Microsoft Entra Agent ID

Create and manage OAuth 2.0-capable identities for AI agents using Microsoft Graph. Every agent instance gets a distinct identity, audit trail, and independently-scoped permission grants.

Quick Reference

When to Use This Skill

• Provisioning a new Agent Identity Blueprint and BlueprintPrincipal
• Creating per-instance Agent Identities under a Blueprint
• Configuring credentials (FIC, Managed Identity, or client secret) on the Blueprint
• Implementing the two-step fmi_path runtime token exchange (autonomous or OBO)
• Cross-tenant agent token flows
• Deploying the Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID sidecar for polyglot agents (Python, Node, Go, Java)
• Granting per-Agent-Identity application (appRoleAssignments) or delegated (oauth2PermissionGrants) permissions
• Diagnosing Agent ID errors such as AADSTS82001, AADSTS700211, or PropertyNotCompatibleWithAgentIdentity

MCP Tools

There is no dedicated Agent Identity MCP server today. This skill guides direct Microsoft Graph API calls (PowerShell or Python requests). Use mcp_azure_mcp_documentation to verify request bodies and endpoints against current docs before running.

Before You Start

Use the mcp_azure_mcp_documentation tool to search Microsoft Learn for current Agent ID documentation:

• "Microsoft Entra Agent ID setup instructions"
• "Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID"

Verify request bodies and endpoints against the installed SDK version — Graph API shapes evolve.

Conceptual Model

Agent Identity Blueprint (application)         ← one per agent type/project
  └── BlueprintPrincipal (service principal)    ← MUST be created explicitly
        ├── Agent Identity (SP): agent-1        ← one per agent instance
        ├── Agent Identity (SP): agent-2
        └── Agent Identity (SP): agent-3

Prerequisites

Required Entra Roles

One of: Agent Identity Developer, Agent Identity Administrator, or Application Administrator.

PowerShell (interactive setup)

# PowerShell 7+
Install-Module Microsoft.Graph.Applications -Scope CurrentUser -Force

Python (programmatic provisioning)

pip install azure-identity requests

Authentication

DefaultAzureCredential is not supported. Azure CLI tokens carry Directory.AccessAsUser.All, which Agent Identity APIs hard-reject (403). Use a dedicated app registration with client_credentials, or Connect-MgGraph with explicit delegated scopes.

PowerShell (delegated)

Connect-MgGraph -Scopes @(
    "AgentIdentityBlueprint.Create",
    "AgentIdentityBlueprint.ReadWrite.All",
    "AgentIdentityBlueprintPrincipal.Create",
    "AgentIdentity.Create.All",
    "User.Read"
)

Python (application)

import os, requests
from azure.identity import ClientSecretCredential

credential = ClientSecretCredential(
    tenant_id=os.environ["AZURE_TENANT_ID"],
    client_id=os.environ["AZURE_CLIENT_ID"],
    client_secret=os.environ["AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET"],
)
token = credential.get_token("https://graph.microsoft.com/.default")

GRAPH = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0"
headers = {
    "Authorization": f"Bearer {token.token}",
    "Content-Type": "application/json",
    "OData-Version": "4.0",
}

Core Workflow

Step 1: Create Agent Identity Blueprint

Use the typed endpoint. Sponsors must be Users at Blueprint creation. This snippet assumes the requests client and headers dict from the Python authentication block above.

import subprocess
import requests

user_id = subprocess.run(
    ["az", "ad", "signed-in-user", "show", "--query", "id", "-o", "tsv"],
    capture_output=True, text=True, check=True,
).stdout.strip()

blueprint_body = {
    "displayName": "My Agent Blueprint",
    "sponsors@odata.bind": [
        f"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{user_id}"
    ],
}
resp = requests.post(
    f"{GRAPH}/applications/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprint",
    headers=headers, json=blueprint_body,
)
resp.raise_for_status()

blueprint = resp.json()
app_id = blueprint["appId"]
blueprint_obj_id = blueprint["id"]

Step 2: Create BlueprintPrincipal

Mandatory. Creating a Blueprint does NOT auto-create its service principal. Skipping this step produces: 400: The Agent Blueprint Principal for the Agent Blueprint does not exist.

sp_body = {"appId": app_id}
resp = requests.post(
    f"{GRAPH}/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprintPrincipal",
    headers=headers, json=sp_body,
)
resp.raise_for_status()

Make your provisioning scripts idempotent — always check for the BlueprintPrincipal even when the Blueprint already exists.

