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Microsoft Teams

The Microsoft Teams channel puts your agent in Teams as a bot your employees message directly — they chat with it in a one-to-one conversation and it replies in-thread, with streaming where Teams supports it.
Looking for the agent to use Teams as a tool (message a teammate, spin up a meeting) rather than host the conversation? That’s the separate Microsoft Teams integration.
The bot works in one-to-one personal chat — each employee messages the agent directly. It doesn’t join team channels or group chats.

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Before you start

You’ll need a Microsoft Azure / Entra admin to register an Azure Bot, and a Teams admin (or permission to upload custom apps) to install the app in your organization. Cobalt generates the Teams app package for you and walks you through each step in an install wizard, so there’s little to configure by hand.

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Install it

The channel’s install wizard is a four-step flow. Each step shows its own status, and you finish once the credentials verify and a test message round-trips.
1

Brand the bot

Set the bot’s display name and upload its two icons (a full-color icon and an outline icon Teams uses in different places). Defaults are fine to start.
2

Create the Azure Bot

In the Azure portal, create an Azure Bot — for “Type of App” choose Single Tenant. Cobalt shows you the values to copy in — the bot handle, the app type, and the per-channel messaging endpoint URL — with a deep link to the right Azure screen. Set the messaging endpoint to the URL Cobalt shows, then under Channels enable Microsoft Teams.
Do not choose User-Assigned Managed Identity. Managed-identity bots have no client secret, so Cobalt — which authenticates from outside your Azure tenant — can never connect to one. If you already created a managed-identity bot, delete it and create a Single Tenant bot instead.
Azure no longer offers Multi-tenant bot creation (removed after July 2025). Existing Multi-tenant installs keep working unchanged — Cobalt detects your bot’s app type automatically when it verifies the credentials.
3

Verify the credentials

Back in Azure, create a client secret and note the Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID — both are on the bot’s Configuration page (the tenant ID appears as App Tenant ID, right below the app ID). Paste the app ID, the secret, and the tenant ID into Cobalt and run Verify — Cobalt makes a live call to confirm the credentials work.
4

Install in Teams and test

Download the Teams app package (.zip) Cobalt builds for this agent — it contains your branding, the manifest with your verified App ID, and the messaging endpoint. Then choose how to distribute the app — upload to your org’s app catalog (recommended; available to everyone) or sideload the package directly (works only if your org allows custom app uploads). Install it, then send a test direct message to confirm the bot responds.
The download becomes available after the credentials verify, so every package you download already has your real Microsoft App ID baked in.

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Settings

On the channel’s settings you can configure:
  • Bot display name and icons — how the bot appears in Teams.
  • AI disclaimer — the text (up to 200 characters) and how often it shows (off, once per conversation, or always).

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Keep the connection healthy

  • Client secrets expire. Azure client secrets have an expiry date; Cobalt shows a countdown and reminds you before one lapses. Rotate the secret from the channel — create a new secret in Azure and paste it in — before it expires, so the bot keeps responding.
  • Activity. The channel’s activity view shows recent inbound traffic, so you can confirm messages are reaching the agent.
  • Disconnect removes the credentials and takes the channel offline.

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Teams as an integration

Connecting Teams as a channel (so employees chat with the agent there) is separate from connecting Teams as an integration (so the agent can search, message, and act in Teams on a user’s behalf). You can use either or both.