Viva Engage

An open source Model Context Protocol (MCP) server that connects Claude AI to Viva Engage (Yammer). Browse your home network communities, search posts, read conversations, and post replies — all through natural conversation with Claude.

Built by Pranav Joshi

---

What You Can Do

Once connected, you can ask Claude things like:

• "Summarize what's new in all my communities today"
• "What is new in ISV Collaboration this week?"
• "Find all posts about AL Extensions this week"
• "What are the latest conversations in the Developers community?"
• "Post an announcement to the Business Central community"
• "Search for posts about Business Central errors"
• "Show me my Viva Engage feed"

---

Important Limitation — Home Network Only

This MCP server works with your home network only (the primary organization network tied to your login credentials).

Why can't it access external networks?

Viva Engage supports two types of networks:

• Home network — your primary organization (e.g. your company's Viva Engage)
• External networks — communities hosted by other organizations you're a guest member of (e.g. Microsoft's BC Partners community)

The Yammer REST API (www.yammer.com/api/v1) only returns data from your home network regardless of what parameters or tokens are used. External networks require browser session cookies that are only available after a full web-based login — something that cannot be replicated through API calls alone.

Microsoft's newer Graph API (graph.microsoft.com) also does not support external networks — it only works with networks in native mode within your own tenant.

This is a Microsoft API limitation, not a limitation of this MCP server. If Microsoft expands their API to support external networks in the future, this server can be updated to support them.

---

How It Works

You ask Claude a question
        ↓
Claude calls this MCP server
        ↓
Server calls Viva Engage API using YOUR login
        ↓
Returns data only YOU can already see
        ↓
Claude answers your question

Privacy: Every user registers their own Azure app and uses their own Microsoft credentials. No data ever goes through anyone else's infrastructure. Your login token is stored encrypted on your machine only.

---

Prerequisites

• Node.js v18 or higher
• Claude Desktop
• A Microsoft work/school account with Viva Engage access

---

Step 1 — Register Your Own Azure App

This is a one-time setup (~10 minutes). You register your own app under your own Microsoft account. No one else can use your app — it is tied to your credentials only.

1. Go to portal.azure.com and sign in with your work/school Microsoft account
2. Search for "App registrations" → click "+ New registration"
3. Fill in:
   • Name: mcp-viva-engage (or anything you like)
   • Supported account types: Multiple Entra ID tenants → select Allow all tenants
   • Redirect URI:
     • Platform = Public client/native (mobile & desktop)
     • URI = http://localhost
4. Click "Register"
5. On the overview page, copy and save both of these:
   • Application (client) ID
   • Directory (tenant) ID

Add API Permissions

1. In the left sidebar click "API permissions"
2. Click "+ Add a permission" → click the "All APIs" tab → search for "Yammer"
3. Click "Yammer" → click "Delegated permissions"
4. Check these four permissions:
   • ✅ user_impersonation
   • ✅ Community.Read.All
   • ✅ EngagementConversation.ReadWrite.All
   • ✅ Storyline.ReadWrite.All
5. Click "Add permissions"

Note for work/school accounts: Your organization's IT admin may need to grant consent for this app before you can log in for the first time. This is a one-time step. You can submit an approval request directly from the login screen when you first run the server.

---

Step 2 — Clone and Build

# Clone the repo
git clone https://github.com/pranav4186/mcp-viva-engage.git
cd mcp-viva-engage

# Install dependencies
npm install

# Build
npm run build

---

Step 3 — Configure Your Credentials

Copy the example env file:

# Windows
copy .env.example .env

# Mac/Linux
cp .env.example .env

Open .env and fill in your values from Step 1:

AZURE_CLIENT_ID=your-application-client-id-here
AZURE_TENANT_ID=your-directory-tenant-id-here

Important: Never commit your .env file to GitHub. It is already in .gitignore to prevent this.

---

Step 4 — Connect to Claude Desktop

Open your Claude Desktop config file:

• Windows: %APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json
• Mac: ~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json

Add the viva-engage server to the mcpServers section:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "viva-engage-mcp": {
      "command": "node",
      "args": ["C:/path/to/mcp-viva-engage/dist/server.js"],
      "env": {
        "AZURE_CLIENT_ID": "your-application-client-id-here",
        "AZURE_TENANT_ID": "your-directory-tenant-id-here"
      }
    }
  }
}

Replace C:/path/to/mcp-viva-engage with the actual path where you cloned the repo. Windows paths can use forward slashes / or double backslashes \\.

