Jokes MCP Server

Microsoft Copilot Studio ❤️ MCP

Welcome to the Microsoft Copilot Studio ❤️ MCP lab. In this lab, you will learn how to deploy an MCP Server, and how to add it to Microsoft Copilot Studio.

What is MCP?

Model Context Protocol (MCP) is an open protocol that standardizes how applications provide context to LLMs, defined by Anthropic. MCP provides a standardized way to connect AI models to different data sources and tools. MCP allows makers to seamlessly integrate existing knowledge servers and APIs directly into Copilot Studio.

Currently, Copilot Studio only supports Tools. To learn more about current capabilities, see aka.ms/mcsmcp. There are some known issues & planned improvements. These are listed here.

MCP vs Connectors

When do you use MCP? And when do you use connectors? Will MCP replace connectors?

MCP servers are made available to Copilot Studio using connector infrastructure, so these questions are not really applicable. The fact that MCP servers use the connector infrastructure means they can employ enterprise security and governance controls such as Virtual Network integration, Data Loss Prevention controls, multiple authentication methods—all of which are available in this release—while supporting real-time data access for AI-powered agents.

So, MCP and connectors are really better together.

Prerequisites

• Azure Subscription (with payment method added)
• Have a GitHub account and be logged in
• Copilot Studio trial or developer account
• Power Platform environment provisioned

Lab

To be able to deploy this MCP Server and use it in Microsoft Copilot Studio, you need to go through the following actions:

• Create a new GitHub repository based on the template
• Deploy the Azure Web App
• Create the Power Platform Connector
• Add the MCP Server as an action in Microsoft Copilot Studio

Create a new GitHub repository based on the template

1. Select Use this template

2. Select `Create a new repository

   

3. Select the right Owner

4. Give it a Repository name

5. Optionally you can give it a Description

6. Select Private

7. Select Create repository

   This will take a little while. After it's done, you will be directed to the newly created repository.

[!WARNING]
After completing the steps in this lab, you will have an MCP Server running on Azure that is publicly available. Ideally, you don't want that. Make sure to delete the Azure Web App after finishing the lab.

Deploy the Azure Web App

1. Go to portal.azure.com

   

2. Hover over the Resource groups tab and select Create

   

3. Click the Subscription dropdown and select your subscription from the list

   

4. Click in the Resource group name text box and type a resource group name such as "jokesgrp"

   

5. Select the Region dropdown choose the region closest to you

   

6. Click Review + create

   

7. Click Create

   

8. Select Go to resource group

   

9. Select Create

   

10. Click into the search box

    

11. Type web app

12. Select the Create button in the Web App search result

    

13. Select Web App

    

14. Select the Name text input and put in a name for the web app, such as "wegotjokes"

    

15. Select the Runtime stack dropdown and choose Node 22 LTS

    

16. Select the Region dropdown and choose the region closest to you

    

17. Click Review + create

    

18. Click Create

    

19. Click Refresh to update your deployment progress

    

20. Once deployment is complete, select Go to resource