Connecting Microsoft Copilot to MCP Servers

Use your MSP MCP servers from Microsoft Copilot — via Copilot Studio or M365 Declarative Agents.

Overview

Microsoft Copilot supports the Model Context Protocol (MCP) across two integration surfaces:

• Copilot Studio — build custom agents that call your MCP server's tools at runtime. Best for: teams that already use Power Platform and want low-code agent building.
• M365 Copilot Declarative Agents — extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with MCP-backed capabilities surfaced directly in Teams, Outlook, and M365 Chat. Best for: developer teams that want deep M365 integration via VS Code.

Prerequisites (Both Paths)

Path 1: Copilot Studio Custom Agents

What It Does

Copilot Studio agents can call your MCP server's tools in response to user prompts. Tools are auto-discovered — name, description, inputs, and outputs are inherited directly from your server manifest. As your server evolves, Copilot Studio reflects changes automatically.

Licensing Requirements

• Microsoft 365 Business or Enterprise (any tier)
• Copilot Studio license (standalone or via M365 Copilot bundle)
• Generative Orchestration must be enabled on the agent (required for MCP)

Step-by-Step Configuration

1. Open your agent in Copilot Studio

• Navigate to copilotstudio.microsoft.com
• Select or create your agent

2. Enable Generative Orchestration

• In agent Settings → select Generative as the orchestration mode
• Save

3. Add your MCP server

• Go to Tools → Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol
• The MCP onboarding wizard opens

4. Fill in server details

• Server name: A descriptive name (used by the orchestrator to identify the server)
• Server description: Clear, concise description of what the server does — the agent uses this to decide when to invoke it
• Server URL: Your Streamable HTTP endpoint (e.g., https://mcp.wyretechnology.com/v1/mcp)

5. Configure authentication

6. Create and connect

• Select Create — Copilot Studio provisions the connector
• Verify tool listing appears under your MCP server settings
• Test by prompting the agent to use a known tool

Governance & Security

• MCP servers in Copilot Studio use Power Platform connector infrastructure
• Supports Virtual Network integration and Data Loss Prevention (DLP) policies
• Tool invocations are traceable via the Activity Map in Copilot Studio

Path 2: M365 Copilot Declarative Agents

What It Does

Declarative agents extend M365 Copilot (Teams, Outlook, M365 Chat) with custom capabilities backed by your MCP server. Users interact through natural language in their existing M365 surfaces — no separate app or interface required.

Licensing Requirements

• Full Microsoft 365 Copilot license (required for each user)
• Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit (VS Code extension)
• Custom App Upload enabled on the tenant
• Copilot Access enabled on the tenant

Step-by-Step Configuration

1. Install prerequisites

• VS Code + Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit extension
• Sign in to M365 account with Custom App Upload + Copilot Access enabled

2. Scaffold the declarative agent

• In VS Code → Agents Toolkit → Create a New Declarative Agent
• This generates the project structure and manifest files

3. Add your MCP server as an action

• In the toolkit: Add Action → Start with an MCP server
• Enter your MCP server URL (e.g., https://mcp.wyretechnology.com/v1/mcp)
• The toolkit reads the server schema, generates function definitions, and wires up auth automatically

4. Configure OAuth (if required)

For OAuth-protected MCP servers:

• Register an OAuth App with your identity provider
• Set the callback URL to: https://teams.microsoft.com/api/platform/v1.0/oAuthRedirect
• Copy Client ID and secret into the toolkit when prompted during Provision

5. Provision and test

• Run Provision in the Agents Toolkit lifecycle pane
• Browse to m365.cloud.microsoft/chat
• Find your agent in the Agents sidebar (listed as [name] dev during development)
• Prompt it to use a tool from your MCP server

6. Distribute

• Sideload to your org via admin upload
• Or submit to the Copilot store via Partner Center for broader distribution

What About Plain Copilot?

A common question: “Can I just connect Copilot to my MCP server without Studio or Declarative Agents?”

No. Microsoft Copilot (the built-in assistant in Teams, Outlook, Edge, Bing, and Windows) does not have a mechanism to connect directly to external MCP servers. It is a closed system that only accesses Microsoft Graph data and pre-built connectors.

To use MCP tools from within Copilot, you must use one of the two paths above:

• Copilot Studio — if you want a custom agent with low-code configuration
• Declarative Agents — if you want to extend M365 Copilot directly with developer tooling

Both approaches result in MCP tools being available within the Copilot experience, but the integration layer (Studio or Agents Toolkit) is required.

Troubleshooting

Additional Resources

• Copilot Studio MCP Docs
• Connect to Existing MCP Server
• Build Declarative Agents with MCP
• M365 Agents Toolkit