Publish agent to Microsoft admin center

Important

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Use the a365 publish command to publish your agent to the Microsoft 365 admin center. When you publish your agent, you can create agent instances within your organization. You can also easily govern the agent.

Prerequisites

Before you begin, make sure you have the following items.

Required accounts and permissions

• Microsoft Entra tenant with one of the following roles:

  • Global Administrator
  • Agent ID Administrator
  • Agent ID Developer

• Azure subscription with contributor or owner access

Required tools

• Azure CLI installed and authenticated (Install Azure CLI)
• A365 CLI installed (Agent 365 CLI)

Required setup steps

Before publishing, complete these steps in order:

1. Create agent blueprint - Follow the setup step to create your agent blueprint.
2. Test agent locally - Verify your agent works correctly by using Agents Playground (see Test agents locally)
3. Prepare configuration files - Ensure a365.config.json and a365.generated.config.json are up to date

Publish command

Run the a365 publish command:

a365 publish

Note

Running a365 publish -h shows all the options and sub-commands that this command supports.

What this command does:

1. Update manifest - Updates manifest.json and agenticUserTemplateManifest.json with your agent blueprint ID
2. Customization prompt - Opens your default editor to customize version, names, descriptions, and icons
3. Create package - Packages manifest.json, icons, and agentic user template into manifest.zip
4. Configure permissions - Adds required API permissions to custom client app
5. Upload to Titles service - Publishes package to Microsoft 365 admin center
6. Configure title access - Sets up access for all users in your tenant
7. Configure blueprint authentication - Sets up workload identity and runtime authentication
8. Grant Graph permissions - Applies Microsoft Graph permissions to agent blueprint

Customize manifest

The CLI pauses during publishing to allow you to customize your agent manifest:

=== MANIFEST UPDATED ===
Location: [path]\manifest\manifest.json

=== CUSTOMIZE YOUR AGENT MANIFEST ===
Please customize these fields before publishing:
  Version ('version')
    - Increment for republishing (e.g., 1.0.0 to 1.0.1)
    - REQUIRED: Must be higher than previously published version
  Agent Name ('name.short' and 'name.full')
    - Make it descriptive and user-friendly
    - Currently: [your-agent-name] Blueprint
    - IMPORTANT: 'name.short' must be 30 characters or less
  Descriptions ('description.short' and 'description.full')
    - Short: 1-2 sentences
    - Full: Detailed capabilities
  Developer Info ('developer.name', 'developer.websiteUrl', 'developer.privacyUrl')
    - Should reflect your organization details
  Icons
    - Replace 'color.png' and 'outline.png' with your custom branding

Open manifest in your default editor now? (Y/n):

Verify successful publishing

Use the following checklist to verify your agent published successfully:

✅ CLI publish succeeds ✅ manifest folder created with manifest.json and manifest.zip
✅ Agent appears in Microsoft admin center registry
✅ Federated identity credentials exist

CLI output

You should see these output messages when publishing succeeds:

✅ Upload succeeded with operationId and titleId
✅ Title access configured for all users
✅ Microsoft Graph permissions granted successfully
✅ Agent blueprint configuration completed successfully
✅ Publish completed successfully!

If publishing fails, review the error messages and ensure that blueprint setup was completed.

Possible errors:

Error	Step to resolve
Agent already exists	Increment version number in manifest.json and republish.
Permissions missing	Re-run setup with the a365 setup permissions command.

Follow these steps when publishing fails.

Manifest files

The following files are created in the manifest folder and you can test them using the Test-Path PowerShell command.

# Check manifest folder and contents exists
Test-Path <deploymentProjectPath>/manifest/
Test-Path <deploymentProjectPath>/manifest/manifest.json
Test-Path <deploymentProjectPath>/manifest/manifest.zip
# All should return: True

Note

If you don't see these files, try running the a365 publish command again.

Agent appears in admin center

Note

After publishing, it can take 5-10 minutes for your agent to appear in admin center and Teams. This delay is normal.

You can confirm that the agent is present using these steps:

1. Go to: https://admin.cloud.microsoft/#/agents/all
2. Your agent appears in the Registry tab
3. Availability shows as All Users (Green check mark indicates success)

The following table shows what details you can find:

Field	What to Check
Name	Your agent name (from manifest.json)
Version	Version number (e.g., 1.0.0)
Publisher	Your organization name
Availability	Available/All Users

Federated identity created

You can view the federated identity (FIC) record is created in Microsoft Entra.

1. Go to App registrations > Your agent blueprint app
2. Navigate to Certificates & secrets > Federated credentials
3. You see 2 FICs

If you don't see these records, check blueprint app permissions in the Azure portal.

See also

• Setup agent blueprint
• Agent doesn't appear in Teams

Next steps

After you publish your agent, create an instance so you can configure and use it in your tenant.

Create an agent instance

Troubleshooting

Common problems when publishing agents to Microsoft admin center.

Tip

Agent 365 Troubleshooting Guide contains high-level troubleshooting recommendations, best practices, and links to troubleshooting content for each part of the Agent 365 development lifecycle.

Publish command fails

Symptoms:

• Error during a365 publish
• Agent doesn't appear in admin center

Root causes:

• Setup isn't complete
• Manifest validation errors
• Insufficient permissions

Solution:

1. Verify that the setup is complete.

   a365 config display -g
   # Check for: agentBlueprintId
   

2. Run the publish command and follow the prompts.

3. When prompted, customize the manifest:

   • Update the version number (must be unique if re-publishing)
   • Set the agent name (30 characters or fewer)
   • Update the descriptions
   • Verify the developer info

4. Type continue or c to continue after customization.