How to integrate Outlook MCP with Claude Agent SDK

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Introduction

This guide walks you through connecting Outlook to the Claude Agent SDK using the Composio tool router. By the end, you'll have a working Outlook agent that can download latest attachments from my inbox, create new calendar for project deadlines, add rule to move newsletters to folder, get my current automatic reply settings through natural language commands.

This guide will help you understand how to give your Claude Agent SDK agent real control over a Outlook account through Composio's Outlook MCP server.

Before we dive in, let's take a quick look at the key ideas and tools involved.

TL;DR

Here's what you'll learn:
  • Get and set up your Claude/Anthropic and Composio API keys
  • Install the necessary dependencies
  • Initialize Composio and create a Tool Router session for Outlook
  • Configure an AI agent that can use Outlook as a tool
  • Run a live chat session where you can ask the agent to perform Outlook operations

What is Claude Agent SDK?

The Claude Agent SDK is Anthropic's official framework for building AI agents powered by Claude. It provides a streamlined interface for creating agents with MCP tool support and conversation management.

Key features include:

  • Native MCP Support: Built-in support for Model Context Protocol servers
  • Permission Modes: Control tool execution permissions
  • Streaming Responses: Real-time response streaming for interactive applications
  • Context Manager: Clean async context management for sessions

What is the Outlook MCP server, and what's possible with it?

The Outlook MCP server is an implementation of the Model Context Protocol that connects your AI agent and assistants like Claude, Cursor, etc directly to your Outlook account. It provides structured and secure access to your email, calendar, and contacts, so your agent can perform actions like sending emails, organizing folders, managing your calendar, and handling attachments on your behalf.

  • Email organization and folder management: Let your agent create, delete, or organize mail folders to keep your inbox tidy and efficient.
  • Calendar and event creation: Easily have your agent set up new calendars, so you can organize meetings and events without lifting a finger.
  • Smart attachments handling: Automatically download files from your emails or add attachments to outgoing messages for seamless file management.
  • Automated rules and filtering: Direct your agent to create email rules that filter, sort, or take action on messages as they arrive.
  • Contact and category organization: Ask your agent to create new contact folders or master categories to streamline how you manage people and projects.

Supported Tools & Triggers

Tools
Triggers
Add mail attachmentTool to add an attachment to an email message.
Create calendarTool to create a new calendar in the signed-in user's mailbox.
Create contact folderTool to create a new contact folder in the user's mailbox.
Create Email RuleCreate email rule filter with conditions and actions
Create mail folderTool to create a new mail folder.
Create master categoryTool to create a new category in the user's master category list.
Delete mail folderDelete a mail folder from the user's mailbox.
Download Outlook attachmentDownloads a specific file attachment from an email message in a microsoft outlook mailbox; the attachment must contain 'contentbytes' (binary data) and not be a link or embedded item.
Get mailbox settingsTool to retrieve mailbox settings.
Get mail deltaTool to retrieve incremental changes (delta) of messages in a mailbox.
Get mail tipsTool to retrieve mail tips such as automatic replies and mailbox full status.
Get master categoriesTool to retrieve the user's master category list.
Get supported languagesTool to retrieve supported languages in the user's mailbox.
Get supported time zonesTool to retrieve supported time zones in the user's mailbox.
List Outlook calendarsTool to list calendars in the signed-in user's mailbox.
List event attachmentsTool to list attachments for a specific outlook calendar event.
List Outlook attachmentsLists metadata (like name, size, and type, but not `contentbytes`) for all attachments of a specified outlook email message.
List event remindersTool to retrieve reminders for events occurring within a specified time range.
Add event attachmentAdds an attachment to a specific outlook calendar event.
Create Calendar EventCreates a new outlook calendar event, ensuring `start datetime` is chronologically before `end datetime`.
Create contactCreates a new contact in a microsoft outlook user's contacts folder.
Create email draftCreates an outlook email draft with subject, body, recipients, and an optional attachment.
Create a draft replyCreates a draft reply in the specified user's outlook mailbox to an existing message (identified by a valid `message id`), optionally including a `comment` and cc/bcc recipients.
Delete ContactPermanently deletes an existing contact, using its `contact id` (obtainable via 'list user contacts' or 'get contact'), from the outlook contacts of the user specified by `user id`.
Delete Calendar EventDeletes an existing calendar event, identified by its unique `event id`, from a specified user's microsoft outlook calendar, with an option to send cancellation notifications to attendees.
Get contactRetrieves a specific outlook contact by its `contact id` from the contacts of a specified `user id` (defaults to 'me' for the authenticated user).
Get contact foldersTool to retrieve a list of contact folders in the signed-in user's mailbox.
Get calendar eventRetrieves the full details of a specific calendar event by its id from a user's outlook calendar, provided the event exists.
Get email messageRetrieves a specific email message by its id from the specified user's outlook mailbox.
Get Outlook profileRetrieves the microsoft outlook profile for a specified user.
Get scheduleRetrieves free/busy schedule information for specified email addresses within a defined time window.
List Outlook contactsRetrieves a user's microsoft outlook contacts, from the default or a specified contact folder.
List eventsRetrieves events from a user's outlook calendar via microsoft graph api, supporting pagination, filtering, property selection, sorting, and timezone specification.
List mail foldersTool to list a user's top-level mail folders.
List MessagesRetrieves a list of email messages from a specified mail folder in an outlook mailbox, with options for filtering (including by conversationid to get all messages in a thread), pagination, and sorting; ensure 'user id' and 'folder' are valid, and all date/time strings are in iso 8601 format.
Move message to folderMove a message to another folder within the specified user's mailbox.
Reply to EmailSends a plain text reply to an outlook email message, identified by `message id`, allowing optional cc and bcc recipients.
Search Outlook messagesSearches messages in a microsoft 365 or enterprise outlook account mailbox, supporting filters for sender, subject, attachments, pagination, and sorting by relevance or date.
Send emailSends an email with subject, body, recipients, and an optional attachment via microsoft graph api; attachments require a non-empty file with valid name and mimetype.
Update calendar eventUpdates specified fields of an existing outlook calendar event.
Update ContactUpdates an existing outlook contact, identified by `contact id` for the specified `user id`, requiring at least one other field to be modified.
Update email messageUpdates specified properties of an existing email message; `message id` must identify a valid message within the specified `user id`'s mailbox.
Update mailbox settingsTool to update mailbox settings for the signed-in user.

