Build Observable MCP Agents with Microsoft Agent Framework & Foundry

Learn how to build basic Agent with MCP and OpenTelemetry on Microsoft Foundry

Today I’m going to show you how you can create an agent inside Microsoft Foundry using Microsoft Agent Framework, add MCP and use OpenTelemetry.

Prerequisites:

• Azure Resource Group

• Microsoft Foundry Resource & Project

• Create model for the inference (I used gpt-4o)

• Configure environment variables

• Application Insights Resource

NuGet Packages:

• Azure.AI.Projects.Agents (2.1.0-beta.2)

• Azure.Identity (latest stable)

• Microsoft.Agents.AI.Foundry (1.6.2-preview.260521.1)

• Azure.AI.OpenAI (2.1.0)
  

using Azure.AI.Projects;
using Azure.AI.Projects.Agents;
using Azure.Identity;
using Microsoft.Agents.AI.Foundry;
using OpenAI.Responses;

var endpoint = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_AI_PROJECT_ENDPOINT")
    ?? throw new InvalidOperationException("AZURE_AI_PROJECT_ENDPOINT is not set.");
var model = Environment.GetEnvironmentVariable("AZURE_AI_MODEL_DEPLOYMENT_NAME") ?? "gpt-4o";

const string AgentName = "MicrosoftLearnAgent";
const string AgentInstructions = "You answer questions by searching the Microsoft Learn content only through MCP. If you can't find an answer - just say so! Don't ever use your general knowledge!";

#pragma warning disable OPENAI001 // Type is for evaluation purposes only and is subject to change or removal in future updates. Suppress this diagnostic to proceed.
var mcpTool = ResponseTool.CreateMcpTool(
    serverLabel: "microsoft_learn",
    serverUri: new Uri("https://learn.microsoft.com/api/mcp"),
    toolCallApprovalPolicy: new McpToolCallApprovalPolicy(GlobalMcpToolCallApprovalPolicy.NeverRequireApproval));
#pragma warning restore OPENAI001 // Type is for evaluation purposes only and is subject to change or removal in future updates. Suppress this diagnostic to proceed.


var aiProjectClient = new AIProjectClient(new Uri(endpoint), new DefaultAzureCredential());

var connectionString = aiProjectClient.Telemetry.GetApplicationInsightsConnectionString();
Environment.SetEnvironmentVariable("APPLICATIONINSIGHTS_CONNECTION_STRING", connectionString);

var agentVersion = await aiProjectClient.AgentAdministrationClient.CreateAgentVersionAsync(
    AgentName,
    new ProjectsAgentVersionCreationOptions(
        new DeclarativeAgentDefinition(model)
        {
            Instructions = AgentInstructions,
            Tools = { mcpTool }
        }));

#pragma warning disable OPENAI001
FoundryAgent agent = aiProjectClient.AsAIAgent(agentVersion);
#pragma warning restore OPENAI001

Console.WriteLine(await agent.RunAsync("What are Local MCP Tools"));

… and here’s the telemetry inside AppInsights. As you can see it is executing the mcp tool.

That’s it! Short and sweet!