Consuming Agent 365 MCP servers with M365 Copilot declarative agents

Introduction

Announced as part of Agent 365 at Microsoft Ignite 2025, MCP servers with access to Microsoft 365 services were announced. This was great news as up until then, you had to build your own servers to connect to Microsoft 365 services.

However, it was not clear if it was only possible in Copilot Studio agents, or if you could use it elsewhere, such as in declarative agents.

I’m here to report it is indeed possible - let me show you how.

Why you should care

Before we start with the how, let’s look at the why. Whilst it is possible to either build your own MCP servers, host them and handle authentication, this approach in most cases will be overkill.

In addition, you could also configure Microsoft Graph as an API, as outlined in my friend Reshmee’s post, but this is also quite a bit of work.

Prerequisites

Access to Entra ID to be able to create an app registration
Signed up for the Copilot Frontier program

Creating the Entra ID App Registration

For this example, I am going to create an app registration with access to SharePoint and OneDrive, including SharePoint lists. To keep it simple and repeatable, I am going to use Azure CLI to create it (if you don’t have access to Azure CLI, you can use the Azure Cloud Shell).

Create a new app registration:

You can use a different display-name if you prefer

az ad app create \
  --display-name "Agent365MCPServers" \
  --sign-in-audience AzureADMyOrg \
  --web-redirect-uris "https://teams.microsoft.com/api/platform/v1.0/oAuthRedirect"

Take note of the appId value returned, as you will need it later.

Create app registration

Next, we need to get the client secret for the app registration — this is needed to authenticate on behalf of the user:

Replace {{AppId}} with the appId value from a previous step

az ad app credential reset \
  --id {{AppId}} \
  --append

Create secret

Take note of the password value returned, as you will need it later.

The next step is to create a service principal for the app registration:

Replace {{AppId}} with the appId value from a previous step

az ad sp create --id {{AppId}}

Create service principal

We now need to assign the required API permissions to the app registration. For this example, I am using McpServers.SharepointLists.All and McpServers.OneDriveSharepoint.All:

Replace {{AppId}} with the appId value from a previous step

az ad app permission add \
  --id {{AppId}} \
  --api ea9ffc3e-8a23-4a7d-836d-234d7c7565c1 \
  --api-permissions 8d00067e-ea97-437e-8eb7-9c09e2d9ceb7=Scope 45b74cfc-7a12-4589-8d26-781de38fbfcc=Scope