What is the Composio tool router, and how does it fit here?

What is Tool Router?

Composio's Tool Router helps agents find the right tools for a task at runtime. You can plug in multiple toolkits (like Gmail, HubSpot, and GitHub), and the agent will identify the relevant app and action to complete multi-step workflows. This can reduce token usage and improve the reliability of tool calls. Read more here: Getting started with Tool Router

The tool router generates a secure MCP URL that your agents can access to perform actions.

How the Tool Router works

The Tool Router follows a three-phase workflow:

  1. Discovery: Searches for tools matching your task and returns relevant toolkits with their details.
  2. Authentication: Checks for active connections. If missing, creates an auth config and returns a connection URL via Auth Link.
  3. Execution: Executes the action using the authenticated connection.

Step-by-step Guide

Prerequisites

Before starting, make sure you have:
  • Composio API Key and Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Primary know-how of Claude Agents SDK
  • A Outlook account
  • Some knowledge of Python

Getting API Keys for Claude/Anthropic and Composio

Claude/Anthropic API Key
  • Go to the Anthropic Console and create an API key. You'll need credits to use the models.
  • Keep the API key safe.
Composio API Key
  • Log in to the Composio dashboard.
  • Navigate to your API settings and generate a new API key.
  • Store this key securely as you'll need it for authentication.

Install dependencies

pip install composio-anthropic claude-agent-sdk python-dotenv

Install the Composio SDK and the Claude Agents SDK.

What's happening:

  • composio-anthropic provides Composio integration for Anthropic
  • claude-agent-sdk is the core agent framework
  • python-dotenv loads environment variables

Set up environment variables

bash
COMPOSIO_API_KEY=your_composio_api_key_here
USER_ID=your_user_id_here
ANTHROPIC_API_KEY=your_anthropic_api_key_here

Create a .env file in your project root.

What's happening:

  • COMPOSIO_API_KEY authenticates with Composio
  • USER_ID identifies the user for session management
  • ANTHROPIC_API_KEY authenticates with Anthropic/Claude

Import dependencies

import asyncio
from claude_agent_sdk import ClaudeSDKClient, ClaudeAgentOptions
import os
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()
What's happening:
  • We're importing all necessary libraries including the Claude Agent SDK and Composio
  • The load_dotenv() function loads environment variables from your .env file
  • This setup prepares the foundation for connecting Claude with Outlook functionality

Create a Composio instance and Tool Router session

async def chat_with_remote_mcp():
    api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")

    composio = Composio(api_key=api_key)

    # Create Tool Router session for Outlook
    mcp_server = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["outlook"]
    )

    url = mcp_server.mcp.url

    if not url:
        raise ValueError("Session URL not found")
What's happening:
  • The function checks for the required COMPOSIO_API_KEY environment variable
  • We're creating a Composio instance using our API key
  • The create method creates a Tool Router session for Outlook
  • The returned url is the MCP server URL that your agent will use

