> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.cobalt.peoplereign.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Microsoft Outlook

> Let an agent work in each person's own Outlook mail, calendar, contacts, and tasks — read, search, send, and schedule, with confirmation on the risky steps.

# Microsoft Outlook

The Microsoft Outlook integration lets an agent work in **each person's own
Outlook** during a conversation — search and read their mail and calendar, look
people up, fetch attachments, find a meeting time, and (when you enable it) send
mail, reply, draft, and create or cancel events. The agent always acts **as the
asking user** and sees only what that person can already see.

Setup takes about a minute and needs **nothing** in the Microsoft 365 admin
center — Cobalt hosts the Microsoft sign-in.

<Note>
  This is the Outlook **integration** — a tool an agent uses *inside* a chat,
  voice, Slack, or Teams conversation. It is **not** an email channel; the agent
  does not hold conversations over email here. It also acts only on the asking
  user's **own** mailbox and calendar — not shared mailboxes, delegate calendars,
  or other people's mail.
</Note>

## Modules

Reads in each enabled module are on by default. **Write tools are off until you
turn them on**, one at a time.

| Module       | What the agent can do                                                                                                           |
| ------------ | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Mail**     | Search and read messages and folders; read attachments; **(opt-in)** draft, reply, and send                                     |
| **Calendar** | Search, read, and list events; check availability and propose meeting times; **(opt-in)** create, reschedule, and cancel events |
| **People**   | Look someone up by name or email to address mail and invites accurately                                                         |
| **Tasks**    | Read your Microsoft To Do tasks; **(opt-in)** add, update, and complete them                                                    |

## What it can and can't do

**It can**

* Answer questions across mail, calendar, and tasks in one go ("what did Maria
  send about the budget, and is a deck attached?").
* Find a time that works for several people and put the meeting on your calendar.
* Send, reply, draft, create or cancel — when those tools are enabled — always as
  you, and with a confirmation step before anything risky (sending mail, cancelling
  a meeting).
* Link straight to the message, event, or task it's talking about.

**It can't**

* Read or act on **shared mailboxes, delegate calendars, or anyone else's**
  mailbox — only the signed-in user's own data.
* Act as the organization. There are **no admin / org-wide tools** here and **no
  tenant-admin consent** is required. Everything runs with each user's own
  permission.
* Hold a conversation over email (that's a separate email *channel* feature).

## Set it up

<Steps>
  <Step title="Add the integration">
    From your agent, open **Integrations**, choose **Microsoft Outlook**, and pick
    the modules you want — Mail, Calendar, People, Tasks. A scheduling assistant
    usually wants Calendar + People; a mail triage agent wants Mail.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Turn on any write tools you want (optional)">
    Reads are on by default. To let the agent send mail, draft, reply, or create /
    cancel events, switch those tools on individually. Leaving them off keeps the
    integration read-only.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Attest to the access requested">
    Review the Microsoft permissions. The higher-impact ones — sending mail,
    changing the calendar, reading tasks, checking others' free/busy — are flagged
    and only appear when you've enabled the matching tools. Confirm, name the
    integration, and save.
  </Step>

  <Step title="Let people authorize themselves">
    The first time the agent uses an Outlook tool for someone, that person signs in
    with Microsoft and approves the access. From then on the agent acts as them.
    Nothing for you to connect in the Microsoft admin center.
  </Step>
</Steps>

That's it. Cobalt hosts the Microsoft connection, so there's no app registration,
client secret, or admin consent to manage.

## How writes stay safe

Write tools run under the same guardrails every Cobalt integration gets:

* **Confirmation before risky actions.** Sending mail and cancelling a meeting
  always show you exactly what's about to happen and wait for your go-ahead.
* **Look before it changes.** The agent must read a specific message, event, or
  task before it edits or cancels it — and if that item changed in the meantime,
  it re-checks first, so it never acts on a stale or wrong item.
* **It reports what actually happened**, with a link to the sent mail, the new
  event, or the updated task — not just what it intended.
* **Editing is limited to safe fields** (flag or categorize a message, reschedule
  an event, complete a task). You control which fields the agent may change on the
  integration's **Capabilities** tab.

## Troubleshooting

<Warning>
  **"Please authorize Microsoft."** Each person authorizes once, and again if you
  later enable a tool that needs a new permission (for example, turning on **send**
  after launching read-only). Approve the prompt and the agent picks up where it
  left off.
</Warning>

* **A tool says it's unavailable.** It's probably switched off. Turn it on per-tool
  on the integration's **Capabilities** tab (writes are off by default).
* **"I couldn't find any you can access."** The agent only sees the asking user's
  own mail and calendar. If something lives in a shared mailbox or another person's
  calendar, it's intentionally out of reach.
* **"Outlook is busy, try again shortly."** Microsoft briefly rate-limited the
  request; it clears on its own in a few seconds.
* **An attachment came back as a link only.** Very large attachments and
  non-text file types are returned as a link to open in Outlook rather than
  inlined for the agent to read.
* **A recipient is ambiguous.** If a name matches more than one person, the agent
  asks which one before sending — enable the **People** module so it can resolve
  names to addresses reliably.

## FAQ

<AccordionGroup>
  <Accordion title="Do I need anything set up in the Microsoft 365 admin center?">
    No. Cobalt hosts the Microsoft sign-in, and all of Outlook's permissions are
    ones each user can grant for themselves — so there's no app registration,
    client secret, or tenant-admin consent.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can the agent read my coworker's mailbox or a shared mailbox?">
    No. It acts only on the signed-in user's own mailbox, calendar, contacts, and
    tasks. Shared mailboxes and delegate calendars are out of scope.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Will the agent send mail without asking me?">
    No. Sending mail and cancelling meetings always show you the details and wait
    for confirmation. Sending is also off until an admin enables it.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="How is this different from the email channel?">
    The integration is a set of tools an agent uses *inside* a conversation on
    another channel (web, Slack, Teams, voice). The email **channel** — a separate
    feature — is about holding the conversation itself over email. They're
    unrelated.
  </Accordion>

  <Accordion title="Can it schedule a meeting across several people's calendars?">
    Yes. With Calendar (and People) enabled, it checks attendees' free/busy, proposes
    a time, and — after you confirm — creates the event and sends the invitations.
  </Accordion>
</AccordionGroup>

## Related

* [Integrations overview](/integrations/overview) — how integrations work in general.
* [Google Workspace](/integrations/google-workspace) — the equivalent for Gmail,
  Drive, and Google Calendar.
* [How Cobalt works](/concepts/how-cobalt-works) — where integrations fit.