microsoft-graph

Microsoft Graph - Printing Press CLI

Prerequisites: Install the CLI

This skill drives the microsoft-graph-cli binary. You must verify the CLI is installed before invoking any command from this skill. If it is missing, install it first:

1. Install via the Printing Press installer. It defaults binaries to $HOME/.local/bin on macOS/Linux and %LOCALAPPDATA%\Programs\PrintingPress\bin on Windows:

   npx -y @mvanhorn/printing-press-library install microsoft-graph --cli-only
   

2. Verify: microsoft-graph-cli --version
3. Ensure the reported install directory is on $PATH for the agent/runtime that will invoke this skill.

If the npx install fails (no Node, offline, etc.), fall back to a direct Go install (requires Go 1.26.4 or newer). This installs into $GOPATH/bin (default $HOME/go/bin), so add that directory to $PATH instead:

go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/cloud/microsoft-graph/cmd/microsoft-graph-cli@latest

If --version reports "command not found" after install, the runtime cannot see the binary directory on $PATH. Do not proceed with skill commands until verification succeeds.

Microsoft is retiring the Microsoft Graph CLI (mgc) in August 2026, leaving M365 admins and MSPs without a lightweight, scriptable replacement scoped to the directory, security, licensing, and device core. This is that replacement: one cross-platform Go binary (no .NET or PowerShell runtime), with a local SQLite store that powers cross-entity answers - licenses waste, admins audit, security triage, managed-devices drift, tenant snapshot - that no single Graph endpoint returns.

When to Use This CLI

Reach for this CLI for read-side Microsoft 365 / Entra tenant administration from a terminal, script, or agent: directory lookups (users, groups, roles), licensing and cost questions, security-alert triage, and Intune device-compliance reporting. It is the right tool when you want one cross-platform binary instead of the retiring mgc, the PowerShell Microsoft.Graph module, or the M365 admin portals - and especially when the question spans entities (waste, orphaned licenses, privileged access, compliance drift, tenant posture) that no single Graph call answers. It is read-focused; apart from the explicit import command (a JSONL create path, previewable with --dry-run), it does not create, update, or delete directory objects. The cross-entity analytics commands (licenses waste/orphans/map, admins audit, security triage, managed-devices drift, tenant snapshot, groups risk) read the LOCAL SQLite store - run microsoft-graph-cli pull first to populate it, or they will honestly return empty results with a stderr sync hint.

Anti-triggers

Do not use this CLI for:

• Do not use this CLI to create, update, or delete directory objects, send mail, or change tenant state - the only write path is the explicit import command (JSONL create, previewable with --dry-run).
• Do not use the cross-entity analytics commands against a never-synced store and treat empty output as a real answer - run pull first; an unsynced store returns honest empties with a stderr hint.

Unique Capabilities

These capabilities aren't available in any other tool for this API.

License cost intelligence

• licenses waste - Surfaces every tenant SKU where you are paying for more seats than you use, ranked by unused seats.

  Reach for this to find recoverable M365 license spend across a tenant in one call instead of exporting SKU CSVs from the admin center.

  microsoft-graph-cli licenses waste --agent
  

• licenses orphans - Lists disabled and guest accounts that still hold paid SKUs - licenses you are paying for but nobody is using.

  Use before a license true-up to reclaim seats assigned to disabled or guest identities.

  microsoft-graph-cli licenses orphans --json
  

• licenses map - Lists every user consuming a specific SKU, with account-enabled state and guest flags, so you can plan seat reclamation and reassignment.

  Reach for this when you need to know exactly who holds a given SKU before reclaiming or reassigning seats.

  microsoft-graph-cli licenses map ENTERPRISEPACK --agent
  

Security & privileged-access

• admins audit - Lists every holder of a privileged directory role with the role name, account-enabled state, and guest/disabled risk flags.

  Run this for the monthly privileged-access review - it is the fastest answer to 'who can administer this tenant right now'.

  microsoft-graph-cli admins audit --agent
  

• security triage - Counts the open security alerts created in a recent time window, grouped by severity and detection source.

  Reach for this every morning to answer 'what is new and still open since yesterday' without portal pagination.

  microsoft-graph-cli security triage --since 24h --agent
  

• groups risk - Flags ownerless, empty, and guest-heavy groups across the tenant in one pass.