Step 3: Create Agent Identities

Sponsors for an Agent Identity may be Users or Groups.

agent_body = {
    "displayName": "my-agent-instance-1",
    "agentIdentityBlueprintId": app_id,
    "sponsors@odata.bind": [
        f"https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users/{user_id}"
    ],
}
resp = requests.post(
    f"{GRAPH}/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentity",
    headers=headers, json=agent_body,
)
resp.raise_for_status()
agent = resp.json()
agent_sp_id = agent["id"]

Runtime Authentication

Agents authenticate at runtime using credentials configured on the Blueprint (not on the Agent Identity — Agent Identities can't hold credentials).

For the two-step fmi_path exchange (parent token → per-Agent-Identity Graph token) that gives each agent instance a distinct sub claim and audit trail, see references/runtime-token-exchange.md.

For OBO (agent acting on behalf of a user), see references/obo-blueprint-setup.md.

For the containerized polyglot auth sidecar (Python, Node, Go, Java — no SDK embedding), see references/sdk-sidecar.md.

For MI+WIF and client-secret setup details, see references/oauth2-token-flow.md.

.NET quick path

For .NET services, use Microsoft.Identity.Web.AgentIdentities — it handles Federated Identity Credential management and the two-step exchange for you. See the package README at github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-identity-web under src/Microsoft.Identity.Web.AgentIdentities/.

Granting Permissions (Per Agent Identity)

Agent Identities support both application permissions (autonomous) and delegated permissions (OBO). Grants are scoped per Agent Identity, not to the BlueprintPrincipal.

Application permissions (autonomous)

graph_sp = requests.get(
    f"{GRAPH}/servicePrincipals?$filter=appId eq '00000003-0000-0000-c000-000000000000'",
    headers=headers,
).json()["value"][0]

user_read_all = next(r for r in graph_sp["appRoles"] if r["value"] == "User.Read.All")

requests.post(
    f"{GRAPH}/servicePrincipals/{agent_sp_id}/appRoleAssignments",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "principalId": agent_sp_id,
        "resourceId": graph_sp["id"],
        "appRoleId": user_read_all["id"],
    },
).raise_for_status()

Delegated permissions (OBO)

from datetime import datetime, timedelta, timezone

expiry = (datetime.now(timezone.utc) + timedelta(days=3650)).strftime("%Y-%m-%dT%H:%M:%SZ")

requests.post(
    f"{GRAPH}/oauth2PermissionGrants",
    headers=headers,
    json={
        "clientId": agent_sp_id,
        "consentType": "AllPrincipals",
        "resourceId": graph_sp["id"],
        "scope": "User.Read Tasks.ReadWrite Mail.Send",
        "expiryTime": expiry,
    },
).raise_for_status()

Browser-based admin consent URLs do not work for Agent Identities — use oauth2PermissionGrants for programmatic delegated consent.

Cross-Tenant Agent Identities

Blueprints can be multi-tenant (signInAudience: AzureADMultipleOrgs). When exchanging tokens cross-tenant:

Step 1 of the parent token exchange MUST target the Agent Identity's home tenant, not the Blueprint's. Wrong tenant → AADSTS700211: No matching federated identity record found.

See references/runtime-token-exchange.md for full cross-tenant examples.

API Reference

Base URL: https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0.

Required Graph Permissions

Grant admin consent (required for application permissions):

az ad app permission admin-consent --id <client-id>

After admin consent, tokens may not include new claims for 30–120 seconds — retry with exponential backoff.

Best Practices

1. Always create BlueprintPrincipal after Blueprint — not auto-created.
2. Use typed endpoints (/applications/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprint) instead of raw /applications with @odata.type.
3. Credentials live on the Blueprint — Agent Identities can't hold secrets/certs (PropertyNotCompatibleWithAgentIdentity).
4. Include OData-Version: 4.0 on every Graph request.
5. Use Workload Identity Federation for production — client secrets only for local dev.
6. Set identifierUris: ["api://{appId}"] on the Blueprint before OAuth2 scope resolution.
7. Never use Azure CLI tokens for Agent Identity APIs — Directory.AccessAsUser.All causes hard 403.
8. Use fmi_path with client_credentials — NOT RFC 8693 urn:ietf:params:oauth:grant-type:token-exchange (returns AADSTS82001).
9. Always use /.default scope in both steps of the exchange — individual scopes fail.
10. Step 1 targets the Agent Identity's home tenant in cross-tenant flows.
11. Grant permissions per Agent Identity, not to the BlueprintPrincipal.
12. Handle permission-propagation delays — retry 403s with 30–120s backoff after admin consent.
13. Keep the Entra SDK for AgentID on localhost — never expose via LoadBalancer or Ingress.

Troubleshooting

References

External Links