teams-api

AI-native Microsoft Teams integration — read conversations, send messages, and manage members via the Teams Chat Service REST API.

Designed for autonomous AI agents that need to interact with Teams: read messages, reply to people, monitor conversations, and participate in team workflows.

[!NOTE] This project was AI-generated using Claude Opus 4.6 with human guidance and review.

Getting Started

teams-api can be used in three ways:

1. MCP server for editors and AI tools — the recommended path for most users.
2. CLI for direct terminal use.
3. Programmatic Node.js library — advanced, documented near the end.

Prerequisites

• Node.js (v18 or later) — required for npx, which all MCP and CLI commands use.

Install in your editor

The quickest way to get started is to click one of the install badges above, or follow the instructions for your editor below.

Editor-specific instructions

Option 1 — One-click install:

Option 2 — CLI:

macOS / Linux:

# VS Code
code --add-mcp '{"name":"teams","command":"npx","args":["-y","-p","teams-api@latest","teams-api-mcp"],"env":{"TEAMS_LOGIN":"true"}}'

# VS Code Insiders
code-insiders --add-mcp '{"name":"teams","command":"npx","args":["-y","-p","teams-api@latest","teams-api-mcp"],"env":{"TEAMS_LOGIN":"true"}}'

Windows (PowerShell):

# VS Code
code --add-mcp '{"name":"teams","command":"npx","args":["-y","-p","teams-api@latest","teams-api-mcp"],"env":{"TEAMS_LOGIN":"true"}}'

# VS Code Insiders
code-insiders --add-mcp '{"name":"teams","command":"npx","args":["-y","-p","teams-api@latest","teams-api-mcp"],"env":{"TEAMS_LOGIN":"true"}}'

Windows (CMD):

rem VS Code
code --add-mcp "{\"name\":\"teams\",\"command\":\"npx\",\"args\":[\"-y\",\"-p\",\"teams-api@latest\",\"teams-api-mcp\"],\"env\":{\"TEAMS_LOGIN\":\"true\"}}"

rem VS Code Insiders
code-insiders --add-mcp "{\"name\":\"teams\",\"command\":\"npx\",\"args\":[\"-y\",\"-p\",\"teams-api@latest\",\"teams-api-mcp\"],\"env\":{\"TEAMS_LOGIN\":\"true\"}}"

Option 3 — Manual config:

Add to your VS Code MCP config (.vscode/mcp.json or User Settings):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teams": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "teams-api@latest", "teams-api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TEAMS_LOGIN": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Or add to ~/.cursor/mcp.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teams": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "teams-api@latest", "teams-api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TEAMS_LOGIN": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

Add to claude_desktop_config.json (how to find it):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teams": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "teams-api@latest", "teams-api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TEAMS_LOGIN": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

claude mcp add teams -- npx -y -p teams-api@latest teams-api-mcp

Then set the environment variable TEAMS_LOGIN=true in your shell before starting Claude Code. The server will ask for your email interactively on first use.

Add to ~/.codeium/windsurf/mcp_config.json:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teams": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "teams-api@latest", "teams-api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TEAMS_LOGIN": "true"
      }
    }
  }
}

[!TIP] On macOS with a FIDO2 passkey, replace TEAMS_LOGIN with TEAMS_AUTO for fully unattended auth. See Authentication for details.

CLI

You can also use the CLI directly without installing anything:

npx -y -p teams-api@latest teams-api auth --login
npx -y -p teams-api@latest teams-api list-conversations --login --limit 20

If you use the CLI often, a global install is optional:

npm install -g teams-api
teams-api auth --login

Agent skill

Compatible coding agents can install the optional teams-api skill to learn when and how to use the CLI or SDK:

npx -y skills add Maxim-Mazurok/teams-api --skill teams-api

The installer detects supported agents and asks whether to install the skill for the current project or globally. Once installed, the agent loads it automatically for relevant Teams tasks.

Advanced Topics

Manual token usage, debug-session auth, and programmatic Node.js usage are covered later in this README.

Platform support

Feature	macOS	Windows / Linux
Interactive login	Full support	Full support
Auto-login (FIDO2)	Full support	Not supported
Debug session	Full support	Full support
Direct token	Full support	Full support
Token caching	macOS Keychain	Windows DPAPI / Linux secret-tool
CLI & MCP server	Full support	Full support
Programmatic API	Full support	Full support

[!NOTE] Windows Defender false positive: Older versions of this package used inline PowerShell to call the Windows DPAPI — a pattern that Windows Defender flags as ransomware-like behavior. This has been replaced with native Windows Credential Manager storage via keytar. If you hit issues on an older version, upgrade and re-run teams-api auth --login. See SECURITY.md for details.

Authentication

Most users do not need to manage tokens manually.

If you use interactive login, auto-login, or a Chrome debug session, teams-api captures the full token bundle automatically from Teams web traffic. That includes the base skypeToken plus the extra bearer tokens used for profile resolution and reliable people/chat/channel search.

Those flows also detect the Teams chat region automatically from the intercepted request URLs, so most users do not need to set --region or TEAMS_REGION.

