Unable to receive Teams channel messages for AI Teammate without explicit @mention

Question

Unable to receive Teams channel messages for AI Teammate without explicit @mention

Akshay Babar 65

Issue Description

We are building an AI Teammate (Agent 365) for Microsoft Teams channels using the @microsoft/agents-a365 SDK.

Current Behavior

Scenario 1: Direct @Mention (Working)

When a user explicitly @mentions the AI Teammate in a Teams channel message, our server endpoint receives the MessageActivity payload successfully, and the agent responds as expected.

Scenario 2: Regular Channel Messages Without @Mention (Not Working)

When users send normal messages in the channel without mentioning the AI Teammate:

No notification payload is received by our server endpoint.

No agents:* notification event is triggered.

Our registered notification handler is never invoked.

Because of this, the AI Teammate is unable to process channel messages unless it is explicitly mentioned.

Configuration and Environment

SDK Packages:

@microsoft/agents-a365-notifications

@microsoft/agents-hosting

Application Type:

Microsoft Teams AI Teammate (Agent 365)
Custom Agent Identity configured through Microsoft Entra ID

The Teams app manifest contains the following RSC permissions:

{
  "webApplicationInfo": {
    "id": "<YOUR_ENTRA_BLUEPRINT_ID>",
    "resource": "api://YOUR_ENTRA_AGENT_CLIENT_ID"
  },
  "authorization": {
    "permissions": {
      "resourceSpecific": [
        {
          "name": "ChannelMessage.Read.Group",
          "type": "Application"
        }
      ]
    }
  }
}

Expected Behavior

We expect the AI Teammate to receive notification events for channel messages even when users do not explicitly @mention the agent, since:

The agent has its own identity in Entra ID.

The agent is already added as a member of the private Teams channel.

Required Resource-Specific Consent (RSC) permissions (ChannelMessage.Read.Group) have been configured.

Assistance Required

Could you please confirm:

Is ChannelMessage.Read.Group supported for AI Teammate custom identities to receive non-mention channel messages?

Are there any additional permissions, configurations, or tenant-level settings required to receive agents:* notifications for all channel messages?

Is the expected behavior that AI Teammates only receive messages when explicitly @mentioned?

Are there any additional SDK configuration steps required to enable background notifications for channel messages?

We would appreciate your guidance on the correct configuration required to receive non-mention channel messages for an AI Teammate.

0 comments

2 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Michelle-N 20,645 Microsoft External Staff Moderator

Hi @Akshay Babar

Based on the current Microsoft Teams documentation and are intended to enable bots and agents to receive channel or chat messages without being explicitly @mentioned, provided the app is configured and consented correctly through the Teams app manifest and installation flow. The documentation states that RSC permissions are extended to bots and agents, and that these permissions can enable a bot defined in the app manifest to receive conversation messages without being @mentioned in the relevant context.

So, in principle, is the correct RSC permission for receiving channel messages without @mentions. However, adding the AI Teammate’s Entra identity directly as a member of the private channel is not, by itself, what enables the message delivery. The important requirement is that the Teams app/bot/agent is installed in the conversation and that the RSC permission has been granted through the Teams app consent/install or upgrade process. Microsoft’s documentation specifically says conversation owners can consent for a bot to receive all messages in channels and chats without @mentions during app installation or upgrade. [learn.microsoft.com] A few things I would check in your configuration:

Confirm the Teams app was installed or upgraded after adding the RSC permissions If the app was already installed before was added to the manifest, the permission might not be effective until the app is re-uploaded, upgraded, and consented again in the target team/channel context.
Confirm the bot/agent is defined in the Teams app manifest The documentation describes this behavior as enabling “a bot defined in the app manifest” to receive conversation messages without being @mentioned. If the agent identity exists in Entra ID but is not correctly associated with the bot/agent entry in the Teams app manifest, message fan-out may not occur.
Validate the value In the manifest snippet, the resource value appears to be missing the closing/full value "resource": "api://<YOUR_ENTRA_BLUEPRINT_ID" It should be validated against the actual Application ID URI configured for the Entra application. A malformed value can prevent RSC consent from binding correctly to the intended application.
Check whether the issue is specific to private channels Microsoft’s Channel Agent support documentation states that Channel Agent currently can’t be added to private channels, and that Channel Agent is in public preview with limitations. This may not be exactly the same as a custom Agent 365 SDK implementation, but it is worth testing in a standard channel to isolate whether the behavior is private-channel-specific.
Differentiate normal message activities from notifications The Teams documentation for receiving all channel/chat messages describes bots or agents receiving message activities without @mentions when RSC is configured. It does not clearly state that every non-mention channel message must arrive specifically as an notification event. If your handler is not firing, also verify whether non-mention messages should be handled through the normal message activity pipeline rather than only through the notification handler.

