Configure the Canvas Authoring MCP Server

This skill configures the Canvas Authoring MCP server for the user's current Power Apps coauthoring session. The MCP server is auto-registered by the plugin — this skill connects it to a specific app session.

Instructions

1. Ask for the studio URL

Ask the user:

What is the URL of your canvas app studio session?

Copy the URL from the browser address bar while your app is open in Power Apps Designer (it should look like https://make.powerapps.com/e/Default-xxxxxxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxx-xxxxxxxxxxxx/canvas/?action=edit&app-id=...).

Make sure coauthoring is enabled in the app (Settings → Updates → Coauthoring).

Keep this browser tab open for the entire session. The MCP server communicates with Power Apps through the coauthoring session tied to that tab. Closing the tab ends the coauthoring session, which prevents compile_canvas and sync_canvas from working and means you can't see or save generated changes.

2. Extract parameters from the URL

Parse the following from the studio URL:

• ENV_ID: the path segment between /e/ and the next / (e.g. Default-91bee3d9-0c15-4f17-8624-c92bb8b36ead).
• APP_ID: URL-decode the app-id query parameter value, then take the last segment after the final / (e.g. 6fc3e3d1-292b-4281-8826-577f78512e56)
• MAKER_HOSTNAME: the hostname of the URL (e.g. make.powerapps.com)
• ENVIRONMENT_CATEGORY: determined from MAKER_HOSTNAME (see table below)

Determine ENVIRONMENT_CATEGORY from MAKER_HOSTNAME:

MAKER_HOSTNAME	ENVIRONMENT_CATEGORY
make.powerapps.com	prod
make.preview.powerapps.com	prod
make.preprod.powerapps.com	preprod
make.gov.powerapps.us	gov
make.high.powerapps.us	high
make.apps.appsplatform.us	dod
make.powerapps.cn	china
Any other hostname	test

Example:

Example URL: https://make.powerapps.com/e/Default-91bee3d9-0c15-4f17-8624-c92bb8b36ead/canvas/?action=edit&app-id=%2Fproviders%2FMicrosoft.PowerApps%2Fapps%2F6fc3e3d1-292b-4281-8826-577f78512e56

• ENV_ID → Default-91bee3d9-0c15-4f17-8624-c92bb8b36ead
• APP_ID → 6fc3e3d1-292b-4281-8826-577f78512e56
• MAKER_HOSTNAME → make.powerapps.com
• ENVIRONMENT_CATEGORY → prod

3. Configure the MCP server

Call the connect MCP tool on the canvas-authoring server to connect to the user's coauthoring session.

connect(
  environment_id: ENV_ID,
  app_id: APP_ID,
  environment_category: ENVIRONMENT_CATEGORY,
  // Optional — include only if the user has expressed a preference or a prior sign-in failed (see below):
  auth_flow: "broker" | "browser" | "devicecode",
  login_hint: "user@contoso.com",
  tenant_id: "00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000",
  force_account_select: true
)

Optional parameters — do NOT prompt the user for these. Only include them if the user has already expressed a preference earlier in the conversation, or if a prior connect attempt failed:

• login_hint: Pass the user's UPN or email only if they have indicated they want to connect as a specific/different user (e.g. "log in as alice@contoso.com"). These values cannot be derived from the maker portal URL — never guess. Omit otherwise to use the first signed-in user. When reconnecting to switch environment/app, reuse the same login_hint value as the previous successful connect (if known) so the same user is reused without re-prompting.
• auth_flow: Pass "browser", "broker", or "devicecode" if the user has explicitly stated a preferred auth flow (e.g. "use browser sign-in"), or use "browser" for the 404 recovery below. Use "devicecode" on headless/SSH hosts where neither broker nor browser flow can pop a UI — the verification URL and user code are surfaced via an MCP elicitation request and require a client that supports elicitation. Omit otherwise to use the default.
• tenant_id: Pass a tenant GUID only for Entra B2B guest access — set it to the host/resource tenant where the user is a guest so the token is issued by that tenant rather than the user's home tenant. Combine with login_hint (the guest's home UPN) to pre-fill the account. Omit for normal same-tenant sign-in.
• force_account_select: Pass true only to force the account picker instead of silently reusing a cached account — set this for the 404 recovery below, or when a previous connect failed with a 401/403 and no login_hint was given, so the user can pick the correct account. Omit otherwise.

If the Canvas Authoring connect tool is not available under the current host's name, run the following command to check whether the server failed to launch due to a missing .NET 10 SDK. Do not treat the absence of the other host's tool name as a server failure.

dotnet --list-sdks

If a version 10.x.y or higher is not listed, tell the user:

⚠️ .NET 10 SDK is required to run the Canvas Authoring MCP server. It looks like you don't have it installed. Please install it from https://dotnet.microsoft.com/download/dotnet/10.0 and then try again.

If connect fails with HTTP 404, a likely cause is signing in with a different account from the one used for the Studio session. Report the error and recover in this order:

1. Remind the user to sign in with the same account they used for the Power Apps Studio browser session.
2. Run connect again with the same environment/app parameters and force_account_select: true so the user can select that account.
3. If that retry fails, run connect once more with auth_flow: "browser" and force_account_select: true, keeping the same environment/app parameters. Remind the user to select their Studio account in the browser sign-in. On a headless/SSH host where browser sign-in is unavailable, use auth_flow: "devicecode" instead as described above.

Stop retrying after a successful connection. If both recovery attempts fail, report the final error and follow the checks below; do not claim the server is configured.

For other connection errors, or if 404 recovery fails, report the error and suggest checking that:

1. The studio URL is correct and the browser tab is still open
2. Coauthoring is enabled in the app settings
3. If sign-in failed, the user may need to specify auth_flow (broker, browser, or devicecode) or a login_hint (UPN/email) to authenticate as the correct account. On a headless/SSH host, use auth_flow: "devicecode". If a cached account keeps getting picked, retry with force_account_select: true. For Entra B2B guest access, set tenant_id to the host tenant.

4. Confirm

Only after connect succeeds, tell the user:

✅ Canvas Authoring MCP server configured for your coauthoring session.

You can now use Canvas App skills like /canvas-app to create or edit your app.