Publish an autopilot in Microsoft Agent 365

Publish a Foundry Hosted agent as an autopilot in Microsoft Agent 365 so an admin can approve it and make it available in Microsoft 365 surfaces such as Microsoft Teams.

For an overview of how Foundry integrates with A365, supported agent types, data collection, and data residency, see Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Foundry.

Prerequisites

Microsoft Agent 365 is generally available. This how-to uses Hosted agents, which are currently in preview.

• Licensing:

  • Microsoft 365 licensing that supports Microsoft Agent 365. Agent 365 works best with Microsoft E5, and at least one user in your organization must have a qualifying Microsoft Agent 365 license such as Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  • A Microsoft 365 license assigned to the users who create, approve, or use the agent.

• Azure permissions:

  • An Azure subscription where you can create resources.

  • Owner at the subscription or resource group scope. The azd workflow creates Azure resources and assigns required roles automatically; Owner provides the permissions needed for both.

  • Foundry User or Foundry Project Manager at the Foundry project scope to create and deploy agents.

    Important

    The Foundry RBAC roles were recently renamed. Foundry User, Foundry Owner, Foundry Account Owner, and Foundry Project Manager were previously named Azure AI User, Azure AI Owner, Azure AI Account Owner, and Azure AI Project Manager. You might still see the previous names in some places while the rename rolls out. The role IDs and core permissions are unchanged by the rename.

    For the full permission matrix, see Hosted agent permissions reference.

  • Owner or Contributor at the resource group scope to create and configure the Azure Bot Service resource. Foundry-scoped roles (Foundry User, Foundry Project Manager, and similar) don't include Microsoft.BotService/* permissions.

• Microsoft 365 admin permissions:

  • AI Administrator or Global Administrator in the Microsoft 365 admin center to approve pending agent requests.

• Tenant and service setup:

  • Use a region that supports Hosted agents. For the current supported regions, see Hosted agents in Foundry Agent Service (preview).

  • If the Microsoft.BotService resource provider isn't already registered in your subscription, register it:

    az provider register --namespace Microsoft.BotService
    

• Local tools:

  • Azure CLI
  • Azure Developer CLI
  • Docker
  • .NET 9.0 SDK

What the sample creates

The sample provisions the Azure infrastructure required by the current template and publishes a Hosted agent end-to-end. Specifically:

• Creates or updates the Azure resources required by the sample template, including a Foundry account and project, model deployment, hosted agent and agent version, Azure Container Registry, Azure Bot Service resource, and Application Insights with a Log Analytics workspace.
• Creates an agent version and configures endpoint traffic to always route to that version.
• Submits an autopilot request that creates an agent blueprint in the Microsoft 365 admin center for admin approval.

Run the code sample

Follow the steps in the FoundryA365 sample README on GitHub. Follow the sample README for the complete, authoritative command sequence. After the sample completes, return here to verify the deployment and complete the admin approval flow.

Provision and deploy

The sample provisions Azure resources, builds and pushes a container, and deploys the agent. Here is the high-level command flow (see the README for the complete, authoritative sequence):

az login
azd auth login
azd provision
azd env get-values

Verify deployment before approval

Verify the following before you open the Microsoft 365 admin center:

1. Run azd env get-values and save the output. Note especially the bot app ID and messaging endpoint — you need these values in the Developer verification steps.
2. Confirm the azd deployment completes successfully with no failed resources.
3. Confirm the sample completed the publishing step and submitted the autopilot request.

When the sample completes successfully, you have a published agent application and an agent blueprint ready for approval in the Microsoft 365 admin center. After an admin approves the request, the agent appears in the Agent 365 registry.

Validate the deployment

Admin approval

A Microsoft 365 admin must approve the agent blueprint before it's available in Teams.

1. Sign in to the Microsoft 365 admin center and locate the pending agent blueprint request.
2. Approve the request. After approval, verify your agent appears in the Agent 365 agent registry.

Developer verification

After an admin approves the request, complete these verification steps.

1. In the Teams Developer Portal, find your approved agent blueprint and confirm its configuration.
   1. Select the agent blueprint from the list.
   2. Verify the messaging endpoint and app ID match the values from azd env get-values.
   3. Save any required fields and publish the update if prompted.
2. In Microsoft Teams, verify that you can find the agent and create an instance:
   1. Go to Apps.
   2. Go to Agents for your team.
   3. Find your agent and create an instance.

Troubleshooting

Next steps

After publishing, you can update your agent by deploying a new agent version and repeating the azd workflow. To monitor agent activity and set up observability, see Grant Agent 365 observability permissions.

Related content

• Microsoft Agent 365 integration with Foundry
• Manage Hosted agent lifecycle
• Publish agents to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Microsoft Teams
• Configure Agent 365 data collection for Microsoft Foundry