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Step 5: Automate workflows in Azure SRE Agent

Your team probably has recurring tasks like checking service health every morning, reviewing overnight alerts, verifying certificate expirations, or posting weekly capacity reports. Connect your tools, build a workflow, and let the agent run it on a schedule.

What you accomplish

  • Connect a notification tool so the agent can send messages
  • Create a custom agent that uses that tool
  • Schedule a recurring health check that runs automatically
  • See the complete workflow on the visual canvas

Prerequisites

Requirement Details
Completed Steps 1 and 2 Create and set up your agent, and complete team onboarding
Azure context for this example Access to the Azure resources the task checks. A logging provider is needed only if the task requests logs. The connector identity needs suitable RBAC for the requested data.
Recipient An email address that can receive the test report

Tip

Steps 3 and 4 (first investigation and automating incidents) aren't required for this step. Completing them first gives you a better understanding of what workflows can automate.

How it works

Automation connects three building blocks, each one set up through the portal:

Building block What it does Example
Connector Gives the agent access to an external service Teams, Outlook, Jira, Grafana
Custom agent A specialized worker with access to specific tools health-check-reporter with permission to send messages
Scheduled task Triggers a custom agent on a recurring schedule "Every morning at 8 AM, check resource health and send a summary"

Add a connector

Connectors let the agent interact with external services. Start with a notification tool so your agent can report findings. This article walks through setting up an Outlook connector. For Teams, see Set up a Teams connector.

  1. Go to Builder > Connectors in the left navigation.
  2. Select Add connector.
  3. Select the Notification tab.
  4. Select the preview Office 365 Outlook connector with service Microsoft Outlook.
  5. Sign in and authorize access.
  6. In Configure tools, select the email-send operation.
  7. Set its Policy to Ask.
  8. Turn on Parameter policy for the email-send operation.
  9. In its recipient or To parameter, enter the fixed address from the prerequisites.
  10. Review the configuration, and then select Create.

Checkpoint: The connector appears in the connectors list. Verify that its status becomes Connected. A connector can instead show Connecting, Failed, or Error if setup is incomplete or unhealthy.

Tip

More connectors You can also add MCP-based connectors for Datadog, Splunk, Elasticsearch, Dynatrace, New Relic, and custom MCP servers. See MCP Connectors for the full list.

Create a custom agent

Custom agents are specialized workers with access to specific tools. This section assumes the workspace-enabled Agent Canvas experience.

  1. Go to Builder > Agent Canvas in the left navigation.
  2. Select Create in the toolbar, and then select Custom Agent. The creation dialog opens with two tabs: Form and YAML.
  3. Fill in the required fields:
    • Custom agent name: for example, health-check-reporter
    • Instructions: describe what this custom agent does and include the report recipient, for example, "You are a health check reporter. Check Azure resource health for my container apps and email the summary to ops@example.com."
  4. Select Choose tools and select the notification tool from your connector.
  5. Select Create.

The custom agent appears as a node on the visual canvas. Its selected Outlook operation appears in a toolbox node, typically with an MCP badge.

Checkpoint: The canvas shows the custom-agent node and a toolbox node containing the selected Outlook tool.

Tip

More options The custom agent form also lets you configure skills, hooks, and other advanced settings. See Create a Custom Agent for the full walkthrough.

Schedule a recurring task

Link a scheduled task to the custom agent so it runs automatically.

  1. Select the + button on the left side of your custom-agent node.

  2. Select Add scheduled task. The dialog opens with Response subagent populated with that agent.

  3. Fill in the required fields:

    • Task name: for example, daily-health-report.
    • Response subagent: verify that your custom agent is selected.
    • Task details: describe what the agent should do:
    Field Example value
    Task name daily-health-report
    Task details Check the health of the resources in my resource group. Verify all apps are running, check CPU, and memory metrics over the last hour, review any recent warning logs. Summarize findings and send the report.
    Frequency Daily
    Time of day 8:00 AM; the label includes your local timezone, such as Time of day (PST).

  4. Set Frequency, which defaults to Daily, and set Time of day.

  5. Select Create task.

The canvas now shows the complete workflow chain visually.

Checkpoint: The canvas shows a scheduled-task node connected to the custom-agent node. The custom agent connects to a toolbox node that contains the Outlook tool.

Test it

Run the task immediately to verify everything works:

  1. Go to Automation in the left sidebar.
  2. Select your task by checking the checkbox.
  3. Select Run now in the toolbar.
  4. To watch execution, select the task name to open the executions view, and then select the thread name link. You can also find the thread under Chats in the sidebar.

Run now submits the execution request and refreshes the automation list. The requested health checks, metrics, logs, report, and email depend on the available tools, resource access, telemetry, connector health, and successful execution.

Checkpoint: An execution appears for the task. If the execution resolves a thread, the executions view shows a Thread name link; otherwise it shows No thread found. If the execution succeeds and invokes the Outlook tool, verify that the recipient receives the report.

After testing, use Turn off or Delete for a scheduled task you don't plan to keep. Use Remove or Disconnect for the connector. Revoke the Outlook OAuth grant when it's no longer needed.

You completed the getting-started journey

Your agent is now configured for four workflows:

  • Incident response: Investigate alerts that match a response plan.
  • Root cause analysis: Use connected code, telemetry, and Azure context during investigations.
  • Workflow automation: Run scheduled tasks through custom agents and connectors.
  • Team context: Use the knowledge sources connected during setup.
Capability What it adds
Scheduled Tasks Advanced scheduling options and task management
Connectors How connectors provide tools to your agent
Custom Agents How custom agents delegate and specialize work

Related content

Now that you're set up, explore Concepts to understand how the agent thinks, or dive into Tutorials for hands-on guides on advanced features.

Where to go What you'll find
Concepts How roles, permissions, memory, connectors, and agent reasoning work
Capabilities Detailed pages on every feature the agent offers
Tutorials Step-by-step guides for deep investigation, connectors, hooks, and more
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