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by microsoftmicrosoft/skills3.1k stars
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Builds, tests, and deploys Microsoft 365 apps and agents for Teams and Copilot. Includes sub-skills for project creation, local testing, cloud deployment, troubleshooting, and Slack-to-Teams migration. USE FOR: Teams agent, bot, tab, message extension, Declarative Agents, Custom Engine Agents, local testing, Agents Playground, Azure resource provision, remote deployment, Slack to Teams migration, cross-platform bot development, Block Kit to Adaptive Cards conversion. DO NOT USE FOR: general web development, non-bot/non-Teams projects.

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Use this Skill: https://skilld.dev/gh/microsoft/skills/teams-app-developer

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toolkittemplates.md

≈1.7k tokens on demand. Your agent reads this file only when SKILL.md points to it.

Agent Templates Reference

Contents

  • CLI Capabilities (all atk new -c options)
  • Declarative Agents (creating, options)
  • Custom Engine Agents (creating, languages)
  • Teams Agents (creating, languages)
  • Other Templates (bot, tab, message extension)
  • Best Practices (language matching)
  • Template Selection Guide

CLI Capabilities (atk new -c)

Use atk new -c <capability> to create projects. Available capabilities:

Capability Description
declarative-agent Declarative Agent
declarative-agent-action Declarative Agent with Action from Scratch
declarative-agent-action-bearer Declarative Agent with Action from Scratch (Bearer Token)
declarative-agent-action-oauth Declarative Agent with Action from Scratch (OAuth)
declarative-agent-action-from-existing-api Declarative Agent with Action from Existing API
declarative-agent-with-action-from-mcp Declarative Agent with Action from MCP Server
declarative-agent-with-graph-connector Declarative Agent with Copilot Connector
declarative-agent-meta-os-new-project Declarative Agent for MetaOS (New Project)
declarative-agent-meta-os-upgrade-project Declarative Agent for MetaOS (Upgrade Project)
declarative-agent-typespec Declarative Agent from TypeSpec
basic-custom-engine-agent Basic Custom Engine Agent
weather-agent Weather Agent
foundry-agent-to-m365 Foundry Agent to M365
copilot-connector Copilot Connector
teams-agent General Teams Agent
teams-agent-rag-customize Teams Agent with Data from Customized Source
teams-agent-rag-azure-ai-search Teams Agent with Data from Azure AI Search
teams-agent-rag-custom-api Teams Agent with Data from Custom API using OpenAPI Spec
teams-collaborator-agent Teams Collaborator Agent
tab Tab
bot Simple Bot
message-extension Message Extension
office-addin-outlook-taskpane Outlook Task Pane Add-in
office-addin-wxpo-taskpane Office Task Pane Add-in
office-addin-excel-cfshortcut Excel Custom Functions
office-addin-config Office Add-in Common Configuration

Declarative Agents (Copilot Extensions)

Creating a Declarative Agent

# Basic declarative agent (no backend service needed)
atk new -c declarative-agent -n myagent -i false

# Declarative agent with new API plugin (creates backend)
atk new -c declarative-agent-action -l typescript -n myagent -i false

# Declarative agent with existing OpenAPI spec (requires -a and -o with operation IDs)
# First inspect the OpenAPI spec to find operation IDs, then pass them:
atk new -c declarative-agent-action-from-existing-api -n myagent -a <openapi-spec-url-or-path> -o "GET /repairs" -o "POST /repairs" -i false

# Declarative agent with MCP Server
atk new -c declarative-agent-with-action-from-mcp -n myagent -i false

Important Notes:

  • Basic declarative agents (declarative-agent) do NOT require a programming language
  • declarative-agent-action: Use -l typescript/javascript/csharp (creates new backend API)
  • declarative-agent-action-from-existing-api: Requires -a (OpenAPI spec) and -o (operation IDs from the spec, e.g., "GET /repairs")

