Designing & Implementing Agents and Pro Code Copilots using Microsoft Agent Framework and Azure AI Agent Service

• Software Architects & Engineers for Agentic AI Solutions
• Microsoft 365 & AI Pro-Code Developers

• Python, C#, Typescript
• GitHub Account
• Microsoft 365 Development & Azure Development Skills helpful

Module 1: Copilot & Agent Extensibility Fundamentals

Microsoft Foundry Essentials

• Copilots & Agent Frameworks in the Microsoft Ecosystem
• Deploying LLMs in Microsoft Foundry
• Model Router: Smart Model Selection
• Microsoft Foundry SDK & Microsoft.Extensions.AI
• Infrastructure as Code (IaC) using Azure Developer CLI Agentic Mode

Agentic AI Fundamentals

• What Are Agents & Agentic AI?
• Prompt Engineering vs Context Engineering
• Knowledge Integration & Agentic RAG
• Deep Reasoning & (Reasoning and Acting)
• Function Calling, REST APIs & MCP Servers
• Evaluating Generative AI Performance
• Governance & Guardrails for Responsible Agents

Implementing Model Context Protocol Servers (MCP)

• MCP Core Concepts & Architecture
• Transports: STDIO vs HTTP Streaming
• Debugging with MCP Inspector
• Authentication & Security Best Practices
• Hosting MCP's in Azure Functions
• Implementing MCP Apps

Module 2: Build Agents using Foundry Agent Service

• Introduction to Foundry Agent Service
• Conversations, Runs & State Management
• Knowledge Integration: Foundry IQ, File Search, Azure AI Search, Agent Memory & Bing Grounding
• Executing Actions with Tools: Code Interpreter, Azure Functions, OpenAPI, MCP & Deep Research
• Automating UI Tasks using Browser Automation and Computer Use
• Voice Agent Integration using Azure Speech Voice Live API
• Tracing, Observability & Performance Evaluation
• Hosted Agents: Containerized Deployments with Hosting Adapter & Agent Identity
• Agent-to-Agent Protocol (A2A) & Connected Agents

Module 3: Orchestrate Agents using Microsoft Agent Framework

Microsoft Agent Framework Basics & Concepts

• Introduction to the Agent Framework
• Chat Clients vs Agents: Key differences
• Agent types and configuration essentials
• Integrating Microsoft Foundry agents
• Threads, Conversation management & persistence
• Implementing long-term memory
• Governance, Middleware & Observability
• Hosting Agents in ASP.NET Core & Python (AddAIAgent, Responses API)

Agent Skills & Knowledge

• Agent Skills: SKILL.md structure, SkillsProvider & Progressive Disclosure
• Code-defined Skills vs. File-based Skills
• Agent Skills vs. Workflows: When to use each
• Built-in tools: Code Interpreter, File Search, Bing Grounding
• Adding custom tools and calling them from agents
• Integrating OpenAPI and MCP tools
• Function-calling middleware for advanced workflows

Orchestration, Durable & Hosted Agents

• Introduction to Multi-Agent Orchestration
• Orchestration Patterns (Sequential, Concurrent, Fan-out/Fan-in)
• Durable Agents with Azure Durable Functions (Flex Consumption, auto-scaling)
• Conversation State Persistence & Durable Task Scheduler
• Hosted Agents: Deploying to Azure Foundry (container images, agent identity)
• Branching, Checkpointing & Human-in-the-loop
• Observability & Workflow Visualization

Module 4: Agent Integration using Microsoft Agents SDK

• Overview Microsoft 365 Agents SDK (C#, JavaScript, Python)
• Connecting Copilot Studio & Microsoft Foundry Agents via A2A Protocol
• Orchestrate Multi-Agent Solutions using Microsoft Agent Framework
• Publishing Agentic AI Solutions to Copilot Chat and Teams
• Front-End Integration using Agent–User Interaction (AG-UI) Protocol