Authentication flow

Important

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Agent identity is a foundational concept in the Microsoft Agent 365 SDK. Each agent gains its own unique, persistent enterprise identity, separate from human users or generic application registrations. This identity equips the agent with privileges, authentication, roles, and compliance capabilities similar to a human employee.

Understanding agent identity components

When you register an agent with Microsoft Agent 365, three key components work together to provide your agent with its identity:

Agent blueprint (Agentic application)
Agentic app instance
Agentic user

Agent blueprint (Agentic application)

The agent blueprint defines the agent's identity, permissions, and infrastructure requirements. It serves as the template for creating agent instances and includes:

Azure AD application registration
Required API permissions (Microsoft Graph scopes)
Authentication configuration
Resource definitions (App Service Plan, Web App)

Agentic app instance

An agentic app instance represents a specific deployment of your agent blueprint. Each instance has:

Unique agentic app ID (Azure AD application)
Service principal for authentication
Instance-specific configuration
Federated identity credentials for Teams integration

Agentic user

An agentic user is the runtime identity that appears in your organization. Agentic users are a specialized subtype of user identity designed specifically for agents. Key concepts you need to understand about agentic users are their identity characteristics, organization integration, relationship model, and lifecycle.

Identity characteristics

Agentic users have distinctive identity properties that differentiate them from traditional user accounts:

Marked as agentic in the directory
Receives tokens with idtyp=user (user identity type)
Has a unique user ID (Object ID) separate from the parent agent instance
Cannot have traditional credentials (passwords, passkeys, MFA factors)
Must be created through an explicit API call from the parent agent instance
Has an immutable link to its parent agent instance (cannot be re-parented)

Organizational integration

Agentic users function as full members of your Microsoft 365 organization with the following capabilities:

Are synchronized to your Microsoft 365 tenant directory
Can be assigned licenses (Microsoft 365 E5, Teams Enterprise, Copilot)
Have their own mailbox and OneDrive storage (based on licenses)
Appear in the organizational chart and people cards
Can be @mentioned in Teams, documents, and other Microsoft 365 apps
Have their own unique principal name (e.g., agent@yourtenant.onmicrosoft.com)

Relationship model

The connection between agentic instances and agentic users follows a strict parent-child pattern:

Each agentic instance can have at most one agentic user child
The agentic user stores a reference to its parent agent instance
The parent agent instance maintains a reference to its child agentic user (if one exists)
This bidirectional relationship enables proper lifecycle management and auditing

Lifecycle

Agentic users are designed for immediate availability with automatic cleanup when no longer needed:

Support instant-on functionality and can be used immediately after creation

Note

Resource provisioning for agentic users (mailbox, OneDrive) may take up to 24 hours after license assignment, though typically completes within 10-15 minutes.
If the parent agent instance is deleted, the child agentic user is also deleted
The relationship between agent instance and agentic user is immutable and cannot be changed

Important

Agentic users require appropriate Microsoft 365 licenses to access services like Teams, Email, Calendar, SharePoint, and OneDrive. Common licenses include Microsoft 365 E5, Teams Enterprise, and Microsoft 365 Copilot. After assigning licenses, resource provisioning (mailbox, OneDrive) typically completes within 10-15 minutes but can take up to 24 hours in some cases.

Permissions and access control

Agent permissions are managed at multiple levels to provide granular control over access rights and capabilities.

Default permissions

Agentic users have specific permission characteristics:

Can be managed through conditional access policies
Exempt from MFA requirements (since they cannot have traditional authentication factors)
May be added to Entra ID groups including "All Agentic Users" group
Resource access is controlled through explicit permission grants and licenses

Permission management

Permissions can be set at different levels:

Agent blueprint level - Defines base permissions for all instances
Agent instance level - Specific permissions for the agent identity
Agentic user level - User-specific permissions and access rights

Tip

For agents with agentic user identities, use the agentic user identity primarily for resource access. This practice provides consistent user-like behavior across Microsoft 365 services.