  Use this for tenant governance reviews when no single Graph filter can surface risky groups.

  microsoft-graph-cli groups risk --agent
  

Device & tenant posture

• managed-devices drift - Flags Intune devices that are non-compliant, unencrypted, or have not checked in within a time window, attributed to their assigned user.

  Use to build the weekly device-compliance ticket queue in one command instead of a portal-to-spreadsheet ETL.

  microsoft-graph-cli managed-devices drift --days 30 --json
  

• tenant snapshot - One agent-readable summary of the tenant: user and guest counts, license waste, admin count, open high-severity alerts, and non-compliant device count.

  Reach for this first when you pick up a tenant - it is the 'where does this tenant stand' answer an MSP needs before drilling in.

  microsoft-graph-cli tenant snapshot --agent
  

Command Reference

devices - Entra ID registered/joined device objects

• microsoft-graph-cli devices get - Get an Entra device by object id
• microsoft-graph-cli devices list - List Entra-registered devices

directory-roles - Entra ID directory roles (admin roles) and their members

• microsoft-graph-cli directory-roles get - Get a directory role by object id
• microsoft-graph-cli directory-roles list - List activated directory roles in the tenant
• microsoft-graph-cli directory-roles members - List the members assigned to a directory role

groups - Entra ID groups - list, get, members, and owners

• microsoft-graph-cli groups get - Get a group by object id
• microsoft-graph-cli groups list - List groups in the tenant
• microsoft-graph-cli groups members - List a group's members
• microsoft-graph-cli groups owners - List a group's owners

licenses - Tenant commercial subscriptions (subscribedSkus)

• microsoft-graph-cli licenses sku - Get a single subscribed SKU by id
• microsoft-graph-cli licenses skus - List the commercial subscriptions (SKUs) the tenant owns

managed-devices - Intune-managed devices and their compliance posture

• microsoft-graph-cli managed-devices get - Get an Intune-managed device by id
• microsoft-graph-cli managed-devices list - List Intune-managed devices (requires an Intune license)

security - Microsoft Defender / Sentinel security alerts and incidents

• microsoft-graph-cli security alert - Get a security alert by id
• microsoft-graph-cli security alerts - List security alerts (alerts_v2)
• microsoft-graph-cli security incident - Get a security incident by id
• microsoft-graph-cli security incidents - List security incidents

users - Entra ID (Azure AD) users - list, get, mail, and license details

• microsoft-graph-cli users get - Get a user by object id or userPrincipalName
• microsoft-graph-cli users licenses - List the SKUs/licenses assigned to a user
• microsoft-graph-cli users list - List users in the tenant
• microsoft-graph-cli users me - Get the signed-in user (delegated tokens only; app-only tokens have no /me)
• microsoft-graph-cli users messages - List a user's mail messages

Finding the right command

When you know what you want to do but not which command does it, ask the CLI directly:

microsoft-graph-cli which "<capability in your own words>"

which resolves a natural-language capability query to the best matching command from this CLI's curated feature index. Exit code 0 means at least one match; exit code 2 means no confident match - fall back to --help or use a narrower query.

Recipes

Find recoverable license spend

microsoft-graph-cli licenses waste --agent

Ranks SKUs by unused paid seats so you can right-size subscriptions at renewal.

Monthly privileged-access review

microsoft-graph-cli admins audit --agent

Lists every directory-role holder with risk flags for guest or disabled admin accounts.

Morning alert triage

microsoft-graph-cli security triage --since 24h --agent

Groups open alerts from the last day by severity and detection source.

Device compliance ticket queue

microsoft-graph-cli managed-devices drift --days 30 --agent

Surfaces non-compliant, unencrypted, or stale-sync Intune devices mapped to their user.

Trim a large user payload to just the fields you need

microsoft-graph-cli users list --top 50 --agent --select id,displayName,userPrincipalName,accountEnabled

Pairs --agent with --select to keep agent context small when a Graph user object would otherwise return dozens of properties.

