How do I create an A2A connection in my (new) Foundry project

Question

How do I create an A2A connection in my (new) Foundry project

Andrew McGregor 30

Trying to enable A2A in Foundry to support multi-agent architectures however this document does not describe how to create the "A2A Connection" or how to determine A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID There is an environment variable A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID required which I can't work out. When you click on the link below - it takes you the page you are already on "An A2A connection configured in your Foundry project. For REST API connection setup details, see Create the remote A2A Foundry connection."
Is there any documentation on how to configure Copilot studio to connect to Foundry agents using the A2A protocol?

Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-09T10:43:09.6833333+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Attempting to answer 1st question now.

A2A Protocol facilitates back and forth communication with Azure AI foundry Agent and External (Google/Langchain/Semantic Kernel etc).

Creating and publishing External Agents in Azure

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/foundry/building-ai-agents-a2a-dotnet-sdk/#bringing-our-agent-online

A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID should be connection id of External Agent registered in concerned foundry project from "Register Agent" from Operate tab in new Foundry AI.

It seems to be asking endpoint urls , card server along the project,

Confirming with product team internally on the same.

Relevant helpful self-help documentation

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-dotnet (Card URL co-relatable here)

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/test_client.py

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-13T06:08:30.4066667+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Hope you found the points in my answer useful. Please let me know if you had followed up queries on the same.

Thank you
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T05:04:16.3733333+00:00
Hi Manas

The use case is to create agents in AI Foundry and connect to them from other systems using A2A. The steps you have above seem to be showing how to connect to other systems using A2A.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-14T05:45:41.62+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor,

Yes, I understood your use case is to connect an External Agent from Azure Native Foundry Agent and use it in copilot studio.

For that we need to register our external Agents (which supports A2A protocol) in tools first and get the connection id for SDK usage here.

Thank you
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T22:48:59.0366667+00:00

We are back where we started. I can't follow that documentation because environment variable A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID is not described. How do I determine this?
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T22:50:47.3466667+00:00

Register agent seems to be a process to add in external (custom) agents. What I want to get is publish foundry agents using A2A for use by external systems.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/control-plane/register-custom-agent?view=foundry
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-16T10:46:26.17+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Thank you for emphasizing that you want publish foundry agents using A2A for use by external systems.

Attached relevant document for reference.

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/README.md

I have also reached you via "Private messages" features to connect and address the issue on a team's call.

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-19T05:21:14.88+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Did you find the above documentation helpful on creating A2A agents in Foundry.

Please let me know if you have further questions on it.

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-20T05:49:13.79+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

I have updated all above pointers in below answer. If you found my inputs helpful, please accept it as verified one.

Thank you.
Damien CLAVEAU 5 Reputation points

2026-01-22T12:32:51.37+00:00

Hello.
I am in the exact same situation as Andrew McGregor.
Per my understanding, the example https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/README.md demonstrates how to implement an A2A server that invokes a Foundry Agent, but such Starlette server is not part of Foundry itself.
Is there a hosting solution in Foundry to run/host this A2A server, please ?
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-23T04:41:23.0233333+00:00

Hi Damien CLAVEAU

Once tested through uvicorn, you can leverage Azure webapp service to host your A2A agent service.

It asks to create a docker image to install requirements and expose it on port.

You can push that image to Azure container registry and use it for app service deployments.

Reference document

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/python/tutorial-containerize-simple-web-app-for-app-service?tabs=web-app-flask

Please create a ticket in App services side if you face any issues.

Thank you.
Damien CLAVEAU 5 Reputation points

2026-01-23T11:03:59.1766667+00:00

Thank you for the prompt answer

2 answers

Your answer

Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-09T10:43:09.6833333+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Attempting to answer 1st question now.

A2A Protocol facilitates back and forth communication with Azure AI foundry Agent and External (Google/Langchain/Semantic Kernel etc).

Creating and publishing External Agents in Azure

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/foundry/building-ai-agents-a2a-dotnet-sdk/#bringing-our-agent-online

A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID should be connection id of External Agent registered in concerned foundry project from "Register Agent" from Operate tab in new Foundry AI.

It seems to be asking endpoint urls , card server along the project,

Confirming with product team internally on the same.

