How to Connect Microsoft Planner to Cursor via MCP

💡 No install? Use cloud.anythingmcp.com directly. Sign in, click Connectors → Microsoft Planner, paste your credentials, mint an MCP API key and you're done. No Docker, no git clone, no local server.

Microsoft Planner + Cursor

Let your AI work with Microsoft Planner: see your tasks across plans, browse team plans and buckets, create and assign tasks, update progress, due dates and checklists. Microsoft 365 work or school accounts through Microsoft Graph.

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:

MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID, MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET, MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID

Step 1 — Get credentials

1. Open the Microsoft Entra admin center (entra.microsoft.com) or the Azure portal and go to Applications → App registrations → New registration.

2. Name the app (for example "AnythingMCP Microsoft 365") and choose the Supported account types. The choice decides what goes into MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID:

   • Accounts in this organizational directory only (single tenant): only users of your organisation can sign in. Use the Directory (tenant) ID from the app's Overview page (a GUID) or your domain, such as contoso.onmicrosoft.com.
   • Accounts in any organizational directory (multi-tenant): use organizations.
   • Accounts in any organizational directory and personal Microsoft accounts: not for this connector. Planner does not support personal Microsoft accounts, so consumers does not work, and with common only work or school accounts can use it.

   If the value does not match the account type, Microsoft refuses the sign-in (AADSTS50194 or AADSTS50020).

3. Under Redirect URI, pick the platform Web and enter https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/api/mcp-oauth/callback. If you host AnythingMCP yourself, enter https://your-anythingmcp-host/api/mcp-oauth/callback instead. The URI must match character for character, otherwise Microsoft answers AADSTS50011.

4. Open API permissions → Add a permission → Microsoft Graph → Delegated permissions and add offline_access, User.Read and Tasks.ReadWrite. offline_access is what makes Microsoft issue a refresh token; without it the connector stops an hour after you authorize it.

5. Open Certificates & secrets → New client secret. Copy the secret Value, not the Secret ID; it is shown only once. Note the expiry date: when the secret expires, the connector stops working until you create a new one and paste it in.

6. Paste the Application (client) ID from the Overview page into MICROSOFT_CLIENT_ID, the secret value into MICROSOFT_CLIENT_SECRET and the tenant value from step 2 into MICROSOFT_TENANT_ID, then install the connector.

7. On the connector page, click Authorize with Provider and sign in with the work or school account whose plans the AI should work with. The refresh token is stored encrypted, and access tokens (valid for about an hour) are renewed automatically.

8. Start with microsoft_planner_list_my_tasks: it shows the tasks assigned to you across all your plans.

One Entra app for all Microsoft connectors: the app registration you made for the Outlook, OneDrive, SharePoint or Excel connector works here too. Open it, add the permission from step 4 under API permissions, keep the same redirect URI and reuse the same client ID, secret and tenant. Each connector asks only for its own permissions when you authorize it:

• Outlook: Mail.ReadWrite, Mail.Send, Calendars.ReadWrite
• OneDrive: Files.ReadWrite
• Excel: Files.ReadWrite (plus Files.ReadWrite.All for workbooks in SharePoint or shared with you)
• SharePoint: Sites.ReadWrite.All and Files.ReadWrite.All
• OneNote: Notes.ReadWrite
• Microsoft To Do: Tasks.ReadWrite
• Planner: Tasks.ReadWrite

All of them also need offline_access and User.Read.

Admin consent: these delegated permissions normally do not need an administrator, but many organisations turn off user consent. If the sign-in shows "Need admin approval" (AADSTS65001 or AADSTS90094), a tenant administrator opens the app registration once and clicks API permissions → Grant admin consent for the organisation. After that every user can authorize. Each connector still works only with what the account that signed in may see.

A work or school account is required: Planner is part of Microsoft 365 for organisations. Personal Microsoft accounts such as Outlook.com have no Planner and get error 403 or 400. The AI only sees the plans of the Microsoft 365 groups and teams you are a member of.

Permissions: Tasks.ReadWrite is all Planner needs, and on its own it does not require an administrator. Group.Read.All or Group.ReadWrite.All would also work, but they need admin consent, so the connector does not ask for them. The Microsoft To Do connector uses the same Tasks.ReadWrite permission.

Read-only setup: replace the scopes in the connector's OAuth settings with offline_access User.Read Tasks.Read, authorize again and disable microsoft_planner_create_task, microsoft_planner_update_task, microsoft_planner_update_task_details and microsoft_planner_create_bucket.

Changes wait for your yes: before the AI creates, changes or moves a task or bucket, it tells you what it is about to do and waits for your yes. Plans are shared, so every change is visible to the whole group.

Switched off at install: microsoft_planner_delete_task. Deleting removes the task for the whole team and the connector cannot undo it, so turn it on only if the AI should really delete tasks.

Plans, buckets and assignments: a team's plans live in its Microsoft 365 group. The AI finds the group, then the plan, its buckets (the columns of the board) and its tasks. Progress is 0 (not started), 50 (in progress) or 100 (completed), and priority is Urgent, Important, Medium or Low. The description, checklist and links sit in a task's details. To assign a task, the AI needs the person's user id: yours comes from microsoft_planner_get_me, a colleague's from a task already assigned to them, because the connector cannot look people up by name. Planner checks a version tag on every change; if someone changed the task in the meantime, the AI reads it again and retries.

Common errors: 401 InvalidAuthenticationToken means the authorization was revoked or the client secret expired; paste a new secret if needed and click Authorize with Provider again. 403 means Tasks.ReadWrite is missing or was not consented, you are not a member of the plan's group, a plan limit was reached (for example too many tasks or buckets), or the account is a personal Microsoft account. 404 means the id is wrong or the item was deleted. 409 or 412 means the item changed in the meantime: the AI reads it again and retries. 400 means a value has the wrong shape, for example a bucket from another plan or a date without a time zone. 429 means Microsoft Graph is throttling the account: wait a moment and try again.

The connector does not create or delete plans, read task comments (they live in the group's conversations), upload attachments, open Planner premium plans or look up people in the directory.

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 Cursor

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.

Cursor reads MCP servers from ~/.cursor/mcp.json. Add this entry:

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "anythingmcp": {
      "url": "https://cloud.anythingmcp.com/mcp/YOUR_SERVER_ID",
      "headers": { "X-API-Key": "YOUR_MCP_API_KEY" }
    }
  }
}

1. Create an MCP API key in AnythingMCP under MCP Servers → your server → API keys, and paste it in place of YOUR_MCP_API_KEY.
2. Save the file and restart Cursor.
3. Open Cursor → Settings → MCP and check that anythingmcp is listed and connected.
4. Start chatting: the agent can now call the Microsoft Planner tools.

Available tools

Example prompts

• "Which Planner tasks are assigned to me, and which of them are overdue?"
• "Show the Marketing team's plan: how many tasks are in each bucket, and which are still open?"
• "Create a task Prepare the trade fair booth in the Doing bucket of the Events plan, assign it to me, priority Important, due 31 October."
• "Add a checklist with Order flyers, Book stand cleaning and Print badges to that task and set it to in progress."

FAQ

Does Cursor support custom MCP servers on the free tier? Yes, MCP is available on Hobby, Pro and Business plans.

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