Microsoft Docs

Search and retrieve official Microsoft documentation from learn.microsoft.com. Covers Azure, .NET, Microsoft 365, Windows, Power Platform, and all Microsoft technologies.

Prerequisites

• Azure MCP server (azure-mcp in .vscode/mcp.json) running locally via npx @azure/mcp@latest server start. The Microsoft Learn docs tools are exposed through the Azure MCP documentation router.
• Outbound HTTPS to learn.microsoft.com
• Node.js ≥ 18 for the mslearn CLI fallback (via npx @microsoft/learn-cli ...)

Tools

All operations go through the Azure MCP documentation router (mcp_azure-mcp_documentation); pass the sub-command via command.

// Tool: mcp_azure-mcp_documentation
{
  "intent": "find AKS private cluster guidance",
  "command": "microsoft_docs_search",
  "parameters": { "query": "AKS private cluster best practices" }
}

Rules

• Search first, fetch second — always start with microsoft_docs_search; only fetch the full page when the search excerpt is insufficient
• Be specific — include version (.NET 8, EF Core 8), task intent (quickstart, tutorial, overview, limits), and platform (Linux, Windows) where relevant
• Live docs over training data — prefer this skill over model knowledge for accuracy and freshness
• Out of scope — Azure pricing (use Azure Pricing MCP directly)
• Avoid loading entire docs trees — fetch single pages
• CLI fallback — when MCP server unavailable: npx @microsoft/learn-cli search "..."

Steps

1. Frame the question — service, version, intent (quickstart / config / limits / best practice)
2. microsoft_docs_search with a specific query
3. Read the excerpts — if they cover the question, stop
4. microsoft_docs_fetch on the most relevant URL only when the excerpt is cut off
5. microsoft_code_sample_search when the user wants runnable examples
6. Cite sources — include the learn.microsoft.com URL

CLI Alternative

If the Azure MCP server is unavailable:

npx @microsoft/learn-cli search "azure functions timeout"

The fetch command supports --section <heading> and --max-chars <number>.