource’s state with the given name, ID, and optional extra properties used to qualify the lookup.

Which makes more sense when you see that the Get method is asking for a

string name

meaning the

name

that you gave the pulumi resource, so the name that it is known by in your pulumi state. So in that case the resource must already exist in your stack. While the GetResource reference says:

Use this data source to access information about an existing Virtual Network.

So this will be making an API call to Azure to retrieve a resource that may or may not even be part of your pulumi stack.

basically, this makes sense. Still, my feeling is that this article https://www.pulumi.com/docs/intro/concepts/resources/#resource-get is a bit contrary to your opinion, because it states, that You can use the 

get

 function to consume properties from a resource that was provisioned elsewhere.

That is still in line with what I said. You can use the Get method to consume properties from a resource that was provisioned elsewhere within the same stack.