Please let me know more details.

Note: Please follow the steps in our documentation to enable e-mail notifications if you want to receive the related email notification for this thread.

Akshay Babar 65

Hi @Michelle-N

Thank you for the detailed response.

I have verified the points mentioned from our side:

We verified in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center that the required RSC permission (ChannelMessage.Read.Group) is applied correctly.
After adding the RSC permission in the Teams manifest, we updated the app version, upgraded the package, and reinstalled/upgraded the Teams app to ensure the latest permissions were applied.
When a user explicitly @mentions the AI Teammate in the Teams channel, we receive the message event successfully, and the agent responds as expected.
However, when users send messages in the channel without mentioning the AI Teammate, we are still not receiving any events/notifications on our endpoint.
We also created a new AI Teammate instance from the blueprint after upgrading the blueprint configuration, but the behavior remains the same.

Teams app manifest details for your reference.

   {
   "$schema": "https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/json-schemas/teams/vdevPreview/MicrosoftTeams.schema.json",
   "id": "<BLUEPRINT_ID>",
   "name": {
    "short": "<NAME>",
    "full": "<NAME>"
   },
   "description": {
    "short": "A brief description of what your agent does.",
    "full": "A comprehensive description of your agent\u0027s capabilities and purpose. Explain what problems it solves, what data it can access, and how users will interact with it. This description helps users understand when and how to use your agent effectively."
   },
   "icons": {
    "outline": "outline.png",
    "color": "color.png"
   },
   "accentColor": "#9ec9d9",
   "version": "1.2.1",
   "manifestVersion": "1.28",
   "developer": {
    "name": "Microsoft Corporation",
    "mpnId": "",
    "websiteUrl": "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=518028",
    "privacyUrl": "https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=518028",
    "termsOfUseUrl": "https://shares.datatransfer.microsoft.com/assets/Microsoft_Terms_of_Use.html"
   },
   "agenticUserTemplates": [
    {
      "id": "7b0926a6-c4ee-445a-a913-bd054594bd09",
      "file": "agenticUserTemplateManifest.json"
    }
   ],
   "configurableTabs": [
    {
      "configurationUrl": "<URL>",
      "canUpdateConfiguration": true,
      "scopes": [
        "team"
      ],
      "context": [
        "channelTab"
      ]
    }
   ],
   "validDomains": [
    "DOMAIN"
   ],
   "webApplicationInfo": {
    "id": "<BLUEPRINT_ID>",
    "resource": "api://<BLUEPRINT_ID>"
   },
   "authorization": {
    "permissions": {
      "resourceSpecific": [
        {
          "name": "ChannelMessage.Read.Group",
          "type": "Application"
        }
      ]
    }
   }
   }

Currently, the AI Teammate instance created from the blueprint has been added as a member of a private Teams channel, and our testing is being performed in that channel.
Code handler for receiving events
Could you please suggest the next steps or any additional configuration required to receive non-mention channel messages?

Michelle-N 20,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-21T13:12:00.71+00:00

Hi @Akshay Babar

Thanks for your patience. Please give me a bit more time to research this, and I'll get back to you with additional information.
Michelle-N 20,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-22T12:06:05.6+00:00
Hi @Akshay Babar

Thank you for confirming the additional details.

Based on the current Teams documentation, ChannelMessage.Read.Group is the correct RSC permission for allowing a bot or agent to receive channel messages without being explicitly @mentioned. Microsoft documentation states that RSC permissions are extended to bots and agents, and that ChannelMessage.Read.Group enables a bot defined in the app manifest to receive conversation messages in channel contexts without being @mentioned, provided the app is installed and consented in the relevant conversation context.

However, there are two important points to isolate in your scenario:

By default, Teams bots in channels only receive messages when they are @mentioned. RSC is the exception that allows all channel messages to be delivered, but only when the app/bot is correctly installed and consented with the RSC permission.

