Content
# Agora Workbench
<p align="left">
<img src="logo.png" alt="Agora Workbench logo" width="250">
</p>
[](LICENSE)
A workbench for wrapping your tooling with MCP
<h2><a href="https://microsoft.github.io/agora-workbench">Documentation</a></h2>
> [!IMPORTANT]
> **Research software and support**
>
> Agora Workbench is research software and is not an officially supported Microsoft product. It is provided
> as-is and may change without notice. No support, service-level commitments, or compatibility guarantees are
> provided. Issues and contributions are welcome, but responses, fixes, and continued maintenance are not
> guaranteed.
## Overview
Agora Workbench is a toolkit for building MCP (Model Context Protocol) servers that provide sandboxed Python execution with domain-specific packages. It is agent-framework agnostic — any MCP-compatible client can take advantage of the servers created by Agora Workbench.
Use Agora Workbench to:
- **Wrap domain-specific Python tooling as MCP servers** — expose Python environments through isolated, session-aware execution environments that any MCP client can call
- **Make tools discoverable** — register tools and skills in a searchable catalog so agents can find what they need by natural-language query
- **Serve data alongside code** — attach a file catalog so agents can locate and load datasets without hardcoded paths
- **Deploy to Azure Container Apps** — use the included Bicep templates and CLI to ship your servers with Entra ID auth and managed identity
## Getting Started
### Prerequisites
- **Python 3.11+**
- **Git**
- **[uv](https://docs.astral.sh/uv/)** for dependency management
- **Docker** (required for the bundled container examples and local Compose workflows)
### Installation
**With uv (recommended for development):**
```bash
git clone https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench.git
cd agora-workbench
uv sync --group dev # install the project and dev tools
```
**With pip (for using as a library):**
```bash
pip install "agora-workbench @ git+https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench.git@v0.1.0"
```
Pinning a release tag gives downstream projects a stable dependency. With uv, add the same release with:
```bash
uv add "agora-workbench @ git+https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench.git@v0.1.0"
```
See the [changelog](https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md) for release history and
[release guide](https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench/blob/main/RELEASING.md) for the versioning policy.
**Optional extras for examples** — the base package is all you need to build and run MCP servers. Extras pull in dependencies used by the example integrations:
| Extra | Example integration |
|-------|---------------------|
| `openai-agents` | OpenAI Agents SDK adapter |
| `copilot-sdk` | GitHub Copilot SDK adapter |
| `geo` | Geospatial example server dependencies (rasterio, etc.) |
Use the command for your installation method:
```bash
# uv (inside the cloned repo)
uv sync --extra openai-agents
# pip (consuming as a library)
pip install "agora-workbench[openai-agents] @ git+https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench.git@v0.1.0"
```
### Configuration
For local testing, no external credentials are required. Use the no-op auth config to skip authentication entirely:
```python
from agora_workbench.code_execution import CodeExecutionServer, ServerConfig
from agora_workbench.code_execution.auth import create_noop_auth_config
config = ServerConfig(
name="myserver",
description="My local test server",
type="uv",
dependency_file="numpy\npandas\n",
)
server = CodeExecutionServer(
server_config=config,
auth_config=create_noop_auth_config(),
)
```
For Docker-based local deployment and Azure Container Apps, see the [deployment guide](https://microsoft.github.io/agora-workbench/guide/deploying/). For Entra ID authentication setup, see the [authentication guide](https://microsoft.github.io/agora-workbench/guide/authentication/).
## Contributing
This project welcomes contributions and suggestions. Most contributions require you to agree to a
Contributor License Agreement (CLA) declaring that you have the right to, and actually do, grant us
the rights to use your contribution. For details, visit [Contributor License Agreements](https://cla.opensource.microsoft.com).
When you submit a pull request, a CLA bot will automatically determine whether you need to provide
a CLA and decorate the PR appropriately (e.g., status check, comment). Simply follow the instructions
provided by the bot. You will only need to do this once across all repos using our CLA.
**Guidelines:**
- For changes more complex than typos, please submit an issue first to discuss the proposed changes
- Follow the development practices outlined in the project documentation
### Contact
For questions or feedback, please [open an issue](https://github.com/microsoft/agora-workbench/issues).
This project has adopted the [Microsoft Open Source Code of Conduct](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/).
For more information see the [Code of Conduct FAQ](https://opensource.microsoft.com/codeofconduct/faq/) or
contact [opencode@microsoft.com](mailto:opencode@microsoft.com) with any additional questions or comments.
## Trademarks
This project may contain trademarks or logos for projects, products, or services. Authorized use of Microsoft
trademarks or logos is subject to and must follow
[Microsoft's Trademark & Brand Guidelines](https://www.microsoft.com/legal/intellectualproperty/trademarks/usage/general).
Use of Microsoft trademarks or logos in modified versions of this project must not cause confusion or imply Microsoft sponsorship.
Any use of third-party trademarks or logos are subject to those third-party's policies.
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