Set up the SRE Agent MCP server

What you'll build

A working connection between your MCP client (VS Code, Copilot CLI, Cursor, or Claude) and your SRE Agent. After setup, you can list agents, run investigations, manage connectors, and search knowledge in natural language. Learn more → SRE Agent MCP Server.

Prerequisites

• An SRE Agent resource in Azure (provisioning state: Succeeded)
• Node.js LTS installed
• Azure CLI installed
• An MCP-compatible client: VS Code with GitHub Copilot, Copilot CLI, Cursor, Claude Code, or Claude Desktop

Step 1: Sign in to Azure

az login

If you have multiple subscriptions, set a default:

az account set --subscription <subscription-id>

Cross-tenant access

If your SRE Agent is in a different tenant from your workstation, specify the tenant:

az login --tenant <agent-tenant-id>

This changes credential context for all subsequent CLI operations in the session. After finishing MCP work, run az login without --tenant to return to your default tenant.

Step 2: Assign permissions

You need Reader (control-plane) and SRE Agent Administrator (data-plane) roles on the SRE Agent resource. See Permissions for details on what each role enables.

Least privilege

Assign roles at the narrowest scope possible, preferably the individual agent resource. Subscription-scope Reader grants read access to all resources in the subscription, not just your agent.

# Find your object ID
az ad signed-in-user show --query id -o tsv
# Control-plane access (list and get agents, connectors)
az role assignment create \
  --assignee <your-upn-or-object-id> \
  --role "Reader" \
  --scope /subscriptions/<sub>/resourceGroups/<rg>/providers/Microsoft.App/agents/<agentName>

# Data-plane access (threads, memories, tasks, prompts, workflows)
az role assignment create \
  --assignee <your-upn-or-object-id> \
  --role "SRE Agent Administrator" \
  --scope /subscriptions/<sub>/resourceGroups/<rg>/providers/Microsoft.App/agents/<agentName>

Step 3: Register the Azure MCP Server with your client

VS Code

Install the Azure MCP Server extension from the VS Code marketplace. Sign in to your Azure account when prompted.

The extension registers the MCP server automatically. After installation, SRE Agent tools are available in the Copilot Chat sidebar.

Copilot CLI

From within Copilot CLI, run:

/mcp add

Follow the prompts:

• Name: azure
• Command: npx
• Args: -y @azure/mcp@latest server start

Or add manually to ~/.copilot/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Restart Copilot CLI after saving.

Cursor

Add the Azure MCP Server to your Cursor MCP configuration. See Cursor MCP documentation for the configuration file location.

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Code

Add to your project's .mcp.json or user MCP configuration:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Claude Desktop

Install the Azure MCP Server MCPB bundle, or add a local server command to your Claude Desktop MCP settings:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "azure": {
      "type": "stdio",
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@latest", "server", "start"]
    }
  }
}

Step 4: Verify the connection

Ask your client:

"List my SRE agents in subscription <subscription-id>"

You should see your agents listed with their names, resource groups, locations, and status:

If sreagent_* tools appear and return results, the connection is working.

Step 5: Start an investigation

"Create a thread on agent <agent-name> and investigate why the production API has elevated latency"

Your agent creates a thread, investigates the issue, and returns findings inline.

Step 6: Explore operations

Try these prompts:

"Search memories on agent <agent-name> for 'deployment failures'"
"List scheduled tasks on agent <agent-name>"
"Create a Kusto connector named prod-logs pointing at cluster https://help.kusto.windows.net, database Samples"
"List active incidents on agent <agent-name>"
"Pause the nightly health check on agent <agent-name>"

Keeping the MCP server up to date

The @latest tag pulls the newest version on each launch, but npx caches aggressively. To force an update:

rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx

For version stability, pin an exact version:

"args": ["-y", "@azure/mcp@1.2.3", "server", "start"]

Troubleshooting

Symptom	Cause	Fix
sreagent_* tools not showing up	Stale npx cache	Run rm -rf ~/.npm/_npx, restart client
"SRE Agent resource not found"	Wrong tenant or subscription	Run az login --tenant <id>, set correct subscription
401/403 on data-plane calls	Missing SRE Agent Administrator role	Assign the role at the agent scope
403 on ARM calls	Missing Reader role	Assign Reader at subscription, RG, or agent scope
"No agent endpoint"	Agent not fully provisioned	Check provisioningState in the Azure portal
Wrong tenant errors	Credentials from a different tenant	Run az login --tenant <id>, restart client

Next steps

• SRE Agent MCP Server — learn about the full capability set
• MCP connectors — extend your agent with external MCP servers
• Threads — learn about investigation threads
• Scheduled tasks — automate recurring operations