Your current test is in a private channel. Teams documentation notes that private channel support for bot apps is limited, and that bots cannot post messages or Adaptive Cards in private channel conversations. Because of this limitation, I would first validate the same manifest and code path in a standard channel to confirm whether the issue is specific to private channel behavior.

Also, the RSC documentation describes the behavior as the bot or agent receiving the message activity without being @mentioned. It does not necessarily mean that every non-mention channel message will arrive through an agents:* notification handler. The sample logic shown in the documentation expects non-mention messages to reach the normal message activity pipeline, where developers can choose whether to process all messages or filter only messages that mention the bot.

So the next checks I would suggest are:

Test the same app in a standard Teams channel, not a private channel.

Confirm that the bot/agent is actually defined in the Teams app manifest, not only represented by an Entra custom identity.

Confirm the app was installed or reinstalled into the target team after the RSC permission was added.

Validate whether non-mention messages arrive in the normal message / MessageActivity handler, rather than only checking the agents:* notification handler.

If the behavior works in a standard channel but not in a private channel, then the current limitation is most likely related to private channel bot support rather than the ChannelMessage.Read.Group permission itself.

In short, ChannelMessage.Read.Group is supported for receiving channel messages without @mentions in the documented RSC bot/agent scenario, but I would not rely on adding the AI Teammate identity as a private channel member as the enabling condition. The enabling condition is the Teams app installation plus RSC consent, and private channel behavior should be validated separately because Teams bot support there is limited.
Michelle-N 20,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-23T14:20:01.4766667+00:00

Hi @Akshay Babar

Is there any update from you?

If yes, please feel free to let me know.
Akshay Babar 65 Reputation points

2026-07-23T17:38:19.7866667+00:00
Hi @Michelle-N
I tried it, but I’m still not receiving the events.

I tried the same thing on a standard channel.

I added the bot configuration in manifest, but I’m still not receiving the events.
Michelle-N 20,645 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff Moderator

2026-07-24T12:19:23.8766667+00:00

Hi @Akshay Babar

After researching the issue, the best recommendation I can provide is to raise a support ticket through the Teams Admin Center, where the appropriate specialists will be able to assist you further and investigate the issue in more detail.

Thank you for your understanding, and I appreciate your patience.

Answer 2

Code implementation


export class MyAgent extends AgentApplication<TurnState> {
  static authHandlerName: string = 'agentic';

  constructor() {
    super({
      startTypingTimer: true,
      storage: new MemoryStorage(),
      authorization: {
        agentic: {
          type: 'agentic',
        } // scopes set in the .env file...
      }
    });

    // Route agent notifications
    this.onAgentNotification("agents:*", async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState, agentNotificationActivity: AgentNotificationActivity) => {
      console.log("******************************************************8")
      await this.handleAgentNotificationActivity(context, state, agentNotificationActivity);
    }, 1, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]);

    // 2. User Identity Lifecycle Handlers
    this.onAgenticUserCreatedNotification(async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState, notification: AgentNotificationActivity) => {
      console.log("========== [User Identity] User Created ==========");
      console.log("Payload:", JSON.stringify(notification, null, 2));
    }, 1, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]);

    this.onAgenticUserWorkloadOnboardingNotification(async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState, notification: AgentNotificationActivity) => {
      console.log("========== [User Identity] Workload Onboarded / Updated ==========");
      console.log("Payload:", JSON.stringify(notification, null, 2));
    }, 1, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]);

    this.onAgenticUserDeletedNotification(async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState, notification: AgentNotificationActivity) => {
      console.log("========== [User Identity] User Deleted ==========");
      console.log("Payload:", JSON.stringify(notification, null, 2));
    }, 1, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]); 

    this.onActivity(ActivityTypes.Message, async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState) => {
      await this.handleAgentMessageActivity(context, state);
    }, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]);

     this.onActivity(ActivityTypes.MessageUpdate, async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState) => {
      await this.handleAgentMessageActivity(context, state);
    }, [MyAgent.authHandlerName]);

    // Handle agent install / uninstall events (agentInstanceCreated / InstallationUpdate)
    this.onActivity(ActivityTypes.InstallationUpdate, async (context: TurnContext, state: TurnState) => {
      await this.handleInstallationUpdateActivity(context, state);
    });
  }