{"id":2104,"date":"2026-04-22T10:30:43","date_gmt":"2026-04-22T17:30:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/foundry\/?p=2104"},"modified":"2026-04-24T08:46:05","modified_gmt":"2026-04-24T15:46:05","slug":"introducing-toolboxes-in-foundry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/devblogs.microsoft.com\/foundry\/introducing-toolboxes-in-foundry\/","title":{"rendered":"Introducing Toolboxes in Foundry"},"content":{"rendered":"

Available in Public Preview Today <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Toolbox is a new way to\u00a0curate, configure, and reuse<\/strong> tools across all of your AI agents without rewiring them every time from Foundry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Today, teams build agents across different frameworks and runtimes. Each agent often wires tools directly, with its own authentication, credentials, and\u00a0integration\u00a0code. As organizations\u00a0scale\u00a0agent usage, this leads to duplicated work, inconsistent behavior, and fragile production deployments.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Toolbox fixes this by letting you define a curated set of tools\u00a0once<\/strong>, manage them centrally in Foundry<\/strong>, and expose them through\u00a0a unified endpoint<\/strong>\u00a0that\u00a0any agent can consume.<\/span><\/p>\n

Why are tools messy today\u00a0<\/em><\/h4>\n

Consider this scenario: developer onboarding. You\u2019re building an agent that provisions an environment for a new engineer. It creates an Entra ID account, adds access to GitHub repos, spins up cloud resources, creates onboarding tasks in Azure DevOps, and sends a welcome message in Teams.\u00a0 Sounds straightforward, until you look closer.<\/p>\n

That single agent depends on five tools. Five different tool types (APIs, MCP servers, skills, connectors, flows). Five different authentication models. Five different owning teams; each with their own expectations for how their tools should be called. Now multiply that across every agent your organization is building.\nTeams re\u2011implement the same tools. Credentials are duplicated. Governance is inconsistent or missing entirely. There\u2019s little visibility into what tools exist, who is using them, or whether they\u2019re governed at all. Developers stall, not because the models aren\u2019t capable, but because tool integration has become the bottleneck. The infrastructure already exists. Enterprises have gateways, credential vaults, policies, and observability. What\u2019s missing is a developer experience that packages this infrastructure into something reusable, discoverable, and governed by default.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s what Foundry Toolbox is designed to provide.<\/p>\n

\"before<\/a>

Stop wiring every agent to every tool.<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/p>\n

Toolbox Overview<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h2>\n

Discover. Build. Consume. Govern.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

What is a Toolbox: A<\/span>\u00a0toolbox is a reusable bundle of tools, managed in Foundry, that agents consume through a single, consistent interface.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Toolbox<\/span>es cover the full tool lifecycle through four pillars: Find the right tools. Build a toolbox. Consume a toolbox from any agent. Govern everything that flows through it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0In\u00a0public\u00a0preview today, the focus is on\u00a0<\/span>Build<\/span><\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0<\/span>Consume<\/span><\/b>; the two steps that remove friction immediately.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"foundry<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
Pillar<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nWhat it is<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nWhat it enables<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Discover\u00a0<\/span><\/b>(coming soon)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nThe ability to find the right tools without manually browsing long catalogs or knowing where tools live.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nDevelopers and agents can discover existing, approved tools instead of rebuilding them, reducing duplication and improving consistency.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Build<\/span><\/b>\n(Today)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nThe ability to select tools into a\u00a0<\/span>toolbox<\/span><\/b>\u00a0\u2014 a named, reusable bundle of tools managed in Foundry.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nTeams define tools once, configure authentication and access centrally, and publish a reusable toolbox that others can consume.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Consume<\/span><\/b>\n(Today)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nA\u00a0<\/span>single,\u00a0MCP<\/span><\/b>\u2011compatible\u00a0endpoint<\/span><\/b>\u00a0that exposes all tools in a toolbox to any agent runtime.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nAgents connect once and dynamically discover and invoke all tools in the toolbox, without\u00a0per<\/span>\u2011tool\u00a0wiring or custom SDKs.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Govern<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(coming soon)<\/span><\/b>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n

Centralized authentication and observability applied to all tool calls flowing through a toolbox.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\nSecurity and platform teams get consistent controls and visibility, while developers avoid stitching governance into every agent.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n

Build\u00a0\u2013 Curate Tools into Reusable Toolboxes<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/h3>\n

A toolbox is a named, reusable bundle of tools managed in Foundry.\u00a0You select tools, configure authentication, and publish the toolbox as a shared asset.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tools you can include today:<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n