On macOS, prefer auto-login when you have a platform authenticator / FIDO2 passkey set up. On other platforms, use interactive login.

Direct token usage is the advanced/manual path.

Method	Description	Automation	Platform
Auto-login	Playwright launches system Chrome and captures the full token bundle	Fully unattended	macOS
Interactive login	Opens a browser window and captures skype, middle-tier, and Substrate tokens	One-time manual	All
Debug session	Connects to a running Chrome instance and captures the full token bundle	Semi-manual	All
Direct token	Provide a previously captured token or token bundle explicitly	Manual	All

Auto-login (macOS only)

Requires macOS with a platform authenticator (e.g. Intune Company Portal) and a FIDO2 passkey enrolled. Fully unattended — no browser window appears.

Interactive login (recommended for Windows / Linux)

The easiest cross-platform option. A browser window opens, you log in with any method your organization supports (password, MFA, passkey, etc.), and the token is captured automatically:

teams-api auth --login

Optionally pre-fill your email:

teams-api auth --login --email you@example.com

[!NOTE] Interactive login prefers an installed browser (Edge or Chrome) when available, and falls back to Playwright's bundled Chromium.

Advanced / manual methods

Debug session — start Chrome with --remote-debugging-port=9222, navigate to Teams and log in, then run:

teams-api auth --debug-port 9222

Direct token — advanced/manual only. Extract x-skypetoken from browser DevTools (Network tab) and pass it directly:

teams-api list-conversations --token "<paste-token-here>" --region emea

If you want reliable people/chat/channel lookup and profile resolution on the direct-token path, also pass the extra bearer tokens captured from Teams requests:

teams-api find-people \
  --token "<paste-skype-token-here>" \
  --bearer-token "<paste-api-spaces-skype-bearer-token-here>" \
  --substrate-token "<paste-substrate-bearer-token-here>" \
  --region emea \
  --query "Jane Doe"

[!TIP] Skip this section if you are using --login, --auto, TEAMS_LOGIN, or TEAMS_AUTO. Those modes capture the full token bundle automatically.

[!TIP] Direct-token mode still needs an explicit region. See API regions below.

CLI

Preferred without install:

npx -y -p teams-api@latest teams-api <command> [options]

Optional global install for frequent use:

npm install -g teams-api
teams-api <command> [options]

The examples below use teams-api for readability. If you are not installing globally, replace it with npx -y -p teams-api@latest teams-api.

Auth flags (available on all commands)

Flag	Description
--login	Interactive browser login (all platforms)
--auto	Auto-acquire token via FIDO2 passkey (macOS)
--email <email>	Corporate email (required with --auto, optional otherwise)
--token <token>	Use an existing skype token (advanced/manual)
--bearer-token <token>	Optional middle-tier bearer token (advanced/manual)
--substrate-token <token>	Optional Substrate bearer token (advanced/manual)
--debug-port <port>	Chrome debug port (default: 9222)
--region <region>	API region override. Auto-detected for login/debug auth; required with --token
--format <format>	Output format: concise, detailed
--output <file>	Export output to file (default format: concise)

Examples

# Acquire a token (interactive — all platforms)
teams-api auth --login

# Acquire a token (auto — macOS with FIDO2)
teams-api auth --auto --email you@example.com

# List conversations
teams-api list-conversations --login --limit 20 --format detailed

# Find a conversation by topic
teams-api find-conversation --auto --email you@example.com --query "Design Review"

# Find a 1:1 chat by person name
teams-api find-one-on-one --auto --email you@example.com --person-name "Jane Doe"

# Find people, including office location when profile enrichment is available
teams-api find-people --auto --email you@example.com --query "Jane Doe"

# Get profiles for MRIs returned by people search or member listing
teams-api get-profiles --auto --email you@example.com \
  --user-identifiers "8:orgid:00000000-0000-0000-0000-000000000000"

# Read messages (by topic name, person name, or direct ID)
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --chat "Design Review"
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --to "Jane Doe" --max-pages 5
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --conversation-id "19:abc@thread.v2" --format detailed

# Newest-first order (API returns newest-first; default is oldest-first/chronological)
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --chat "General" --order newest-first

# Send a message
teams-api send-message --auto --email you@example.com --to "Jane Doe" --content "Hello!"
teams-api send-message --auto --email you@example.com --chat "Design Review" --content "Status update"

# List members
teams-api get-members --auto --email you@example.com --chat "Design Review"

# Get current user info
teams-api whoami --auto --email you@example.com

# Export messages to a file (default format: concise)
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --chat "General" --output exports/general.md

# Export as JSON to a file
teams-api get-messages --auto --email you@example.com --chat "General" --format detailed --output exports/general.json

MCP server

The MCP server exposes Teams operations as tools for AI agents via stdio transport. See Getting Started for editor-specific setup.

