Azure

What is the project about?

The Azure MCP Server is a project that implements the Model Context Protocol (MCP) to connect AI agents with Azure services. It allows developers to interact with Azure resources like Storage, Cosmos DB, and the Azure CLI using natural language commands within their development environment.

How to use the project?

To use the Azure MCP Server, you need to install it in a supported environment like VS Code with the GitHub Copilot extension. After installation and configuration, you can switch to Agent mode in GitHub Copilot to access the Azure tools. This enables you to manage and interact with your Azure services through chat-based commands.

Key features of the project

• Integration with Azure Services: Provides tools to interact with various Azure services, including Azure Storage, Cosmos DB, and the Azure CLI.
• VS Code Extension: Can be installed as a VS Code extension, integrating seamlessly with GitHub Copilot for a chat-based interface.
• Multiple MCP Servers: Offers different MCP servers for various Azure services, allowing you to choose the tools you need.

Use cases of the project

• Infrastructure Management: Manage and provision Azure resources directly from your IDE using natural language.
• Data Interaction: Interact with data stored in Azure Storage or Cosmos DB through simple chat commands.
• Development Workflow: Streamline development workflows by integrating Azure service management into your coding environment.

FAQ from the project

The README for this project does not contain a specific FAQ section, but it does provide detailed installation and usage instructions.

🌟 Azure MCP Server

The Azure MCP Server implements the MCP specification to create a seamless connection between AI agents and Azure services. Azure MCP Server can be used alone or with the GitHub Copilot for Azure extension in VS Code. This project is in Public Preview and implementation may significantly change prior to our General Availability.

Here's a short (16 seconds) video to help you get the Azure MCP Server installed in VS Code.

⚙️ VS Code Install Steps (Recommended)

1. Install either the stable or Insiders release of VS Code:
   • 💫 Stable release
   • 🔮 Insiders release
2. Install the GitHub Copilot and GitHub Copilot Chat extensions
3. Install Node.js 20 or later
   • Ensure node and npm are in your path
4. Open VS Code in an empty folder
5. Install any of the available Azure MCP Server(s) for either the stable or Insiders release of VS Code
6. Open GitHub Copilot in VS Code and switch to Agent mode
7. Click refresh on the tools list.

🤖 Available Azure MCP Servers

Name	Description	All Tools	Read Only
All	All Azure tools in a single MCP server
App Configuration	App Configuration operations - Manage App Configuration stores.
Azure Data Explorer	Azure Data Explorer operations - Manage/query Azure Data Explorer clusters.
Best Practices	Returns secure, production-grade Azure SDK best practices.
Cosmos DB	Cosmos DB operations - Manage/query Cosmos DB resources.
Foundry	AI Foundry operations - List models, deploy models and list model deployments.
Grafana	Azure Managed Grafana operations - List Azure Managed Grafana.
Key Vault	Key Vault operations - Manage/access Azure Key Vault resources.
Monitor	Azure Monitor operations - Query/analyze logs and metrics.
PostgreSQL	PostgreSQL operations - Manage Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible server.
Redis Cache	Redis Cache operations - Manage/access Azure Redis Cache resources.
Resource Group	Resource group operations - List/manage Azure resource groups.
Role Based Access Control	Azure RBAC Operations - List Azure RBAC role assignments.
Search	Search operations - List/query Azure AI Search services.
Service Bus	Service Bus operations - Manage Azure Service Bus resources.
SQL Database	Azure SQL Database operations - Manage Azure SQL Database servers and databases, including Microsoft Entra ID administrators.
Storage	Storage operations - Manage/access Azure Storage resources.
Subscription	Azure subscription operations - List/manage Azure subscriptions.

▶️ Getting Started

1. Open GitHub Copilot in VS Code and switch to Agent mode
2. You should see the Azure MCP Server in the list of tools
3. Try a prompt that tells the agent to use the Azure MCP Server, such as "List my Azure Storage containers"
4. The agent should be able to use the Azure MCP Server tools to complete your query
5. Check out the documentation and troubleshooting guide

✨ What can you do with the Azure MCP Server?