Configure Claude Agent with MCP

# Configure remote MCP server for Claude
options = ClaudeAgentOptions(
    permission_mode="bypassPermissions",
    mcp_servers={
        "composio": {
            "type": "http",
            "url": url,
            "headers": {
                "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
            }
        }
    },
    system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant with access to Outlook tools via Composio.",
    max_turns=10
)
What's happening:
  • We're configuring the Claude Agent options with the MCP server URL
  • permission_mode="bypassPermissions" allows the agent to execute operations without asking for permission each time
  • The system prompt instructs the agent that it has access to Outlook
  • max_turns=10 limits the conversation length to prevent excessive API usage

Create client and start chat loop

# Create client with context manager
async with ClaudeSDKClient(options=options) as client:
    print("\nChat started. Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

    # Main chat loop
    while True:
        user_input = input("You: ").strip()
        if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit"}:
            print("Goodbye!")
            break

        # Send query
        await client.query(user_input)

        # Receive and print response
        print("Claude: ", end="", flush=True)
        async for message in client.receive_response():
            if hasattr(message, "content"):
                for block in message.content:
                    if hasattr(block, "text"):
                        print(block.text, end="", flush=True)
        print()
What's happening:
  • The Claude SDK client is created using the async context manager pattern
  • The agent processes each query and streams the response back in real-time
  • The chat loop continues until the user types 'exit' or 'quit'

Run the application

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(chat_with_remote_mcp())
What's happening:
  • This entry point runs the async chat_with_remote_mcp() function using asyncio.run()
  • The application will start, create the MCP connection, and begin the interactive chat session

Complete Code

Here's the complete code to get you started with Outlook and Claude Agent SDK:

import asyncio
from claude_agent_sdk import ClaudeSDKClient, ClaudeAgentOptions
import os
from composio import Composio
from dotenv import load_dotenv

load_dotenv()

async def chat_with_remote_mcp():
    api_key = os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
    if not api_key:
        raise RuntimeError("COMPOSIO_API_KEY is not set")

    composio = Composio(api_key=api_key)

    # Create Tool Router session for Outlook
    mcp_server = composio.create(
        user_id=os.getenv("USER_ID"),
        toolkits=["outlook"]
    )

    url = mcp_server.mcp.url

    if not url:
        raise ValueError("Session URL not found")

    # Configure remote MCP server for Claude
    options = ClaudeAgentOptions(
        permission_mode="bypassPermissions",
        mcp_servers={
            "composio": {
                "type": "http",
                "url": url,
                "headers": {
                    "x-api-key": os.getenv("COMPOSIO_API_KEY")
                }
            }
        },
        system_prompt="You are a helpful assistant with access to Outlook tools via Composio.",
        max_turns=10
    )

    # Create client with context manager
    async with ClaudeSDKClient(options=options) as client:
        print("\nChat started. Type 'exit' or 'quit' to end.\n")

        # Main chat loop
        while True:
            user_input = input("You: ").strip()
            if user_input.lower() in {"exit", "quit"}:
                print("Goodbye!")
                break

            # Send query
            await client.query(user_input)

            # Receive and print response
            print("Claude: ", end="", flush=True)
            async for message in client.receive_response():
                if hasattr(message, "content"):
                    for block in message.content:
                        if hasattr(block, "text"):
                            print(block.text, end="", flush=True)
            print()

if __name__ == "__main__":
    asyncio.run(chat_with_remote_mcp())

Conclusion

You've successfully built a Claude Agent SDK agent that can interact with Outlook through Composio's Tool Router.

Key features:

  • Native MCP support through Claude's agent framework
  • Streaming responses for real-time interaction
  • Permission bypass for smooth automated workflows
You can extend this by adding more toolkits, implementing custom business logic, or building a web interface around the agent.

How to build Outlook MCP Agent with another framework

FAQ

What are the differences in Tool Router MCP and Outlook MCP?

With a standalone Outlook MCP server, the agents and LLMs can only access a fixed set of Outlook tools tied to that server. However, with the Composio Tool Router, agents can dynamically load tools from Outlook and many other apps based on the task at hand, all through a single MCP endpoint.

Can I use Tool Router MCP with Claude Agent SDK?

Yes, you can. Claude Agent SDK fully supports MCP integration. You get structured tool calling, message history handling, and model orchestration while Tool Router takes care of discovering and serving the right Outlook tools.

Can I manage the permissions and scopes for Outlook while using Tool Router?

Yes, absolutely. You can configure which Outlook scopes and actions are allowed when connecting your account to Composio. You can also bring your own OAuth credentials or API configuration so you keep full control over what the agent can do.

How safe is my data with Composio Tool Router?

All sensitive data such as tokens, keys, and configuration is fully encrypted at rest and in transit. Composio is SOC 2 Type 2 compliant and follows strict security practices so your Outlook data and credentials are handled as safely as possible.

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HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
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Context
ASU
Letta
glean
HubSpot
Agent.ai
Altera
DataStax
Entelligence
Rolai

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