Skip to main content
Pre-release

This release is a pre-release and may not be stable for production use.

Microsoft Agents MSAL Authentication

PyPI version

Provides secure authentication for your agents using Microsoft Authentication Library (MSAL). It handles getting tokens from Azure AD so your agent can securely communicate with Microsoft services like Teams, Graph API, and other Azure resources.

What is this?

This library is part of the Microsoft 365 Agents SDK for Python - a comprehensive framework for building enterprise-grade conversational AI agents. The SDK enables developers to create intelligent agents that work across multiple platforms including Microsoft Teams, M365 Copilot, Copilot Studio, and web chat, with support for third-party integrations like Slack, Facebook Messenger, and Twilio.

Release Notes

Version Date Release Notes
1.5.0 2026-08-26 1.5.0 Release Notes
1.4.0 2026-08-18 1.4.0 Release Notes
1.3.0 2026-07-30 1.3.0 Release Notes
1.2.0 2026-07-17 1.2.0 Release Notes
1.1.0 2026-06-19 1.1.0 Release Notes
1.0.0 2026-05-22 1.0.0 Release Notes
0.9.1 2026-05-04 0.9.1 Release Notes
0.9.0 2026-04-15 0.9.0 Release Notes
0.8.0 2026-02-23 0.8.0 Release Notes
0.7.0 2026-01-21 0.7.0 Release Notes
0.6.1 2025-12-01 0.6.1 Release Notes
0.6.0 2025-11-18 0.6.0 Release Notes
0.5.0 2025-10-22 0.5.0 Release Notes

Packages Overview

We offer the following PyPI packages to create conversational experiences based on Agents:

Package Name PyPI Version Description
microsoft-agents-activity PyPI Types and validators implementing the Activity protocol spec.
microsoft-agents-hosting-core PyPI Core library for Microsoft Agents hosting.
microsoft-agents-hosting-aiohttp PyPI Configures aiohttp to run the Agent.
microsoft-agents-hosting-fastapi PyPI Configures fastapi to run the Agent.
microsoft-agents-hosting-msteams PyPI Provides classes to host an Agent for Teams.
microsoft-agents-hosting-dialogs PyPI Dialog system with waterfall dialogs, prompts, and multi-turn conversation management.
microsoft-agents-hosting-slack PyPI Provides classes to host an Agent for Slack.
microsoft-agents-storage-blob PyPI Extension to use Azure Blob as storage.
microsoft-agents-storage-cosmos PyPI Extension to use CosmosDB as storage.
microsoft-agents-authentication-msal PyPI MSAL-based authentication for Microsoft Agents.
microsoft-agents-authentication-entra-auth-sidecar PyPI Credential-free Entra ID Agent ID authentication via the sidecar.

Additionally we provide a Copilot Studio Client, to interact with Agents created in CopilotStudio:

Package Name PyPI Version Description
microsoft-agents-copilotstudio-client PyPI Direct to Engine client to interact with Agents created in CopilotStudio

Installation

pip install microsoft-agents-authentication-msal

Quick Start

Basic Setup with Client Secret

Define your client secrets in the ENV file

CONNECTIONS__SERVICE_CONNECTION__SETTINGS__CLIENTID=client-id
CONNECTIONS__SERVICE_CONNECTION__SETTINGS__CLIENTSECRET=client-secret
CONNECTIONS__SERVICE_CONNECTION__SETTINGS__TENANTID=tenant-id

Load the Configuration (Code from main.py Quickstart Sample)

from .start_server import start_server

start_server(
    agent_application=AGENT_APP,
    auth_configuration=CONNECTION_MANAGER.get_default_connection_configuration(),
)

Then start the Agent (code snipped from (start_server.py Quickstart Sample](https://github.com/microsoft/Agents/blob/main/samples/python/quickstart/src/start_server.py)):

def start_server(
    agent_application: AgentApplication, auth_configuration: AgentAuthConfiguration
):
    async def entry_point(req: Request) -> Response:
        agent: AgentApplication = req.app["agent_app"]
        adapter: CloudAdapter = req.app["adapter"]
        return await start_agent_process(
            req,
            agent,
            adapter,
        )
[...]

