Egnyte offers its users the ability to connect to external AI connectors in order to bridge the gap between Egnyte and widely used productivity tools.
This guide walks Egnyte admins through connecting Outlook as an AI Connector using the Model Context Protocol (MCP). Once configured, users can now search and read emails, access recent communications, retrieve calendar events, and look up contacts directly from Egnyte's AI Assistant.
Prerequisites
- Microsoft 365 Tenant with Entra/Azure AD Global Admin access
- Egnyte admin privileges (Power User role or higher)
- Outlook connector already visible in the Egnyte connectors library as a pre-loaded connector
Tenant Admin Consent (Pre-Step for Outlook Connector)
Before publishing the connector for end users, a Microsoft 365 tenant admin must grant tenant-wide consent to the Outlook MCP by Egnyte app through Microsoft Graph.
The app requests scopes that individual non-admin users cannot consent to on their own. Without tenant-wide consent, every non-admin user will see Microsoft's Need admin approval screen and will be blocked from authenticating.
Refer to these steps to use a pre-loaded connector, publish the connector, editing the connector, along with the other admin actions.
Configure Tool Permissions
The following tools are available in the Outlook connector for configuration:
- outlook_get_calendar_event - Retrieves complete details of a specific calendar event using its ID, including description, attendees, and meeting notes
- outlook_list_calendar_events - Lists calendar events within a specified date range, including key details such as title, time, location, organizer, and meeting links
- outlook_get_email - Retrieves the full content of a specific email using its ID, including the complete message body
- outlook_get_recent_emails - Fetches the most recent emails from the user’s inbox, sorted by received date for quick access to recent communications
- outlook_search_emails - Searches emails in the user’s mailbox using filters such as keywords, sender, date range, or folders, and returns matching results with metadata
- outlook_search_contacts - Searches the user’s address book by name, email, or company, and returns contact details such as email addresses, phone numbers, and organization information
Admins can set permissions for each tool by selecting either Allow unsupervised or Always ask permission.
All Outlook tools are read-only (list, get, and search operations). It is safe to set them to Allow unsupervised since they only retrieve data from Outlook and do not create, update, or delete any content.
Additional Information
Consideration
Users Previously Granted Individual Consent
Some users may have already granted individual consent to the application prior to tenant-wide approval. Egnyte’s authentication flow supports this scenario. Once tenant admin consent is granted, users can proceed without any additional action.
Troubleshooting
Need Admin Approval Error
If users see a Need admin approval message during authentication, it means tenant-wide admin consent for Microsoft Graph permissions has not yet been granted. A Microsoft 365 tenant admin must approve access by visiting their admin portal
OAuth Authentication Fails
Authentication may fail if admin consent is incomplete or still propagating. After granting consent, allow a few minutes for changes to take effect and retry. Also ensure the required Microsoft Graph permissions are correctly configured.
Tools Return Empty Results or No Access Errors
If tools return no results, it may be due to Outlook or Microsoft Graph permission constraints. The connector only returns data that the user has access to in Outlook. Verify that the user has access to the relevant emails, calendar events, or contacts, and retry if needed.