The Azure MCP Server supercharges your agents with Azure context. Here are some cool prompts you can try:

🔎 Azure AI Search

• "What indexes do I have in my Azure AI Search service 'mysvc'?"
• "Let's search this index for 'my search query'"

⚙️ Azure App Configuration

• "List my App Configuration stores"

📊 Azure Cosmos DB

• "Show me all my Cosmos DB databases"
• "List containers in my Cosmos DB database"

🧮 Azure Data Explorer

• "Get Azure Data Explorer databases in cluster 'mycluster'"
• "Sample 10 rows from table 'StormEvents' in Azure Data Explorer database 'db1'"

📊 Azure Monitor

• "Query my Log Analytics workspace"

�️ Azure SQL Database

• "Show me details about my Azure SQL database 'mydb'"
• "List Active Directory administrators for my SQL server 'myserver'"

💾 Azure Storage

• "List my Azure storage accounts"
• "Show me the tables in my Storage account"
• "Get details about my Storage container"
• "Show my key-value pairs in App Config"

🔧 Azure Resource Management

• "List my resource groups"
• "List my Azure CDN endpoints"
• "Help me build an Azure application using Node.js"

🛠️ Currently Supported Tools

🔎 Azure AI Search (search engine/vector database)

• List Azure AI Search services
• List indexes and look at their schema and configuration
• Query search indexes

⚙️ Azure App Configuration

• List App Configuration stores
• Manage key-value pairs
• Handle labeled configurations
• Lock/unlock configuration settings

� Azure CLI Extension

• Execute Azure CLI commands directly
• Support for all Azure CLI functionality
• JSON output formatting
• Cross-platform compatibility

�📊 Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL Databases)

• List Cosmos DB accounts
• List and query databases
• Manage containers and items
• Execute SQL queries against containers

🧮 Azure Data Explorer

• List Azure Data Explorer clusters
• List databases
• List tables
• Get schema for a table
• Sample rows from a table
• Query using KQL

🐘 Azure Database for PostgreSQL - Flexible Server

• List and query databases.
• List and get schema for tables.
• List, get configuration and get parameters for servers.

� Azure Developer CLI (azd) Extension

• Execute Azure Developer CLI commands directly
• Support for template discovery, template initialization, provisioning and deployment
• Cross-platform compatibility

🧮 Azure Foundry

• List Azure Foundry models
• Deploy foundry models
• List foundry model deployments

🚀 Azure Managed Grafana

• List Azure Managed Grafana

� Azure Key Vault

• List, create, and get keys

📈 Azure Monitor

Log Analytics

• List Log Analytics workspaces
• Query logs using KQL
• List available tables

Health Models

• Get health of an entity

Metrics

• Query Azure Monitor metrics for resources with time series data
• List available metric definitions for resources

⚙️ Azure Native ISV Services

• List Monitored Resources in a Datadog Monitor

� Azure Resource Groups

• List resource groups

🎭 Azure Role-Based Access Control (RBAC)

• List role assignments

🚌 Azure Service Bus

• Examine properties and runtime information about queues, topics, and subscriptions

🗄️ Azure SQL Database

• Show database details and properties

� Azure Storage

• List Storage accounts
• Manage blob containers and blobs
• List and query Storage tables
• Get container properties and metadata

Agents and models can discover and learn best practices and usage guidelines for the azd MCP tool. For more information, see AZD Best Practices.

🛡️ Azure Best Practices

• Get secure, production-grade Azure SDK best practices for effective code generation.

For detailed command documentation and examples, see Azure MCP Commands.

🔄️ Upgrading Existing Installs to the Latest Version

NPX

If you use the default package spec of @azure/mcp@latest, npx will look for a new version on each server start. If you use just @azure/mcp, npx will continue to use its cached version until its cache is cleared.

NPM

If you globally install the cli via npm install -g @azure/mcp it will use the installed version until you manually update it with npm update -g @azure/mcp.

Docker

There is no version update built into the docker image. To update, just pull the latest from the repo and repeat the docker installation instructions.

VS Code

Installation in VS Code should be in one of the previous forms and the update instructions are the same. If you installed the mcp server with the npx command and -y @azure/mcp@latest args, npx will check for package updates each time VS Code starts the server. Using a docker container in VS Code has the same no-update limitation described above.

