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Case Inbox — Work Items

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 see your personal inbox of cases that are assigned to you and need your attention.

What it does

The assistant shows your personal case inbox with active cases assigned to you that have been modified in the last 90 days. Cases are sorted by priority (highest first), and then by most recently modified. These details give you a quick view of what's on your plate.

Try prompts like

  • "Show my inbox"
  • "What's in my work items?"
  • "Show my case inbox"
  • "What work items do I have?"

What you see in chat

The assistant displays an interactive case grid as an app-in-chat component, showing your assigned cases with case number, title, status, and priority.

Helpful tips

  • This tool responds specifically to the words "inbox" or "work items." For "my cases" or "cases assigned to me," the assistant uses a different view that may include more results.
  • Your inbox shows only active cases modified in the last 90 days. Older cases don't appear.
  • If you want to pick up a new case from the queue, say "pick a case from my queue" instead.
  • Cases are sorted by priority first, so your most urgent work appears at the top.

Tip

Start your day with "show my inbox" to see what's waiting for you, then pick the top case to start triaging.

What happens next

After seeing your inbox, you can continue with prompts like:

  • "Summarize the first case"
  • "What's the SLA status on this case?"
  • "What changed on this case since yesterday?"
  • "Set the priority to high"

Does this change data?

No. Viewing your inbox doesn't change data.

The inbox is read-only. Follow-up actions from the grid, such as updating or reassigning a case, can change data. The assistant asks for confirmation before making changes.

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

From the inbox in chat, you can:

  • Scan your assigned cases in a sortable grid
  • Select a case to see more details
  • Open the full case form in Dynamics 365
  • Continue working with a case using follow-up prompts

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 Case Inbox — Work Items
Internal tool name list_case_inbox_workitems
Purpose Returns the agent's personal inbox: active cases assigned to the current user that were modified in the last 90 days, sorted by priority then most recently modified

Tool behavior

Returns the agent's personal inbox: active cases assigned to the current user that were modified in the last 90 days, sorted by priority then most recently modified. This is the agent's personal work queue view, triggered by the literal words "inbox" or "work items".

Annotations

Annotation Value Meaning
readOnlyHint true This tool does not modify data.
destructiveHint Not set Not applicable (read-only tool).
idempotentHint Not set Not applicable (read-only tool).
openWorldHint Not set Uses default (queries Dataverse).

Input concepts

This tool takes no input parameters.

Response and UI behavior

This tool renders an interactive case grid.

This MCP tool is supported by an MCP app.

Response type

Interactive grid (app-in-chat)

The grid displays the agent's assigned active cases with case number, title, status, and priority.

Routing notes

Use list_case_inbox_workitems when:

  • The prompt contains the literal word "inbox" or "work items"
  • The user says "show my inbox", "what's in my work items"

Don't use list_case_inbox_workitems when:

  • Ownership-scoped listing without "inbox"/"work items" keywords ("my cases", "cases assigned to me") - route to list_cases with assignedToMe: true
  • Claiming the next case from a queue ("go next", "pick a case") - route to pick_case_from_queue
  • General case filtering - route to list_cases
Tool Relationship
list_cases Lists cases with filters. Use with assignedToMe: true for "my cases" without the inbox keyword
pick_case_from_queue Claims the next unassigned case from the queue
summarize_case Opens a case with an AI summary for triage
query_cases_by_sla_status SLA-focused triage view of cases

Data mutation classification

Read-only.

The inbox listing doesn't change data. Follow-up actions from the grid can trigger write operations using separate tools.

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