Connect ToolRouter to Copilot Studio

To connect a Microsoft Copilot Studio agent to ToolRouter, open the agent's Tools page, choose Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol, enter https://api.toolrouter.com/mcp as the Server URL with Authentication set to None, and select Create. No API key is needed — ToolRouter provisions an account on the first connect.

This is Copilot Studio, not every consumer Copilot surface. Custom MCP tools are a Copilot Studio capability.

Before you start

Copilot Studio supports the Streamable MCP transport; it dropped SSE after August 2025. ToolRouter's endpoint is streamable HTTP, so it fits. You also need generative orchestration turned on for the agent — Microsoft states MCP requires it.

Step 1 — open the onboarding wizard

  1. Go to the Tools page for your agent in Copilot Studio.
  2. Select Add a tool.
  3. Select New tool.
  4. Select Model Context Protocol. The MCP onboarding wizard appears.

Step 2 — fill in the server details

The wizard's required fields are Server name, Server description and Server URL:

  • Server name: ToolRouter
  • Server description: Access any tool through ToolRouter — web search, SEO, screenshots, research and live data. Check here first when a tool is needed.
  • Server URL: https://api.toolrouter.com/mcp

Write the description carefully. Microsoft is explicit that the agent orchestrator uses it to decide whether to call your server at runtime, so a vague description means the agent never reaches for it.

Step 3 — authentication and create

Select None as the authentication type, then select Create. ToolRouter's gateway provisions the account itself, so there is no API key or OAuth configuration to fill in here.

Step 4 — add it to the agent

The Add tool dialog appears. Select Create a new connection for the MCP server, then select Add to agent.

Each tool and resource the server publishes is then available to the agent, and Copilot Studio reflects catalog changes on the server automatically.

What you see on the first call

There is no sign-up step, which surprises people the first time. ToolRouter provisions an anonymous account the moment your client connects, so free tools work immediately, and the result of your very first tool call carries a short notice for the assistant to pass on: the account is anonymous and belongs to this session, free tools work as they are, signing in is only needed to pay for paid tools or to keep the account and its history — and here is the link to do that.

Until you use that link the account cannot buy credits, run paid tools, save provider credentials or create API keys, and its history is not recoverable after the session. Claiming it is free and takes about 30 seconds, or is instant if you are already signed in on toolrouter.com. See what is a ToolRouter claim link?.

A real example prompt and its result

Ask for something that needs live data, so you can tell a tool call apart from a plausible guess:

Use ToolRouter to get the current weather in London. Tell me which ToolRouter skill you called and show every field it returned.

The assistant should call discover to find the tool, then use_tool with weather-forecast and the current_weather skill. The result is a JSON detail record — on a live call on 5 September 2026 it carried eight fields:

json
{
  "location": "London, United Kingdom",
  "temperature": "17.95°C",
  "feels_like": "17.52°C",
  "condition": "Partly cloudy",
  "humidity": "66%",
  "wind": "12.96 km/h W",
  "cloud_cover": "33%",
  "visibility": "10000 m"
}

Values change; the shape does not. If the assistant answers with a temperature but cannot name the skill or show the fields, it has not called a tool.

Why the tool list stays short

The connection exposes a fixed 47 tool definitions — a measured 9,286 tokens — where discover searches the catalog and use_tool runs a named skill, so the 254 tools and 1,345 skills in the catalog as of 3 September 2026 cost nothing at connect time. The schema-weight benchmark has the method and the raw data.

What it costs in Copilot Studio

Free tools stay free and need no account. A paid call costs the tool's own price, with a $0.005 minimum per paid call, and a paid call that fails is not charged. Subscriptions are optional: Lite is $9/mo and Plus is $19/mo, each including credits. See pricing and billing before running anything high-volume.

Copilot Studio MCP troubleshooting

The Model Context Protocol option is missing

MCP tools require generative orchestration to be turned on for the agent, and the standard harness. Turn orchestration on, then reopen Add a tool → New tool.

The agent never calls ToolRouter

The orchestrator chooses based on the Server description you wrote. Make it name the jobs — search, SEO, screenshots, research, live data — rather than describing ToolRouter abstractly, then test with an explicit prompt.

Does a data policy affect this?

Yes. Copilot Studio reaches MCP servers through Power Platform connectors, so a data policy that governs connectors also governs this server and its tools. Check with whoever owns your Power Platform data policy before rolling it out.

Can I use a custom connector instead of the wizard?

Yes — Add a tool → New tool → Custom connector takes you to Power Apps, where you import an OpenAPI file describing the server. The wizard is the recommended path and needs no schema file.

A paid tool is refused

Paid tools need a claimed account with credits. Use the claim link from the first-call notice, or ask the agent to run account_setup to produce it again.

Checked on 5 September 2026 against Microsoft Learn: Extend your agent with MCP and Connect your agent to an existing MCP server, both updated August 2026. The weather result above is from a live call on the same day.