Fully quit and restart Claude Desktop after saving.

---

Step 5 — First Login

The first time you ask Claude something about Viva Engage:

1. A browser window automatically opens with Microsoft's login page
2. Sign in with your work/school Microsoft account
3. Approve the permissions
4. Browser shows "Login successful!"
5. Claude completes your request

Your session is kept encrypted on your machine. When you restart Claude Desktop you may need to log in again.

---

Available Tools

Tool	Description
get_networks	Get all Viva Engage networks you belong to
get_communities	List all communities in your home network
get_community_by_id	Get details of a specific community by ID
get_community_messages	Get posts in a community — accepts name or ID, supports pagination
get_recent_messages	Get recent messages across all communities — great for daily summaries
get_thread	Get all messages in a conversation thread
search_messages	Search posts across your home network — supports date filtering
post_message	Post a new message to a community — accepts name or ID
reply_to_message	Reply to an existing conversation thread
get_storyline_feed	Get your personal Viva Engage storyline feed

Example Prompts

What you ask Claude	What happens behind the scenes
"Summarize what's new today"	get_recent_messages with hours_ago: 24
"What's new this week in ISV Collaboration?"	get_community_messages with name "ISV Collaboration"
"Find AL Extension posts this week"	search_messages with from_date set to 7 days ago
"Post to Developers group"	post_message with name "Developers" — no ID needed
"Summarize the last 10 posts in Business Central"	get_community_messages with name "Business Central"

---

Security & Privacy

🔐 Your own Azure app	Every user registers their own app — no shared infrastructure
🔐 Your own credentials	You log in with your own Microsoft account
🔐 Encrypted token storage	Token is encrypted using Windows DPAPI (or plain file on Mac/Linux)
🔐 No secrets in code	Client ID and Tenant ID stay in your local .env file only
🔐 Delegated permissions	Server can only see what you can already see in Viva Engage
🔐 Password never touched	Microsoft handles authentication entirely

---

Project Structure

mcp-viva-engage/
├── src/
│   ├── auth/
│   │   └── auth.ts          # Microsoft OAuth login with DPAPI encrypted cache
│   ├── yammerClient.ts      # Viva Engage / Yammer API client
│   └── server.ts            # MCP server and tool definitions
├── .env.example             # Template — copy to .env and fill in your values
├── .gitignore               # Prevents .env from being committed
├── package.json
├── tsconfig.json
└── README.md

---

Troubleshooting

"Approval required" on first login

Your organization requires admin consent for new apps. Ask your IT admin to approve the app in Azure portal → Enterprise Applications → find mcp-viva-engage → Grant admin consent. This is a one-time action.

Server not showing in Claude Desktop

Fully quit and restart Claude Desktop after editing the config file. Verify the path to dist/server.js is correct.

Login required again after restart

The encrypted token may have expired. Simply log in again — the session will be cached after login.

Only seeing home network communities

This is expected — see the Important Limitation section above. The Yammer REST API only supports home network access.

Path issues on Windows

Use either forward slashes C:/path/to/dist/server.js or double backslashes C:\\path\\to\\dist\\server.js in the config file.

get_recent_messages is slow

This tool scans all your communities one by one. If you have many communities it may take 10-20 seconds. This is normal — the Yammer API does not support bulk message fetching.

---

Known Limitations

• Home network only — External networks (e.g. Microsoft BC Partners community) are not accessible via any public Microsoft API. See explanation above.
• Rate limiting — Yammer API allows 10 requests per user per app per 30 seconds. get_recent_messages may hit this limit if you have many communities.
• Read-only search — Search results are limited to what Viva Engage indexes.
• No draft support — Messages posted via post_message are published immediately. There is no draft or preview mode in the Yammer API.

---

Roadmap

• get_my_info — get current user profile for better context
• like_message — like/unlike posts
• get_community_members — list members of a community
• Convert to a remote connector so users don't need local setup
• Windows Credential Manager support for even more secure token storage
• Support external networks if Microsoft adds API support in future

---

Changelog

v1.1.0

• get_community_messages now accepts community name or ID (no more looking up IDs)
• post_message now accepts community name or ID
• search_messages now supports date filtering (from_date parameter)
• New get_recent_messages tool — scan all communities for recent activity
• Message bodies now return clean plain text (HTML tags stripped)
• Pagination support added to get_community_messages

v1.0.0

• Initial release

---

License

MIT — see LICENSE for details.

---

Disclaimer

This is an independent open source project and is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or supported by Microsoft or Viva Engage. Use at your own risk.