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🎮 Microsoft 365 Agents Playground

The Microsoft 365 Agents Playground is a local testing tool for agents built with the Teams SDK. It lets you chat with your agent, mock activities, and inspect requests and responses without sideloading into Teams.

Microsoft 365 Agents Playground showing the welcome page with a sidebar listing Personal Chat, Group Chat, and Teams Channels, and a 'Type a message' compose box at the bottom.

Install​

npm install -g @microsoft/m365agentsplayground

Option 2: Standalone binary​

winget install agentsplayground

For other platforms and full install options, see the Microsoft Learn guide.

Migrating from DevTools​

If your agent previously used DevtoolsPlugin from @microsoft/teams.dev, remove it from your App configuration. The Playground is a separate CLI tool and does not need a plugin in your code.

You can also remove @microsoft/teams.dev from your package.json after deleting DevtoolsPlugin. The Playground is installed separately as a CLI tool, not as a project dependency.

The Playground sends requests without a Bot Framework JWT, so your agent needs to accept unauthenticated requests on /api/messages.

For local development, leave CLIENT_ID / CLIENT_SECRET / TENANT_ID unset (for example, comment them out of your .env). With no credentials configured, the bot does not enforce JWT validation. The SDK logs a warning at startup confirming the bot is in anonymous mode:

[WARN] No credentials configured (CLIENT_ID / CLIENT_SECRET / TENANT_ID). Bot will accept unauthenticated requests on /api/messages.

This is the cleanest migration path: nothing to add to your code, and the startup warning makes the mode explicit.

Why this is needed​

DevtoolsPlugin previously bypassed JWT validation implicitly because it ran in-process and never went through /api/messages over HTTP. The Playground sends real HTTP requests, so the bot's JWT validator runs unless the bot is left anonymous.

Launch​

Start your agent locally (default port 3978), then run:

agentsplayground -e http://localhost:3978/api/messages -c msteams

The playground opens at http://localhost:56150.

Common flags​

  • -e, --app-endpoint — your agent's endpoint, e.g. http://localhost:3978/api/messages
  • -c, --channel-id — emulator, webchat, msteams, directline, or agents
  • --client-id, --client-secret, --tenant-id — credentials when your agent requires authentication
  • -p, --port — port for the playground UI (default 56150)

Run agentsplayground --help for the full list.

Test your agent​

Type a message in the compose box and send it. Your agent's reply renders inline.

Microsoft 365 Agents Playground showing a user message 'hello!' and an agent reply 'you said "hello!"'.

Use the Mock an Activity menu to send custom activity types (membership changes, invokes, message reactions, and more). Use the Debug Options menu to control delivery mode and logging. The Log Panel (toggle from the top right) shows the HTTP exchange between the playground and your agent.

Learn more​