Relevant helpful self-help documentation

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-dotnet (Card URL co-relatable here)

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/test_client.py

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-13T06:08:30.4066667+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Hope you found the points in my answer useful. Please let me know if you had followed up queries on the same.

Thank you
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T05:04:16.3733333+00:00

Hi Manas

The use case is to create agents in AI Foundry and connect to them from other systems using A2A. The steps you have above seem to be showing how to connect to other systems using A2A.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-14T05:45:41.62+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor,

Yes, I understood your use case is to connect an External Agent from Azure Native Foundry Agent and use it in copilot studio.

For that we need to register our external Agents (which supports A2A protocol) in tools first and get the connection id for SDK usage here.

Thank you
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T22:48:59.0366667+00:00

We are back where we started. I can't follow that documentation because environment variable A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID is not described. How do I determine this?
Andrew McGregor 30 Reputation points

2026-01-14T22:50:47.3466667+00:00

Register agent seems to be a process to add in external (custom) agents. What I want to get is publish foundry agents using A2A for use by external systems.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/ai-foundry/control-plane/register-custom-agent?view=foundry
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-16T10:46:26.17+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Thank you for emphasizing that you want publish foundry agents using A2A for use by external systems.

Attached relevant document for reference.

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/README.md

I have also reached you via "Private messages" features to connect and address the issue on a team's call.

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-19T05:21:14.88+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

Did you find the above documentation helpful on creating A2A agents in Foundry.

Please let me know if you have further questions on it.

Thank you.
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-20T05:49:13.79+00:00

Hi Andrew McGregor

I have updated all above pointers in below answer. If you found my inputs helpful, please accept it as verified one.

Thank you.
Damien CLAVEAU 5 Reputation points

2026-01-22T12:32:51.37+00:00

Hello.
I am in the exact same situation as Andrew McGregor.
Per my understanding, the example https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/README.md demonstrates how to implement an A2A server that invokes a Foundry Agent, but such Starlette server is not part of Foundry itself.
Is there a hosting solution in Foundry to run/host this A2A server, please ?
Manas R Mohanty 17,270 Reputation points Moderator

2026-01-23T04:41:23.0233333+00:00

Hi Damien CLAVEAU

Once tested through uvicorn, you can leverage Azure webapp service to host your A2A agent service.

It asks to create a docker image to install requirements and expose it on port.

You can push that image to Azure container registry and use it for app service deployments.

Reference document

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/developer/python/tutorial-containerize-simple-web-app-for-app-service?tabs=web-app-flask

Please create a ticket in App services side if you face any issues.

Thank you.
Damien CLAVEAU 5 Reputation points

2026-01-23T11:03:59.1766667+00:00

Thank you for the prompt answer

Answer 1

Hi Andrew McGregor

Got clarity on the above matters. Here is the complete answer

Getting A2A_PROJECT_CONNECTION_ID for external agents

We need to register the external agents through tools/connect a tool/custom/Agent2Agent in new foundry UI.

User's image

Once registered in tools section, we can copy the connection id and other details for using in native AI foundry Agent.

A2A Agent in AI foundry

Creating an A2A Agent in Azure AI foundry

https://github.com/a2aproject/a2a-samples/blob/main/samples/python/agents/azureaifoundry_sdk/azurefoundryagent/README.md

Note: It asks to configure AI gateway register a custom agent

Deploying A2A Agent in Copilot studio

Post which you should be able to connect that Azure Native Foundry Agent in Copilot studio.

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/add-agent-foundry-agent%22https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/add-agent-foundry-agent%22

Hope it provided the needed clarity now.

Reported the broken document link issue on this text "For REST API connection setup details, see Create the remote A2A Foundry connection." via internal channel for tracking.

Thank you for your inputs.

Answer 2

Hi Andrew McGregor

Answering 2nd question of yours.

We can create an A2A agent through SDK/UI from new Foundry UI - Add an A2A agent endpoint to Foundry Agent Service - Microsoft Foundry | Microsoft Learn and add it as AI foundry agent connection from copilot studio with help of below doc.

Connect to a Microsoft Foundry agent (preview) - Microsoft Copilot Studio | Microsoft Learn.

https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-cloud/blog/2025/05/07/empowering-multi-agent-apps-with-the-open-agent2agent-a2a-protocol/?msockid=123611f0389d6f691ef5072539ee6e4c