Declarative Agent Options

Option Values Description
--openapi-spec-location -a file path or URL Required for existing API: OpenAPI spec location
--api-operation -o operation IDs (e.g., "GET /path") Required for existing API: Actual operation IDs from OpenAPI spec. Use multiple -o for multiple operations
--api-auth none, api-key, bearer-token, oauth API authentication type

Custom Engine Agents (M365 SDK-based)

Creating a Custom Engine Agent

# Basic custom engine agent
atk new -c basic-custom-engine-agent -l typescript -n myagent -i false

# Weather agent sample
atk new -c weather-agent -l typescript -n myagent -i false
Capability Languages Description
basic-custom-engine-agent typescript, javascript, python Basic agent with M365 SDK and LLM
weather-agent typescript, javascript, csharp Weather forecast agent with LangChain

Teams Agents (Teams AI Library)

Creating a Teams Agent

# Basic Teams chatbot
atk new -c teams-agent -l typescript -n mybot -i false

# Teams Agent with RAG (custom data source)
atk new -c teams-agent-rag-customize -l typescript -n mybot -i false

# Teams Agent with Azure AI Search
atk new -c teams-agent-rag-azure-ai-search -l typescript -n mybot -i false
Capability Languages Description
teams-agent typescript, javascript, csharp, python General Teams Agent
teams-agent-rag-customize typescript, javascript, csharp, python Teams Agent with Customized Data Source
teams-agent-rag-azure-ai-search typescript, javascript, csharp, python Teams Agent with Azure AI Search
teams-agent-rag-custom-api typescript, javascript, csharp, python Teams Agent with Custom API
teams-collaborator-agent typescript, csharp Teams Collaborator Agent

Other Templates

# Simple Bot
atk new -c bot -l typescript -n mybot -i false

# Tab
atk new -c tab -l typescript -n mytab -i false

# Message Extension
atk new -c message-extension -l typescript -n myme -i false
Capability Languages Description
bot typescript, javascript, python, csharp Simple Bot
tab typescript, csharp Tab
message-extension typescript, python, csharp Message Extension
copilot-connector typescript, csharp Copilot Connector

Best Practices

Before Creating a Project

  1. Use non-interactive mode - Always use -i false for scripted creation

  2. Match language to capability:

    • Basic declarative agents (declarative-agent): NO language flag needed
    • API plugin agents (declarative-agent-action): -l typescript/javascript/csharp
    • Custom Engine agents: -l typescript/javascript/python
    • Teams agents: -l typescript/javascript/csharp/python

Template Selection Guide

Choose Declarative Agents when:

  • Extending Microsoft 365 Copilot with custom instructions
  • Integrating APIs as actions without running custom code
  • Need zero-infrastructure deployment

Choose Custom Engine Agents when:

  • Need custom LLM integration (Azure OpenAI, OpenAI, etc.)
  • Require complex multi-turn conversations
  • Building with LangChain or other AI frameworks

Choose Teams Agents when:

  • Building chat bots specifically for Microsoft Teams
  • Need RAG (Retrieval Augmented Generation) capabilities
  • Require Teams-specific features (channels, meetings, etc.)

Source: SKILL.md on GitHub

Third-party checks

1 alert3mo3 checks · Risk SAFE
  • Gen Agent Trust Hub3mo

    This skill provides a comprehensive developer guide for building Microsoft 365 agents and Teams applications. It includes several security considerations such as handling untrusted user input, using dynamic execution in examples, and reading sensitive local files for protocol requirements. These patterns are presented with appropriate security warnings and architectural mitigations. See detailed analysis for more context.

  • Socket3mo

    No alerts

  • Snyk3mo

    Risk: HIGH · 1 issue

Provenance

Signed by skilld at 0bef15b. This ties the file your Agent reads to that commit on GitHub. It does not review the instructions.

Last checked against GitHub 20 hours ago.

Activeupdated 3 months ago

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