⚙️ Advanced Install Scenarios (Optional)

🐋 Docker Install Steps (Optional)

For a step-by-step Docker installation, follow these instructions:

1. Clone repository
2. From repository root, build Docker image: docker build -t azure/azuremcp .
3. Create an .env file with environment variables that match one of the EnvironmentCredential sets. For example, a .env file using a service principal could look like:

AZURE_TENANT_ID={YOUR_AZURE_TENANT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_ID={YOUR_AZURE_CLIENT_ID}
AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET={YOUR_AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET}

4. Add .vscode/mcp.json or update existing MCP configuration. Replace /full/path/to/.env with a path to your .env file.

{
  "servers": {
    "Azure MCP Server": {
      "command": "docker",
      "args": [
        "run",
        "-i",
        "--rm",
        "--env-file",
        "/full/path/to/.env"
        "azure/azuremcp",
      ]
    }
  }
}

Optionally, customers can use --env or --volume to pass authentication values.

🤖 Custom MCP Client Install Steps (Optional)

You can easily configure your MCP client to use the Azure MCP Server. Have your client run the following command and access it via standard IO or SSE.

🔧 Manual Install Steps (Optional)

For a step-by-step installation, follow these instructions:

1. Add .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "Azure MCP Server": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@azure/mcp@latest",
        "server",
        "start"
      ]
    }
  }
}

You can optionally set the --namespace <service> flag to install tools for the specified Azure product or service.

1. Add .vscode/mcp.json:

{
  "servers": {
    "Azure Best Practices": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": [
        "-y",
        "@azure/mcp@latest",
        "server",
        "start",
        "--namespace",
        "bestpractices" // Any of the available MCP servers can be referenced here.
      ]
    }
  }
}

Using standard IO

Configure the MCP client to execute: npx -y @azure/mcp@latest server start. For instructions on using , follow instructions in Quick install with VS Code or Manual Install.

Using SSE

1. Open a terminal window and execute: npx -y @azure/mcp@latest server start --transport sse
2. The server starts up and is hosted at: http://localhost:5008. To use another port, append --port {YOUR-PORT-NUMBER}.
3. Open your MCP client and add the SSE configuration value. This may differ between MCP clients. In VS Code, it will look like:

   {
      "servers": {
        "Azure MCP Server": {
          "type": "sse",
          "url": "http://localhost:5008/sse"
        }
      }
    }
   

More end-to-end MCP client/agent guides are coming soon!

Data Collection

The software may collect information about you and your use of the software and send it to Microsoft. Microsoft may use this information to provide services and improve our products and services. You may turn off the telemetry as described in the repository. There are also some features in the software that may enable you and Microsoft to collect data from users of your applications. If you use these features, you must comply with applicable law, including providing appropriate notices to users of your applications together with a copy of Microsoft's privacy statement. Our privacy statement is located at https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=521839. You can learn more about data collection and use in the help documentation and our privacy statement. Your use of the software operates as your consent to these practices.

Telemetry Configuration

Telemetry collection is on by default.

To opt out, set the environment variable AZURE_MCP_COLLECT_TELEMETRY to false in your environment.

📝 Troubleshooting

See Troubleshooting guide for help with common issues and logging.

🔑 Authentication

The Azure MCP Server uses the Azure Identity library for .NET to authenticate to Microsoft Entra ID. For detailed information, see Authentication Fundamentals.

If you're running into any issues with authentication, visit our troubleshooting guide.

For enterprise authentication scenarios, including network restrictions, security policies, and protected resources, see Authentication Scenarios in Enterprise Environments.

🛡️ Security Note

Your credentials are always handled securely through the official Azure Identity SDK - we never store or manage tokens directly.

MCP as a phenomenon is very novel and cutting-edge. As with all new technology standards, consider doing a security review to ensure any systems that integrate with MCP servers follow all regulations and standards your system is expected to adhere to. This includes not only the Azure MCP Server, but any MCP client/agent that you choose to implement down to the model provider.

👥 Contributing

We welcome contributions to the Azure MCP Server! Whether you're fixing bugs, adding new features, or improving documentation, your contributions are welcome.

Please read our Contributing Guide for guidelines on:

• 🛠️ Setting up your development environment
• ✨ Adding new commands
• 📝 Code style and testing requirements
• 🔄 Making pull requests

💬 Feedback

We're building this in the open. Your feedback is much appreciated, and will help us shape the future of the Azure MCP server.

👉 Open an issue in the public repository.

🤝 Code of Conduct

This project has adopted the Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct. For more information, see the Code of Conduct FAQ or contact open@microsoft.com with any additional questions or comments.