Authentication Types

The M365 Agents SDK in Python supports the following Auth types:

class AuthTypes(str, Enum):
    certificate = "certificate"
    certificate_subject_name = "CertificateSubjectName"
    client_secret = "ClientSecret"
    user_managed_identity = "UserManagedIdentity"
    system_managed_identity = "SystemManagedIdentity"

Key Classes

  • MsalAuth - Core authentication provider using MSAL
  • MsalConnectionManager - Manages multiple authentication connections
  • MsalTokenCredential - Asynchronous Azure Core token credential backed by MSAL

Features

✅ Multiple auth types - Client secret, certificate, managed identity
✅ Token caching - Automatic token refresh and caching
✅ Multi-tenant - Support for different Azure AD tenants
✅ Agent-to-agent - Secure communication between agents
✅ On-behalf-of - Act on behalf of users

Security Best Practices

  • Store secrets in Azure Key Vault or environment variables
  • Use managed identities when possible (no secrets to manage)
  • Regularly rotate client secrets and certificates
  • Use least-privilege principle for scopes and permissions

Quick Links

Sample Applications

Explore working examples in the Python samples repository:

Name Description README
Quickstart Simplest agent Quickstart
Auto Sign In Simple OAuth agent using Graph and GitHub auto-signin
OBO Authorization OBO flow to access a Copilot Studio Agent obo-authorization
Semantic Kernel Integration A weather agent built with Semantic Kernel semantic-kernel-multiturn
Streaming Agent Streams OpenAI responses azure-ai-streaming
Copilot Studio Client Console app to consume a Copilot Studio Agent copilotstudio-client
Cards Agent Agent that uses rich cards to enhance conversation design cards

Release files for microsoft-agents-authentication-msal 1.6.1.dev1

For a detailed explanation of source distributions (sdists) and built distributions (wheels), please see the package formats documentation.

Source distribution (sdist)

Source distribution for microsoft-agents-authentication-msal 1.6.1.dev1
File Size Uploaded
microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1.tar.gz 14.8 kB Details

Built distribution (wheel)

Table of built distributions (wheels) for microsoft-agents-authentication-msal 1.6.1.dev1
File Interpreter ABI Platform
microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1-py3-none-any.whl Python 3 none any Details

Total release size: 29.0 kB

Release files / microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1.tar.gz

Download URL microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1.tar.gz
Size 14.8 kB
Tags Source
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
d1e6226051d67c7d61fc6244951073007a305121bb720c7c071a90014386718d
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
753b2df985a5a613ec9df8d15beaf0db1f9e596329a3db1cdc131ff12fd0369a
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via RestSharp/106.13.0.0

Release files / microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1-py3-none-any.whl

Download URL microsoft_agents_authentication_msal-1.6.1.dev1-py3-none-any.whl
Size 14.2 kB
Tags Python 3
SHA-256 checksum
How to use checksums
a6b4b907551ecb5f2ee7f4ef042e09e7aa6c6c1a5d324a9ba7df6684de5a68f3
BLAKE2b-256 checksum
How to use checksums
fd40ee062b234ffd7870d8d08a9c6573a29eb031eebdcc3fb1f46d8ce45e2944
Upload date
Uploaded using Trusted Publishing?
What is trusted publishing?
No
Uploaded via RestSharp/106.13.0.0

Release history Release notifications | RSS feed

1.7.0

2 release files

This release

1.6.1.dev1 This release

2 release files

1.6.0

2 release files

1.5.0

2 release files

1.4.0

2 release files

1.3.0

2 release files

1.2.0

2 release files

1.1.0

2 release files

1.0.0

2 release files

0.9.1

2 release files

0.9.0

2 release files

0.8.0

2 release files

0.7.0

2 release files

0.6.1

2 release files

0.6.0

2 release files

0.5.3

2 release files

0.5.2

2 release files

0.5.1

2 release files

0.5.0

2 release files

0.4.0

2 release files

0.3.2

2 release files

0.3.1

2 release files

0.3.0

2 release files

0.2.0

2 release files

0.1.2

2 release files

0.1.1

2 release files

0.0.0

2 release files

Anthropic, PBC Visionary sponsor Bloomberg Visionary sponsor Hudson River Trading Visionary sponsor Meta Visionary sponsor NVIDIA Visionary sponsor Microsoft Sustainability sponsor Depot Continuous Integration AWS Cloud computing and Security Sponsor Datadog Monitoring Fastly CDN Google Download Analytics Sentry Error logging StatusPage Status page