Auth Setup

Microsoft Graph uses OAuth2 bearer tokens. For unattended MSP use, run auth login --tenant <tenant-id> --client-id <app-id> --client-secret <secret> to mint and cache an app-only token via the client-credentials flow. Alternatively, export a pre-minted token as MICROSOFT_GRAPH_TOKEN (for example from az account get-access-token --scope https://graph.microsoft.com/.default --query accessToken -o tsv or Graph Explorer). Read scopes such as User.Read.All, Directory.Read.All, RoleManagement.Read.Directory, SecurityAlert.Read.All, and DeviceManagementManagedDevices.Read.All must be granted and admin-consented on the app registration.

Run microsoft-graph-cli doctor to verify setup.

Agent Mode

Add --agent to any command. Expands to: --json --compact --no-input --no-color --yes.

• Pipeable - JSON on stdout, errors on stderr

• Filterable - --select keeps a subset of fields. Dotted paths descend into nested structures; arrays traverse element-wise. Critical for keeping context small on verbose APIs:

  microsoft-graph-cli devices list --agent --select id,name,status
  

• Previewable - --dry-run shows the request without sending

• Offline-friendly - sync/search commands can use the local SQLite store when available

• Non-interactive - never prompts, every input is a flag

• Read-only - do not use this CLI for create, update, delete, publish, comment, upvote, invite, order, send, or other mutating requests

Response envelope

Commands that read from the local store or the API wrap output in a provenance envelope:

{
  "meta": {"source": "live" | "local", "synced_at": "...", "reason": "..."},
  "results": <data>
}

Parse .results for data and .meta.source to know whether it's live or local. A human-readable N results (live) summary is printed to stderr only when stdout is a terminal AND no machine-format flag (--json, --csv, --compact, --quiet, --plain, --select) is set - piped/agent consumers and explicit-format runs get pure JSON on stdout.

Agent Feedback

When you (or the agent) notice something off about this CLI, record it:

microsoft-graph-cli feedback "the --since flag is inclusive but docs say exclusive"
microsoft-graph-cli feedback --stdin < notes.txt
microsoft-graph-cli feedback list --json --limit 10

Entries are stored locally at ~/.local/share/microsoft-graph-cli/feedback.jsonl. They are never POSTed unless MICROSOFT_GRAPH_FEEDBACK_ENDPOINT is set AND either --send is passed or MICROSOFT_GRAPH_FEEDBACK_AUTO_SEND=true. Default behavior is local-only.

Write what surprised you, not a bug report. Short, specific, one line: that is the part that compounds.

Output Delivery

Every command accepts --deliver <sink>. The output goes to the named sink in addition to (or instead of) stdout, so agents can route command results without hand-piping. Three sinks are supported:

Unknown schemes are refused with a structured error naming the supported set. Webhook failures return non-zero and log the URL + HTTP status on stderr.

Named Profiles

A profile is a saved set of flag values, reused across invocations. Use it when a scheduled agent calls the same command every run with the same configuration - HeyGen's "Beacon" pattern.

microsoft-graph-cli profile save briefing --json
microsoft-graph-cli --profile briefing devices list
microsoft-graph-cli profile list --json
microsoft-graph-cli profile show briefing
microsoft-graph-cli profile delete briefing --yes

Explicit flags always win over profile values; profile values win over defaults. agent-context lists all available profiles under available_profiles so introspecting agents discover them at runtime.

Exit Codes

Argument Parsing

Parse $ARGUMENTS:

1. Empty, help, or --help → show microsoft-graph-cli --help output
2. Starts with install → ends with mcp → MCP installation; otherwise → see Prerequisites above
3. Anything else → Direct Use (execute as CLI command with --agent)

MCP Server Installation

1. Install the MCP server:

   go install github.com/mvanhorn/printing-press-library/library/cloud/microsoft-graph/cmd/microsoft-graph-mcp@latest
   

2. Register with Claude Code:

   claude mcp add microsoft-graph-mcp -- microsoft-graph-mcp
   

3. Verify: claude mcp list

Direct Use

1. Check if installed: which microsoft-graph-cli If not found, offer to install (see Prerequisites at the top of this skill).
2. Match the user query to the best command from the Unique Capabilities and Command Reference above.
3. Execute with the --agent flag:

   microsoft-graph-cli <command> [subcommand] [args] --agent
   

4. If ambiguous, drill into subcommand help: microsoft-graph-cli <command> --help.