Create Activity

Note

This tool is available by default on the following MCP servers: Dynamics 365 Customer Service. The tools and examples in this documentation illustrate current capabilities. Tool names, descriptions, parameters, response formats, and available functionality can change over time.
When you build agents, integrations, or orchestration logic, don't hard-code dependencies on specific tool names, parameter structures, tool metadata, or response schemas. Instead, design your solution to discover and use available tools at runtime.
As the platform evolves, Microsoft might add, remove, rename, or modify tools and tool metadata. Designing against capabilities rather than specific tool identifiers helps maintain compatibility across service updates.

Use this capability when you want to log a phone call, create a task, or schedule an appointment on a case or other record.

What it does

The assistant creates a timeline activity on the record you specify. Supported activity types include:

• Tasks - to-do items with a subject, due date, and priority
• Phone calls - logged calls with direction (incoming/outgoing), duration, and notes
• Appointments - scheduled meetings with a start time, end time, and location
• Emails - quick emails (for full compose-and-review, use "draft an email" instead)

The activity appears on the record's timeline alongside notes, emails, and other activities.

Try prompts like

• "Create a follow-up task on this case"
• "Log a phone call with the customer"
• "Schedule an appointment for next Tuesday"
• "Add a task to call the customer back by Friday"
• "Log an incoming call - 15 minutes, discussed billing issue"
• "Create a task to review the escalation"
• "Schedule a meeting with the customer at 2 PM tomorrow"
• "Log an outgoing call about the refund request"

What you see in chat

The assistant displays the activity timeline as an app-in-chat component, refreshed to show the newly created activity in context.

Helpful tips

• For tasks, just say the subject and due date - for example, "create a task to follow up by Friday."
• For phone calls, specify the direction (incoming or outgoing). The assistant asks for the call duration if you don't mention it.
• For appointments, include the date and time. You can also add a location.
• If you want to add a plain text note (not an activity), say "add a note" instead.
• Activities are always linked to the current record. The assistant uses the active case context.

Tip

You can create multiple activities in sequence. After creating a task, say "also log a phone call" to add another activity.

What happens next

After the activity is created, you can continue with prompts like:

• "Show the timeline"
• "Create another task"
• "Draft an email to the customer"
• "What tasks are open on this case?"
• "Update the case status"

Does this change data?

Yes. This creates an activity.**

A new activity record (task, phone call, appointment, or email) is created in Dynamics 365 and linked to the record. The assistant asks for confirmation before creating the activity.

What you can do from the app-in-chat component

From the activity timeline in chat, you can:

• See the newly created activity alongside other recent case activities
• Browse the activity history in chronological order
• Expand an activity to view its details
• Open the activity in Dynamics 365 for further editing

Prerequisites

This tool is available on the Dynamics 365 Customer Service MCP server. See the availability note at the top of this page for details. No additional configuration is required.

Tool summary

Property	Value
User-facing name	Create Activity
Internal tool name	create_activity
Purpose	Creates a timeline activity (email, task, appointment, or phone call) associated with a Dynamics 365 record

Tool behavior

Creates a timeline activity (email, task, appointment, or phone call) associated with a Dynamics 365 record. Supports all standard Dataverse activity types plus tenant-provisioned custom activity types. Always associates the activity with the currently active record via entityId/entityType.

Annotations

Annotation	Value	Meaning
readOnlyHint	false	This tool creates data - Microsoft 365 Copilot prompts for confirmation.
destructiveHint	false	Creating an activity is additive, not destructive.
idempotentHint	false	Each call creates a new activity - not safe to retry.
openWorldHint	Not set	Uses default (queries Dataverse).

Input concepts

Record context

Input	Description	Required
entityId, regardingId, entityType, regardingType, incident	entityId or regardingId (record GUID, required - always pass from the active case), entityType or regardingType (entity logical name such as incident). Both naming pairs are accepted.	Yes

Activity type

Input	Description	Required
activityType	activityType (required - e.g. phonecall, task, appointment, email, or any tenant-provisioned Dataverse activity logical name).	Yes

Common fields

Input	Description	Required
subject, description	subject (activity subject line), description (body/description).	No

Task-specific

Input	Description	Required
dueDate, priority, low, normal, high	dueDate (ISO 8601), priority (low, normal, high).	No

Phone call-specific

Input	Description	Required
phoneNumber, direction, incoming, outgoing, duration	phoneNumber, direction (incoming or outgoing), duration (minutes - always confirm with user if not specified).	No

Appointment-specific

Input	Description	Required
scheduledStart, scheduledEnd, location	scheduledStart and scheduledEnd (ISO 8601), location.	No

Email-specific

Input	Description	Required
to, cc, bcc, send	to, cc, bcc (arrays of entity references or email strings), send (true to send immediately, false for draft).	No

Draft update

Input	Description	Required
activityId, fieldValues	activityId (existing activity GUID for updates), fieldValues (additional field values from quick-create form).	No

Response and UI behavior

This tool renders the activity timeline to confirm the activity was created.

This MCP tool is supported by an MCP app.

Response type

Interactive component (app-in-chat)

The timeline widget refreshes to show the newly created activity in the feed.

Routing notes

Use create_activity for:

• "Create a task", "log a call", "schedule an appointment"
• Any timeline activity creation (phone call, task, appointment, email)
• Custom activity types provisioned in the tenant

Don't use create_activity when:

• The user wants to add a plain text note - use create_note (note is not a valid activityType)
• The user wants to compose and review an email before sending - use draft_email
• The user wants to send an email immediately - use send_email

Related tools

Tool	Relationship
create_note	Creates a note (annotation) - not a timeline activity
get_activity_timeline	Retrieves the full activity timeline for a record
get_activity_quick_create_form	Returns form metadata for activity types
draft_email	Opens email compose for review (preferred for email flows)
send_email	Sends email immediately

Data mutation classification

Write / mutation.

This tool creates a new activity record in Dataverse. Microsoft Copilot prompts the user for confirmation before execution.