🔎 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 Cosmos DB (NoSQL Databases)

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

🐘 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 Data Explorer

• List Kusto clusters
• List databases in a Kusto cluster
• List tables in a Kusto database
• Get schema for a Kusto table
• Sample rows from a Kusto table
• Query Kusto databases using KQL

💾 Azure Storage

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

📈 Azure Monitor

Log Analytics

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

Health Models

• Get health of an entity

⚙️ Azure App Configuration

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

🔑 Azure Key Vault

• List, create, and get keys

📦 Azure Resource Groups

• List resource groups

🚌 Azure Service Bus

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

🔧 Azure CLI Extension

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

🚀 Azure Developer CLI (azd) Extension

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

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.

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.

🐋 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 --service <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",
        "--service",
        "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!

The Azure MCP Server seamlessly integrates with your host operating system's authentication mechanisms, making it super easy to get started! We use Azure Identity under the hood via DefaultAzureCredential, which tries these credentials in order:

1. Environment Variables (EnvironmentCredential) - Perfect for CI/CD pipelines
2. Shared Token Cache (SharedTokenCacheCredential) - Uses cached tokens from other tools
3. Visual Studio (VisualStudioCredential) - Uses your Visual Studio credentials
4. Azure CLI (AzureCliCredential) - Uses your existing Azure CLI login
5. Azure PowerShell (AzurePowerShellCredential) - Uses your Az PowerShell login
6. Azure Developer CLI (AzureDeveloperCliCredential) - Uses your azd login
7. Interactive Browser (InteractiveBrowserCredential) - Falls back to browser-based login if needed

If you're already logged in through any of these methods, the Azure MCP Server will automatically use those credentials. Ensure that you have the correct authorization permissions in Azure (e.g. read access to your Storage account) via RBAC (Role-Based Access Control). To learn more about Azure's RBAC authorization system, visit this link.

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

Production Credentials

By default, the Azure MCP Server excludes production credentials like Managed Identity and Workload Identity. To enable these credentials, set the environment variable:

AZURE_MCP_INCLUDE_PRODUCTION_CREDENTIALS=true

This is useful when running on Azure services where you want to use managed identities.