Getting Started with Remote MCP Servers using Azure Functions (.NET/C#)

This repo has a collection of samples to help you easily build and deploy a custom remote MCP server to the cloud using Azure functions. You can clone/restore/run on your local machine with debugging, and azd up to have a server in the cloud in a couple minutes.

All sample MCP servers are configured with built-in authentication using Microsoft Entra as the identity provider.

You can also use API Management to secure the server, as well as network isolation using VNET.

If you're looking for samples in more languages check out the Node.js/TypeScript and Python samples.

Prerequisites

Required for all development approaches

• .NET 10 SDK
• Azure Functions Core Tools >= 4.5.0
• Azure Developer CLI 1.23.x or above (for deployment)
• Docker (for the Azurite storage emulator)

For Visual Studio development

• Visual Studio 2022
• Make sure to select the Azure development workload during installation

For Visual Studio Code development

• Visual Studio Code
• Azure Functions extension

Choose one: You can use either Visual Studio OR Visual Studio Code. Both provide full debugging support, but the setup steps differ slightly.

Below is the architecture diagram for the Remote MCP Server using Azure Functions:

Samples in this repo

Each project README has instructions for running locally, connecting to the MCP server, deploying to the cloud, and more.

Next Steps

• Learn more about the Azure Functions MCP extension
• Learn more about built-in MCP auth
• Follow our blog posts on Azure SDK Blog and Tech Community for updates.