Run it locally and the server authenticates as you, through whichever credential the chain finds first — convenient, and worth pinning with AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS so you know which identity is acting. Host it and every request must carry an Entra ID bearer token, while outbound calls either exchange that token on the user's behalf or use the hosting identity, which is the choice that decides whether the audit trail names a person. RBAC sits under both: the credential opens the door, the role decides what is behind it.
The Microsoft repository that builds and releases the Azure MCP Server and the Microsoft Fabric MCP Server, together with the shared libraries, test frameworks and pipelines behind them, and an index of Microsoft's wider MCP catalogue.
- The Azure MCP Server: Microsoft's Azure tools in a single server, run locally over stdio or hosted over HTTP
- Local authentication through a credential chain — environment variables, Visual Studio, VS Code, Azure CLI, Azure PowerShell, the Azure Developer CLI, then an interactive browser — with AZURE_TOKEN_CREDENTIALS pinning a single one
- Broker mode on Windows, using the OS Web Account Manager instead of the chain, via AZURE_MCP_ONLY_USE_BROKER_CREDENTIAL
- Hosted operation with two independent layers: inbound Entra ID bearer tokens validated for issuer, audience and scope, and outbound tokens obtained either on-behalf-of the calling user or from the hosting environment's managed identity
- Sovereign cloud support by name — Azure Public, Azure China and Azure US Government — selected with --cloud, configuration files or environment variables, with custom authority hosts deliberately not accepted
- The Microsoft Fabric MCP Server, giving agents Fabric's public APIs, item definitions and best practices
- An index of Microsoft's other servers with their hosting type and install route: Microsoft Foundry and Azure Resource Manager as remote endpoints, Azure DevOps and Azure Kubernetes Service as local servers, among others
- Each server carrying its own README, changelog, documentation, troubleshooting guide and support policy in the same repository
An Azure identity, however you already sign in: az login, the VS Code Azure extension or Azure PowerShell for local development, and AZURE_CLIENT_ID, AZURE_CLIENT_SECRET and AZURE_TENANT_ID for a service principal in CI. Whichever credential wins the chain, that identity still needs the right Azure RBAC roles on the resources being touched — reading blobs needs Storage Blob Data Reader, and no MCP setting substitutes for it. Hosting it means HTTP transport with Entra ID on the way in and an --outgoing-auth-strategy chosen for the way out. Install routes are published for VS Code, Visual Studio, IntelliJ and Eclipse.
One command — npm install -g @azure/mcp@latest