August 29th, 2025
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Microsoft Graph CLI retirement

Ben Summers
Director of Platform Product Marketing

We are announcing the retirement of the Microsoft Graph command-line interface (CLI). The Microsoft Graph CLI has served as a powerful tool for developers and IT professionals to interact with Microsoft Graph through simple terminal commands—enabling automation, scripting, and streamlined access to Microsoft 365 data and services. As we evolve our developer tooling strategy, we’re shifting focus to the more integrated and modern experiences found in PowerShell.

Why we’re retiring the CLI

We introduced the Microsoft Graph CLI to provide a lightweight, cross-platform tool for interacting with Microsoft Graph APIs. However, the CLI’s limited extensibility, narrower ecosystem, and overlap with more powerful alternatives have led to a decline in its usage. Customers increasingly prefer tools offering deeper integration with automation environments, broader community support, and richer extensibility.

As part of our ongoing efforts to streamline the Microsoft Graph developer experience, we are consolidating experiences around PowerShell, an alternative that offers significant value and flexibility to our users. This consolidation allows us to focus on delivering a more robust, consistent experience across our supported SDKs and tools.

Deprecation Timeline and Support

The Microsoft Graph CLI will enter a deprecation phase starting September 1st, 2025, with full retirement planned for August 28th, 2026. During this period:

  • No new features will be introduced.
  • Only critical security vulnerabilities will be addressed.
  • The CLI will remain open source, but we will no longer actively maintain or support it.

Transitioning to Microsoft Graph PowerShell

We recommend that all CLI users transition to the Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK. PowerShell provides a comprehensive, actively maintained, and widely adopted interface for working with Microsoft Graph. It offers:

  • Broad API coverage and regular updates
  • Seamless integration with scripting and automation workflows
  • Strong community and documentation support
  • Long-term support and compliance with Microsoft’s servicing commitments

The Microsoft Graph PowerShell SDK is aligned with our long-term strategy for secure, scalable, and enterprise-ready tooling.

We will provide migration guidance in the Microsoft Graph PowerShell documentation to help users transition their scripts and workflows to PowerShell. We are grateful to everyone who used and contributed to the Microsoft Graph CLI. Your feedback has been invaluable in shaping our developer tools. As we move forward, we remain committed to delivering robust, secure, high-quality tools that empower you to build with Microsoft Graph.

— The Microsoft Graph Developer Experience Team

Author

Ben Summers
Director of Platform Product Marketing

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