Overview

This guide shows you how to connect Anthropic to Microsoft Teams using OpenClaw. You'll configure the messaging channel, set up AI provider authentication, and deploy your assistant.

Microsoft Teams Capabilities

  • Direct messages
  • Group chats
  • Media support
  • Reactions
  • Thread support
  • Native commands

Anthropic Features

  • 200K context window
  • Image understanding
  • Tool/function calling
  • Streaming responses

Step 1: Configure Microsoft Teams

  1. Register an app in Azure Portal
  2. Create a Bot Channel Registration
  3. Configure Teams channel in Azure
  4. Set app credentials in openclaw.json
  5. Deploy and add bot to Teams

Step 2: Configure Anthropic

Standard API key authentication

  1. Create an account at console.anthropic.com
  2. Navigate to API Keys section
  3. Generate a new API key
  4. Set ANTHROPIC_API_KEY environment variable

Environment variable: ANTHROPIC_API_KEY

Step 3: Combined Configuration

Add both configurations to your openclaw.json:

{
  "agents": {
    "defaults": {
      "model": {
        "primary": "anthropic/claude-sonnet-4-20250514"
      }
    }
  },
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": {
  "models": {
    "providers": {
      "anthropic": {
        "apiKey": "${ANTHROPIC_API_KEY}
    }
  },
  "channels": {
    "msteams": {
      "appId": "${MSTEAMS_APP_ID}",
      "appPassword": "${MSTEAMS_APP_PASSWORD}"
    }
  }
}
}

Step 4: Start and Test

# Start the gateway
openclaw gateway start

# Check connection status
openclaw status

# View real-time logs
openclaw logs --follow

Access Control

Microsoft Teams supports the following access control policies:

DM Policies

Policy Description
allowlist Only senders in allowFrom list are processed
open All DMs are processed (requires allowFrom: ["*"])

Group Policies

Policy Description
allowlist Only groups in groupAllowFrom are processed
open All groups are processed

Deploy Options

Choose how to deploy your Microsoft Teams + Anthropic setup:

Local Deployment

Run on your personal machine with local-only access

View Guide →

VPS Deployment

Always-on deployment on a Linux VPS

View Guide →

Cloud Deployment

Managed container deployment on Fly.io or similar

View Guide →

Docker Deployment

Containerized deployment with Docker

View Guide →