Advanced: direct token configuration

Use this only if you already have tokens from another flow or need to avoid browser-based auth entirely:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "teams": {
      "command": "npx",
      "args": ["-y", "-p", "teams-api@latest", "teams-api-mcp"],
      "env": {
        "TEAMS_TOKEN": "<paste-skype-token-here>",
        "TEAMS_BEARER_TOKEN": "<optional-api-spaces-skype-bearer-token>",
        "TEAMS_SUBSTRATE_TOKEN": "<optional-substrate-bearer-token>",
        "TEAMS_REGION": "emea"
      }
    }
  }
}

[!TIP] If you do use direct tokens, teams-api auth --login prints the full token object as JSON. For basic chat operations, skypeToken is enough. For reliable people/chat/channel search and profile resolution, also pass bearerToken and substrateToken.

Environment variables

Variable	Description
TEAMS_TOKEN	Pre-existing skype token
TEAMS_BEARER_TOKEN	Optional middle-tier bearer token
TEAMS_SUBSTRATE_TOKEN	Optional Substrate bearer token
TEAMS_REGION	API region override. Required with TEAMS_TOKEN; optional otherwise
TEAMS_EMAIL	Corporate email. Optional — the server prompts the AI agent if needed
TEAMS_AUTO	Set to true to enable auto-login (macOS + FIDO2)
TEAMS_LOGIN	Set to true to enable interactive browser login
TEAMS_DEBUG_PORT	Chrome debug port (default: 9222)
TEAMS_EDIT_REPLY_GUARD	Edit reply guard: allow (default), warn, or block. See below
TEAMS_AGENT_MARKER	Agent marker prefix for sent/edited messages (e.g. Ⓜ). See below
TEAMS_DELETE_MODE	Delete mode: hard (default), soft, or block. See below
TEAMS_DELETE_TOMBSTONE	Custom tombstone text for soft-delete mode. See below
TEAMS_AUDIT_LOG	Audit logging: off (default), stderr, or file:<path>. See below
TEAMS_PROTECTED_CONVERSATIONS	Comma-separated glob patterns of conversations where edit/delete is blocked. See below

Agent marker

When an AI agent sends or edits messages on behalf of a user, it can be hard to tell which messages were composed by the agent and which by the human. The TEAMS_AGENT_MARKER environment variable (or --agent-marker CLI flag / agentMarker MCP parameter) automatically prepends a configurable string to message content:

{
  "env": {
    "TEAMS_AGENT_MARKER": "Ⓜ", // or "🤖", "[Bot]", etc.
  },
}

When set, every send-message and edit-message call prepends the marker followed by a space to the content. For example, with TEAMS_AGENT_MARKER=Ⓜ, sending "Hello world" produces "Ⓜ Hello world".

The per-call parameter takes precedence over the environment variable. Pass an empty string to disable the marker for a specific call.

Edit reply guard

When editing a message that already has replies, the original context can be lost — replies may no longer make sense. The TEAMS_EDIT_REPLY_GUARD environment variable (or --reply-guard CLI flag / replyGuard MCP parameter) controls this:

Value	Behavior
allow	Edit proceeds normally (default, backward-compatible)
warn	Edit proceeds but an annotation is appended: "⚠️ This message was edited after…"
block	Edit is refused with an error listing the reply count

The per-call parameter takes precedence over the environment variable.

Delete mode (soft-delete)

Hard-deleting messages removes content permanently, which can be problematic for auditability and conversation flow in group chats. The TEAMS_DELETE_MODE environment variable (or --delete-mode CLI flag / deleteMode MCP parameter) controls how message deletion is handled:

Value	Behavior
hard	Permanently delete the message (default, current behavior)
soft	Replace message content with a tombstone marker instead of deleting
block	Refuse deletion entirely with an error

When using soft mode, the message content is replaced with ~~This message was removed by an agent~~ by default. Customize the tombstone text with TEAMS_DELETE_TOMBSTONE (or --delete-tombstone / deleteTombstone):

{
  "env": {
    "TEAMS_DELETE_MODE": "soft",
    "TEAMS_DELETE_TOMBSTONE": "🗑️ [removed by automation]",
  },
}

The per-call parameters take precedence over environment variables.

Audit logging

State-modifying actions (edit and delete) can emit structured audit events for compliance and traceability. The TEAMS_AUDIT_LOG environment variable controls where events are written:

Value	Behavior
off	No audit logging (default)
stderr	Write JSON Lines to stderr
file:<path>	Append JSON Lines to the specified file (created on demand)

{
  "env": {
    "TEAMS_AUDIT_LOG": "file:/var/log/teams-audit.jsonl",
  },
}

Each event is a single JSON line with the following fields:

Field	Description
timestamp	ISO 8601 timestamp
action	"edit", "delete", or "soft-delete"
conversationId	Conversation thread ID
conversationLabel	Human-readable conversation label (topic or 1:1 partner name)
messageId	Target message ID
content	New content for edits, tombstone text for soft-delete, null for hard delete

Audit logging is designed to be silent — errors in the audit pipeline never affect tool execution.

Protected conversations

Some conversations contain sensitive or compliance-relevant information where accidental edits or deletions could be harmful. The TEAMS_PROTECTED_CONVERSATIONS environment variable (or --protected-conversations CLI flag / protectedConversations MCP parameter) blocks edit and delete actions in matching conversations:

{
  "env": {
    "TEAMS_PROTECTED_CONVERSATIONS": "Incident *,*compliance*,Architecture Decisions",
  },
}