Connect DATEV Sandbox to Microsoft Copilot via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → DATEV Online APIs (Sandbox), paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key — done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

DATEV Online APIs (Sandbox) + Microsoft Copilot

Sandbox environment for the DATEV Online APIs — read accounting Mandanten (clients), document types and DUO version metadata against DATEV's test data. Use this while you build and test; every new DATEV app must run in sandbox until DATEV grants production approval. Same OAuth2 Authorization Code + PKCE flow as production, pointed at DATEV's sandbox endpoints.

Prerequisites

See the full setup instructions baked into the connector (visible in the in-app store when you select the connector). The required environment variables for this connector are:

DATEV_CLIENT_ID, DATEV_CLIENT_SECRET

Step 1 — Get credentials

Setting up takes about 10 minutes. You need an app on the DATEV-Entwicklerportal and a DATEV-Konto to sign in with.

1. On the DATEV-Entwicklerportal (https://developer.datev.de), create a Confidential app with OpenID Connect Authorization Code Flow. Set the redirect URI to <your AnythingMCP URL>/api/mcp-oauth/callback (on AnythingMCP Cloud: https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/api/mcp-oauth/callback).
2. Subscribe the app to the sandbox API products accounting:clients 2.0 and accounting:documents 2.0.
3. Copy the client ID into DATEV_CLIENT_ID and the client secret into DATEV_CLIENT_SECRET. Copy the secret in full: the portal shows it only once.
4. Install the connector. It is already set up for DATEV's sandbox endpoints and authenticates at the token endpoint with HTTP Basic (client_secret_basic), which DATEV requires.
5. On the connector page, click Authorize with Provider and log in with your DATEV-Konto. This is a one-time sign-in: the refresh token is then stored encrypted.
6. Run datev_list_clients: it lists the Mandanten your DATEV-Konto user is provisioned for, with UUID, consultant number, client number and name.

Sandbox, not production: every DATEV app runs in the sandbox until DATEV completes its production-approval review, so this is where you build and test. The sandbox works against DATEV's test data. Once DATEV approves your app for production, use the separate DATEV Online APIs connector: it takes the same credentials and points at the production endpoints.

Scopes: the connector asks for datev:accounting:clients accounting:clients:read accounting:documents. Do not add openid: it is the issuer name, not a scope.

Two kinds of client id: every per-client tool takes a clientId, the Mandant UUID that datev_list_clients returns. It is not the same as DATEV_CLIENT_ID, which identifies your OAuth app and is sent in the X-DATEV-Client-Id header on every call, together with the Bearer token.

What it reads: a Mandant's master data (consultant and client number, name, address); the Mandanten with DATEV Unternehmen online (DUO) document access, which can be fewer than all of them because only clients with an active DUO subscription appear; a Mandant's document types (Belegtypen); and the DUO version with the file extensions DUO accepts for upload. All six tools only read.

Step 2 — Install the adapter

curl -fsSL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/HelpCode-ai/anythingmcp/main/docker-compose.quickstart.yml -o docker-compose.yml
printf 'JWT_SECRET=%s\nENCRYPTION_KEY=%s\n' "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" "$(openssl rand -hex 32)" > .env
docker compose up -d

Step 3 — Add the connector in Microsoft Copilot

Your server URL: in AnythingMCP, open MCP Servers → the server this connector is on, and copy its URL (https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/…). Use it wherever this guide shows YOUR_SERVER_ID.

Microsoft Copilot uses MCP servers through agents built in Copilot Studio: you add AnythingMCP to an agent as a tool, then publish the agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot and Teams. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud over Streamable HTTP, which AnythingMCP supports.

1. In Copilot Studio, open your agent (or create one), go to Tools and choose Add a tool → New tool → Model Context Protocol.
2. Enter a Server name (for example AnythingMCP), a Server description that says what the connector does, and the Server URL https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID. Copilot Studio uses the description to decide when to call the server.
3. Under authentication, choose API key, set Type to Header and the header name to X-API-Key, then select Create.
4. In Add tool, choose Create a new connection, paste an MCP API key from AnythingMCP (MCP Servers → your server → API keys) and select Add to agent.
5. Try it in the agent's Test pane: ask for something that needs the DATEV Online APIs (Sandbox) tools.
6. Select Publish, then Channels → Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams, keep Make agent available in Microsoft Copilot selected and choose Add channel. See agent in Teams installs it for you; in Microsoft 365 Copilot, type @ and pick the agent.

Prefer per-user sign-in? Choose OAuth 2.0 → Dynamic discovery instead of an API key: each user then signs in to AnythingMCP the first time the agent calls it.

Self-hosting? Use your instance's public HTTPS address instead of https://cloud.anythingmcp.com. Copilot Studio connects from Microsoft's cloud, so localhost does not work.

Available tools

FAQ

Which Copilot is this for? Microsoft 365 Copilot at work, through agents built in Copilot Studio. The Microsoft Copilot app for personal accounts has no option to add your own MCP server.

What do I need? A work account with access to Copilot Studio (a license or a trial) to build the agent. People who use it in Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams need access to the agent: share it with them, or ask an admin to publish it to the organization. If your organization applies data policies to Power Platform connectors, they cover MCP servers too.

The agent doesn't call the tools. Check that the header name is exactly X-API-Key and that the key belongs to the same MCP server as the URL, and make the server description specific: Copilot Studio uses it to decide when to call the server. Publish the agent again after each change; in an open chat, type "start over" to get the new version.

Next steps

• Connector landing page
• Connect to Claude
• Connect to ChatGPT