List of all available permissions currently

Permission	Id
McpServers.D365ContactCenterAdmin.All	d83d751a-4da2-4af2-832d-6f24b8a38b9a
AgentTools.AgentBluePrint.Delete	d5aab012-d97a-4904-b559-0169ea76de67
AgentTools.AgentBluePrint.Create	cb25532a-aed3-47a8-8065-616d45c92dc9
AgentTools.UnpublishMCPServer.All	e7ed0e43-3c1b-43c5-b945-899d98804148
AgentTools.PublishMCPServer.All	72c23506-3119-407b-b721-5b124f624658
AgentTools.ListMCPServers.All	382c709b-439a-4a9f-af61-124c3a0260f6
AgentTools.ListDataverseEnvironments.All	7a65e3f8-ca92-496c-ae18-19aac858f4f5
McpServers.M365Admin.All	5db4c680-067f-482c-b68a-6c3be4088d34
McpServers.DASearch.All	6d5f0339-7183-455f-aa02-0913bd30a916
McpServers.WebSearch.All	eeafec01-9533-424a-9ff6-6179b338278e
McpServers.Files.All	965326d7-c2b4-4ae5-9833-a7286013fb2c
AgentTools.MOSEvents.All	74c273e4-2ff8-436c-b04b-ee7629b06cb2
McpServers.Admin365Graph.All	bacef632-20f6-44f0-b07a-0d4fdbf236f7
McpServers.ERPAnalytics.All	1a2a5c28-5fcf-415c-8b8b-56a87e766dba
McpServers.DataverseCustom.All	c1463966-a610-4d15-a74f-3dc191eb4f37
McpServers.Dataverse.All	c82361df-5248-4308-ae97-a1fc509291f4
McpServers.D365Service.All	e69104b3-1c54-40e3-8cac-ba981a24bbc8
McpServers.D365Sales.All	6d8f6be6-0dab-4c0f-b481-ba1d73227be5
McpServers.Management.All	570b1e31-b6a4-4aa7-b050-4267c418aacf
McpServersMetadata.Read.All	59ccebf0-00a5-4d33-8769-cef7d7acb59d
McpServers.Developer.All	041cabe0-7820-49b8-be02-b170d16559e2
McpServers.CopilotMCP.All	342a1c02-975d-4f22-bae9-56a200ca9fd0
McpServers.OneDriveSharepoint.All	45b74cfc-7a12-4589-8d26-781de38fbfcc
McpServers.Mail.All	be685e8e-277f-43ec-aff6-087fdca57ca3
McpServers.Teams.All	5efd4b9c-e459-40d4-a524-35db033b072f
McpServers.Me.All	2ce6ce0f-4701-4b11-8087-5031f87ad5b9
McpServers.Calendar.All	75c3a580-2c8f-4906-adc6-ffa8601d78dc
McpServers.SharepointLists.All	8d00067e-ea97-437e-8eb7-9c09e2d9ceb7
McpServers.Knowledge.All	798204a9-2b1d-4109-a2d6-3c641183c48c
McpServers.Excel.All	c80101f0-b7e0-4a85-b8c2-0c855aeced97
McpServers.Word.All	6f7b3c3c-d822-4164-b9ec-8bf520399d24
McpServers.PowerPoint.All	4ad939ce-e965-4562-93da-88c7e1a66fbc

Add API permissions

Storing credentials in Teams Dev Portal

Next, we need to store the credentials of the app registration in Teams Dev Portal, so that they can be used in the declarative agent. This way there is no need to hardcode them in the agent definition.

Go to Teams Dev Portal and go to Tools > OAuth client registration.

Click on Register client and fill in the details:

Registration name: Agent365MCPServers (or any name you prefer)
Base URL: https://agent365.svc.cloud.microsoft/
Restrict usage by Teams app: Any Teams app (you can restrict it to a specific Teams app later if you prefer)
Client ID: The appId value from the app registration created earlier
Client Secret: The password value from the app registration created earlier
Authorization endpoint: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{{tenantId}}/oauth2/v2.0/authorize (replace {{tenantId}} with your tenant ID)
Token endpoint: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{{tenantId}}/oauth2/v2.0/token (replace {{tenantId}} with your tenant ID)
Refresh endpoint: https://login.microsoftonline.com/{{tenantId}}/oauth2/v2.0/token (replace {{tenantId}} with your tenant ID)
Scopes: ea9ffc3e-8a23-4a7d-836d-234d7c7565c1/.default
Enable PKCE: Unchecked

Create OAuth client part 1 Create OAuth client part 2

Click on Save and copy the OAuth client registration ID - you will need it later.

Creating the declarative agent

Now we are ready to create the declarative agent that will use the MCP server. I won’t go through the full steps of creating the agent, just what you need to add.

First, start by creating a new declarative agent in the M365 Agents Toolkit.

When asked choose Add an action

Set the action type to Start with an MCP server

When prompted for the MCP server URL, use https://agent365.svc.cloud.microsoft/agents/servers/mcp_SharepointListsTools or the MCP server you wish to use.

MCP server url

Lastly, provide a location on your machine to store the agent and give it a name.

You may see an option to use TypeSpec - which I would normally recommend, but at the time of writing this post, MCP servers are not supported with TypeSpec agents.

Configuring MCP tools in the agent

With the agent scaffolded, the first part is to update the ai-plugin.json file to include the tools that the MCP server provides (and that you need).

You will need to see how the tools are named in the MCP server. You can do this by going to the Agent 365 MS Learn articles and looking for the tool names.

You will also need to make note of the parameters, what is required and what is optional and the data types.

