MAF — connect to an Agora Workbench server¶

A minimal walkthrough of just the connection plumbing between a Microsoft Agent Framework agent and a running Agora Workbench MCP server. The focus is the wiring between MAF and the workbench; build the agent itself by following the MAF docs.

What you'll do¶

Start the chemistry MCP server locally on port 8020.
Wrap it in a MAF MCPStreamableHTTPTool.
Hand the tool to whatever MAF agent you build.

┌────────────────────────┐    Streamable HTTP    ┌──────────────────────────┐
│  your MAF agent        │ ────────────────────► │  chemistry MCP server    │
│  (MCPStreamableHTTPTool)│   /mcp + Bearer       │  127.0.0.1:8020/mcp      │
└────────────────────────┘                       └──────────────────────────┘

Prerequisites¶

uv installed.
Docker — the chemistry server runs as a local container.
agent-framework available in your env:
```
uv pip install agent-framework
```

Start the chemistry MCP server¶

Follow the steps in Start the chemistry MCP server to build the base image and bring the server up at http://localhost:8020/mcp.

The MAF integration point¶

Wrap the running server in an MCPStreamableHTTPTool and pass it to whatever agent you build:

import httpx
from agent_framework import MCPStreamableHTTPTool

tool = MCPStreamableHTTPTool(
    name="chemistry",
    url="http://localhost:8020/mcp",
    http_client=httpx.AsyncClient(
        headers={"Authorization": "Bearer dev-token"},
    ),
    tool_name_prefix="chem_",
    approval_mode="never_require",
)

# Build your agent however MAF documents — see links below.
agent = chat_client.as_agent(name="my_agent", tools=[tool], instructions="...")

async with tool:
    await agent.run("What does aspirin look like?")

Key options:

Argument	What it does
`url`	Streamable-HTTP MCP endpoint — always ends in `/mcp`.
`http_client`	Your own `httpx.AsyncClient`. Set the `Authorization` header here.
`tool_name_prefix`	Optional namespacing — every advertised tool is exposed to the LLM as `<prefix><tool>`. Use this when you attach multiple Workbench servers.
`approval_mode`	`"never_require"` runs tools without per-call confirmation prompts.

async with tool: opens the underlying MCP session. MAF re-uses it for the entire agent run and closes it on exit.

Where to go next¶

Build the agent itself: follow the MAF samples — pick a chat client, write instructions, call chat_client.as_agent(tools=[tool]). The tool is exactly the MCPStreamableHTTPTool you built here.
Inject the workbench skill: the workbench runtime skill is a portable system-prompt block that teaches any agent how to use Workbench tools correctly. Append it to your MAF agent's instructions.
Authenticate against a real server: swap the dev bearer for a real token — see Authentication.

Cleanup¶

See Cleanup in the shared server guide.