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Tutorial: Get started with the Microsoft Dev Box MCP Server

This tutorial shows you how to use the Microsoft Dev Box Model Context Protocol (MCP) Server to manage your dev boxes through AI agents. You learn to perform common dev box operations using natural language commands instead of navigating through multiple interfaces.

In this tutorial, you'll:

  • Connect to your Dev Box resources through an AI agent
  • List and explore your available projects and dev boxes
  • Perform basic dev box operations using conversational commands
  • Verify your operations completed successfully

Prerequisites

Before you begin this tutorial, ensure you have:

Requirement Details
Dev Box MCP Server installed Follow the installation steps in the Dev Box MCP Server repository
Dev Box resources - At least one Dev Box project with a configured pool
- Existing dev boxes to manage (optional but recommended)
Authentication Signed in through Azure CLI, Visual Studio Code, or Windows SSO
Required permissions Dev Box User role or higher on your Dev Box resources

Step 1: Open your AI agent and test connectivity

Start by opening your AI agent and testing the connection to your Dev Box resources.

  1. Open GitHub Copilot Chat in your IDE (VS Code or Visual Studio)

  2. Test the MCP Server connection by entering this prompt:

    List my Dev Box projects

  3. Verify the response: You should see a list of projects you have access to. If you get an error, check that you're authenticated via Azure CLI (az login) or Windows SSO.

Expected output: A list showing your project names, descriptions, and resource groups.

Step 2: Explore your Dev Box environment

Now that you confirmed connectivity, explore your Dev Box resources to understand your environment.

View your dev boxes across all projects:

Show me all my dev boxes

Get details about a specific project (replace "YourProjectName" with an actual project name):

Show me details about the YourProjectName project

List available dev box pools in a project:

What dev box pools are available in the YourProjectName project?

Expected output: Information about your dev boxes including their names, status (Running, Stopped, etc.), projects, and pool configurations.

Step 3: Perform basic dev box operations

Practice common dev box management tasks using natural language commands.

Check dev box status

Check the status of a specific dev box:

What's the status of my DevBoxName dev box?

Get detailed information about a dev box:

Show me detailed information about DevBoxName including its configuration and current state

Start or stop a dev box

Start a stopped dev box:

Start my DevBoxName dev box

Stop a running dev box:

Stop my DevBoxName dev box

Note

Starting and stopping dev boxes are long-running operations that might take several minutes to complete.

Work with schedules

Check shutdown schedules:

When is my DevBoxName dev box scheduled to shut down?

Delay a scheduled shutdown:

Delay the shutdown of my DevBoxName dev box until 6 PM today

Step 4: Verify your work

Confirm that your operations completed successfully by checking the results.

Check operation status for long-running tasks:

What's the status of the operation I just started?

Verify dev box state changes:

Show me the current status of DevBoxName

Confirm schedule changes:

Show me the updated schedule for DevBoxName

What to look for:

  • Operations should show "Succeeded" status when completed
  • Dev box power states should reflect your start/stop commands
  • Schedule modifications should be visible in the schedule information

Step 5: Try advanced scenarios (optional)

Once you're comfortable with basic operations, try these more advanced scenarios:

Create a new dev box

Create a new dev box called "FeatureWork" in the DevelopmentProject using the StandardPool

Apply customizations

What customization tasks are available for my project?

Install the development tools customization on my FeatureWork dev box

Monitor customization progress

What's the status of the customization running on my FeatureWork dev box?

Troubleshooting

If you encounter issues during this tutorial:

Authentication problems

  • Verify you're signed in: az account show
  • Check your permissions in the Azure portal
  • Try signing out and back in: az logout then az login

Tool registration errors

  1. Press Ctrl+Shift+P (VS Code) or Ctrl+Shift+P (Visual Studio)
  2. Run MCP: Reset cached tools
  3. Restart your IDE

Operation failures

  • Check that dev box names and project names are correct
  • Verify you have appropriate permissions for the operation
  • Some operations might take time - check operation status periodically

Clean up resources (optional)

If you created test resources during this tutorial:

Delete test dev boxes you no longer need:

Delete the FeatureWork dev box from DevelopmentProject

Stop running dev boxes to save costs:

Stop all my running dev boxes

Next steps

Now that you completed the tutorial, you can:

  • Explore the full range of supported operations
  • Integrate Dev Box MCP Server commands into your daily development workflow
  • Share natural language commands with your team for common operations

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