To demonstrate, I will add the SharePoint list tools to the functions section of the ai-plugin.json file:

"functions": [
  {
    "name": "searchSitesByName",
    "description": "Search SharePoint sites by display name or partial URL (natural language).",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "search": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Display name or partial name/URL of the SharePoint site to search for"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "search"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "getSiteByPath",
    "description": "Resolve a SharePoint site by using its hostname and server-relative path.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "hostname": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Host name of the SharePoint tenant (for example, contoso.sharepoint.com)"
        },
        "serverRelativePath": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Server-relative path to the site (for example, sites/Marketing)"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "hostname",
        "serverRelativePath"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "listLists",
    "description": "List all SharePoint lists on a site.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "listListItems",
    "description": "List items from a SharePoint list.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "listId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list"
        },
        "expand": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Optional OData expand (for example, fields)"
        },
        "top": {
          "type": "number",
          "description": "Optional page size"
        },
        "filter": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Optional OData filter expression"
        },
        "select": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Optional OData select clause"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "listId"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "createList",
    "description": "Create a new SharePoint list on a site.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "displayName": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "Display name of the list"
        },
        "list": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "JSON string with list info such as template (for example, genericList, documentLibrary, issueTracking)"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "displayName",
        "list"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "createListItem",
    "description": "Create a new item in a SharePoint list.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "listId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list"
        },
        "fields": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "JSON string with field values for the list item (key/value map)"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "listId",
        "fields"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "updateListItem",
    "description": "Update fields of an existing list item.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "listId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list"
        },
        "itemId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list item"
        },
        "fields": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "JSON string with field values to update (partial)"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "listId",
        "itemId",
        "fields"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "deleteListItem",
    "description": "Delete a list item.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "listId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list"
        },
        "itemId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list item"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "listId",
        "itemId"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "listListColumns",
    "description": "List column definitions for a specific SharePoint list.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        },
        "listId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the list"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId",
        "listId"
      ]
    }
  },
  {
    "name": "listSubsites",
    "description": "List child sites (subsites) for a given site.",
    "parameters": {
      "type": "object",
      "properties": {
        "siteId": {
          "type": "string",
          "description": "The unique ID of the site"
        }
      },
      "required": [
        "siteId"
      ]
    }
  }
]

As I can’t find a way to automatically get the tool definitions, you will need to manually add the ones you need.

Configuring the MCP server in the agent

The second part is to update the runtimes section of the ai-plugin.json file to include the MCP server configuration. I am only using the SharePoint lists tools, so my configuration looks like this:

Replace {{OAuthClientRegistrationId}} with the OAuth client registration ID created earlier
If you wish to use a different MCP server, update the url accordingly
The run_for_functions array should include all the functions you added in the previous step

"runtimes": [
  {
    "type": "RemoteMCPServer",
    "auth": {
      "type": "OAuthPluginVault",
      "reference_id": "{{OAuthClientRegistrationId}}"
    },
    "spec": {
      "url": "https://agent365.svc.cloud.microsoft/agents/servers/mcp_SharepointListsTools"
    },
    "run_for_functions": [
      "searchSitesByName",
      "getSiteByPath",
      "listLists",
      "listListItems",
      "createList",
      "createListItem",
      "updateListItem",
      "deleteListItem",
      "listListColumns",
      "listSubsites"
    ]
  }
]

Testing the agent

You can now provision the agent in your tenant. Depending on your use case and scenario you may want to update the instructions and conversation starters.

Now ask the agent a question. If it’s found a match against one of the tools, it will confirm you wish to use it (authentication may be required the first time).

Agent confirmation prompt

Once authenticated, the agent will use the MCP server to get the data from SharePoint.

Agent working

Wrap up

In this post, I have shown you how to consume Agent 365 MCP servers in M365 Copilot declarative agents. This allows you to perform a lot of M365 service operations without having to build your own MCP server, or rely on Copilot Studio agents.

Introduction#

Why you should care#

Prerequisites#

Creating the Entra ID App Registration#

Storing credentials in Teams Dev Portal#

Creating the declarative agent#

Configuring MCP tools in the agent#

Configuring the MCP server in the agent#

Testing the agent#

Wrap up#