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Running In Teams

Now that you completed the quickstart and your agent is running locally, let's install it in Microsoft Teams. The fastest path is the Teams Developer CLI.

Prerequisites​

  • The CLI installed: npm install -g @microsoft/teams.cli@preview
  • An M365 account with custom app upload (sideloading) enabled on the tenant
  • A public HTTPS tunnel pointing at your local server (e.g. DevTunnels, ngrok)

If you haven't run through this before, the Quickstart: Register your app walks the full flow end-to-end. The summary below is for developers already familiar with the steps.

1. Log in​

teams login
teams status

teams status should report Sideloading: enabled. If not, your tenant admin needs to enable custom app upload.

2. Register the bot infrastructure​

From your project directory:

teams app create \
  --name <your-bot-name> \
  --endpoint https://<tunnel-host>/api/messages \
  --env .env

This creates a Teams-managed bot by default — no Azure subscription needed. The command prints a summary including the Teams App ID and an Install in Teams link, and writes CLIENT_ID, CLIENT_SECRET, and TENANT_ID into .env. For C# projects use --env appsettings.json.

If you need OAuth or SSO, add --azure --resource-group <rg> (or migrate later with teams app bot migrate). See Bot Locations for the details.

3. Run your agent​

dotnet run

You should see listening on port 3978 🚀 once the server starts.

4. Install the app in Teams​

The Install in Teams link from step 2 is your sideload URL. Click it from a browser signed in to Teams, then Add.

If you closed the terminal, get the link back with the Teams App ID printed in step 2:

teams app get <teamsAppId> --install-link

(Run teams app list to see all your apps with IDs.)

Send the bot a message to confirm it's working.

Screenshot of an agent running in Teams.

Troubleshooting​

Using Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit instead​

If you want everything managed for you — including bot setup, scaffolding to deployment — and you're natively using VS Code, the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit extension is a good fit. Install the extension, sign in, select Local under Environment Settings, and click Debug. Agents Toolkit handles tunnels, manifest stamping, and sideloading in-IDE.

Next steps​

Continue with essential concepts to build more complex agents, or jump to the in-depth guides for AI, message extensions, dialogs, and more.

Resources​