get_channel_messages

Retrieve recent messages from a Microsoft Teams channel to access message content, sender details, and timestamps for monitoring or analysis.

Instructions

Retrieve recent messages from a specific channel in a Microsoft Team. Returns message content, sender information, and timestamps.

Input Schema

TableJSON Schema

Name	Required	Description
`teamId`	Yes	Team ID
`channelId`	Yes	Channel ID
`limit`	No	Number of messages to retrieve (default: 20)

Implementation Reference

src/tools/teams.ts:144-210 (handler)

Handler function that retrieves recent messages from a Microsoft Teams channel using the Microsoft Graph API. It fetches up to the specified limit of messages, maps them to summaries, sorts them by creation date (newest first), and returns a structured JSON response including total count and pagination info.

async ({ teamId, channelId, limit }) => {
  try {
    const client = await graphService.getClient();

    // Build query parameters - Teams channel messages API has limited query support
    // Only $top is supported, no $orderby, $filter, etc.
    const queryParams: string[] = [`$top=${limit}`];
    const queryString = queryParams.join("&");

    const response = (await client
      .api(`/teams/${teamId}/channels/${channelId}/messages?${queryString}`)
      .get()) as GraphApiResponse<ChatMessage>;

    if (!response?.value?.length) {
      return {
        content: [
          {
            type: "text",
            text: "No messages found in this channel.",
          },
        ],
      };
    }

    const messageList: MessageSummary[] = response.value.map((message: ChatMessage) => ({
      id: message.id,
      content: message.body?.content,
      from: message.from?.user?.displayName,
      createdDateTime: message.createdDateTime,
      importance: message.importance,
    }));

    // Sort messages by creation date (newest first) since API doesn't support orderby
    messageList.sort((a, b) => {
      const dateA = new Date(a.createdDateTime || 0).getTime();
      const dateB = new Date(b.createdDateTime || 0).getTime();
      return dateB - dateA;
    });

    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: JSON.stringify(
            {
              totalReturned: messageList.length,
              hasMore: !!response["@odata.nextLink"],
              messages: messageList,
            },
            null,
            2
          ),
        },
      ],
    };
  } catch (error: unknown) {
    const errorMessage = error instanceof Error ? error.message : "Unknown error occurred";
    return {
      content: [
        {
          type: "text",
          text: `❌ Error: ${errorMessage}`,
        },
      ],
    };
  }
}

src/tools/teams.ts:133-143 (schema)

Zod input schema defining the required teamId and channelId strings, and optional limit number (1-50, default 20).

{
  teamId: z.string().describe("Team ID"),
  channelId: z.string().describe("Channel ID"),
  limit: z
    .number()
    .min(1)
    .max(50)
    .optional()
    .default(20)
    .describe("Number of messages to retrieve (default: 20)"),
},

src/tools/teams.ts:130-211 (registration)

Registration of the 'get_channel_messages' tool using server.tool() in the registerTeamsTools function, including name, description, input schema, and inline handler.

server.tool(
  "get_channel_messages",
  "Retrieve recent messages from a specific channel in a Microsoft Team. Returns message content, sender information, and timestamps.",
  {
    teamId: z.string().describe("Team ID"),
    channelId: z.string().describe("Channel ID"),
    limit: z
      .number()
      .min(1)
      .max(50)
      .optional()
      .default(20)
      .describe("Number of messages to retrieve (default: 20)"),
  },
  async ({ teamId, channelId, limit }) => {
    try {
      const client = await graphService.getClient();

      // Build query parameters - Teams channel messages API has limited query support
      // Only $top is supported, no $orderby, $filter, etc.
      const queryParams: string[] = [`$top=${limit}`];
      const queryString = queryParams.join("&");

      const response = (await client
        .api(`/teams/${teamId}/channels/${channelId}/messages?${queryString}`)
        .get()) as GraphApiResponse<ChatMessage>;

      if (!response?.value?.length) {
        return {
          content: [
            {
              type: "text",
              text: "No messages found in this channel.",
            },
          ],
        };
      }

      const messageList: MessageSummary[] = response.value.map((message: ChatMessage) => ({
        id: message.id,
        content: message.body?.content,
        from: message.from?.user?.displayName,
        createdDateTime: message.createdDateTime,
        importance: message.importance,
      }));

      // Sort messages by creation date (newest first) since API doesn't support orderby
      messageList.sort((a, b) => {
        const dateA = new Date(a.createdDateTime || 0).getTime();
        const dateB = new Date(b.createdDateTime || 0).getTime();
        return dateB - dateA;
      });

      return {
        content: [
          {
            type: "text",
            text: JSON.stringify(
              {
                totalReturned: messageList.length,
                hasMore: !!response["@odata.nextLink"],
                messages: messageList,
              },
              null,
              2
            ),
          },
        ],
      };
    } catch (error: unknown) {
      const errorMessage = error instanceof Error ? error.message : "Unknown error occurred";
      return {
        content: [
          {
            type: "text",
            text: `❌ Error: ${errorMessage}`,
          },
        ],
      };
    }
  }
);

Teams MCP