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

Property	Value
Service	Microsoft Entra Agent ID
API	Microsoft Graph (https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0)
Required role	Agent Identity Developer, Agent Identity Administrator, or Application Administrator
Object model	Blueprint (application) → BlueprintPrincipal (SP) → Agent Identity (SP)
Runtime exchange	Two-step fmi_path exchange (autonomous and OBO)
.NET helper	Microsoft.Identity.Web.AgentIdentities
Polyglot helper	Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID (sidecar container)

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

Tool	Use
mcp_azure_mcp_documentation	Search Microsoft Learn for current Agent ID setup, Graph API shapes, and SDK configuration

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

Concept	Description
Blueprint	Application object that defines a type/class of agent. Holds credentials (secret, certificate, federated identity).
BlueprintPrincipal	Service principal for the Blueprint in the tenant. Not auto-created.
Agent Identity	Service-principal-only identity for a single agent instance. Cannot hold its own credentials.
Sponsor	A User (or Group, for Agent Identity) who is responsible for the identity. Required on creation.

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).

Option	Use case	Credential on Blueprint
Managed Identity + WIF	Production (Azure-hosted)	Federated Identity Credential
Client secret	Local dev / testing	Password credential
Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID	Polyglot / 3P agents	Sidecar container acquires tokens over HTTP

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

Operation	Method	Endpoint
Create Blueprint	POST	/applications/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprint
Create BlueprintPrincipal	POST	/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprintPrincipal
Create Agent Identity	POST	/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentity
Add FIC to Blueprint	POST	/applications/{id}/microsoft.graph.agentIdentityBlueprint/federatedIdentityCredentials
List Agent Identities	GET	/servicePrincipals/microsoft.graph.agentIdentity
Grant app permission	POST	/servicePrincipals/{id}/appRoleAssignments
Grant delegated permission	POST	/oauth2PermissionGrants
Delete Agent Identity	DELETE	/servicePrincipals/{id}
Delete Blueprint	DELETE	/applications/{id}

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

Required Graph Permissions

Permission	Purpose
AgentIdentityBlueprint.Create	Create Blueprints
AgentIdentityBlueprint.ReadWrite.All	Read/update Blueprints
AgentIdentityBlueprintPrincipal.Create	Create BlueprintPrincipals
AgentIdentity.Create.All	Create Agent Identities
AgentIdentity.ReadWrite.All	Read/update Agent Identities
Application.ReadWrite.All	Blueprint CRUD on application objects
AppRoleAssignment.ReadWrite.All	Grant application permissions
DelegatedPermissionGrant.ReadWrite.All	Grant delegated 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

Error	Cause	Fix
AADSTS82001	Used RFC 8693 token-exchange grant	Use client_credentials with fmi_path
AADSTS700211	Step 1 parent token targeted wrong tenant	Target Agent Identity's home tenant
AADSTS50013	OBO user token targets Graph, not Blueprint	Use api://{blueprint_app_id}/access_as_user
AADSTS65001	Missing grant or used individual scopes	Use /.default and verify oauth2PermissionGrants
403 Authorization_RequestDenied	No grant on this Agent Identity	Add via appRoleAssignments or oauth2PermissionGrants
PropertyNotCompatibleWithAgentIdentity	Tried to add credential to Agent Identity SP	Put credentials on the Blueprint
Agent Blueprint Principal does not exist	BlueprintPrincipal not created	Step 2 of the Core Workflow
AADSTS650051 on admin consent	SP already exists from partial consent	Grant directly via appRoleAssignments

References

File	Contents
references/runtime-token-exchange.md	Two-step fmi_path exchange: autonomous + OBO, cross-tenant
references/oauth2-token-flow.md	MI + WIF (production) and client secret (local dev)
references/obo-blueprint-setup.md	Configuring the Blueprint as an OAuth2 API for OBO
references/sdk-sidecar.md	Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID — architecture, configuration, endpoints
references/sdk-sidecar-deployment.md	SDK code patterns (Python/TypeScript), Docker/Kubernetes manifests, security, troubleshooting
references/known-limitations.md	Documented gaps organized by category

External Links

Resource	URL
Agent ID Setup Guide	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/identity-platform/agent-id-setup-instructions
AI-Guided Setup	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/identity-platform/agent-id-ai-guided-setup
Microsoft Entra SDK for AgentID	https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/msidweb/agent-id-sdk/overview
Microsoft.Identity.Web.AgentIdentities (.NET)	https://github.com/AzureAD/microsoft-identity-web/blob/master/src/Microsoft.Identity.Web.AgentIdentities/README.AgentIdentities.md