This sample demonstrates how to use Model Context Protocol (MCP) client tools with AI agents, allowing agents to access tools provided by MCP servers. This sample uses the GitHub MCP server to provide tools for querying GitHub repositories.

What this sample demonstrates

Creating MCP clients to connect to MCP servers (GitHub server)
Retrieving tools from MCP servers
Using MCP tools with AI agents
Running agents with MCP-provided function tools
Managing agent lifecycle (creation and deletion)

Prerequisites

Before you begin, ensure you have the following prerequisites:

.NET 10 SDK or later
Azure Foundry service endpoint and deployment configured
Azure CLI installed and authenticated (for Azure credential authentication)
Node.js and npm installed (for running the GitHub MCP server)

Note: This demo uses Azure CLI credentials for authentication. Make sure you're logged in with az login and have access to the Azure Foundry resource. For more information, see the Azure CLI documentation.

Set the following environment variables:

$env:AZURE_FOUNDRY_PROJECT_ENDPOINT="https://your-foundry-service.services.ai.azure.com/api/projects/your-foundry-project" # Replace with your Azure Foundry resource endpoint
$env:AZURE_FOUNDRY_PROJECT_DEPLOYMENT_NAME="gpt-4o-mini"  # Optional, defaults to gpt-4o-mini

Run the sample

Navigate to the FoundryAgents sample directory and run:

cd dotnet/samples/GettingStarted/FoundryAgents
dotnet run --project .\FoundryAgents_Step09_UsingMcpClientAsTools

Expected behavior

The sample will:

Start the GitHub MCP server using @modelcontextprotocol/server-github
Create an MCP client to connect to the GitHub server
Retrieve the available tools from the GitHub MCP server
Create an agent named "AgentWithMCP" with the GitHub tools
Run the agent with a prompt to summarize the last four commits to the microsoft/semantic-kernel repository
The agent will use the GitHub MCP tools to query the repository information
Clean up resources by deleting the agent