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Power Automate as code – and why not every automation needs an MCP server

Power Automate wie Code – und warum nicht jede Automatisierung einen MCP-Server braucht

Jun 26, 2026

Posted by: Markus Wals

Let’s be honest: if you’re still building Microsoft Power Automate flows click by click in the browser in 2026, you’re wasting time. Flows are logic. And logic belongs versioned, reviewable and reproducible – not clicked into a UI while you hope nothing breaks on the next deploy.

Here’s the second uncomfortable take: not every automation needs an MCP server. And I’m the person who showed off his own weclapp MCP server a few weeks ago. That’s exactly why I get to say it: MCP is a powerful tool, but it’s not a religion. Sometimes a skill and a CLI tool are enough – and you save yourself the whole server.

What we shipped

claude-power-automate is a suite of six Claude Code skills plus a lean, local CLI. It lets you treat Power Automate cloud flows like code: pull a live flow, diff it, deploy it, verify it – and run incident forensics from run history when something breaks. MIT-licensed, status beta v0.1, public on GitHub.

No server. No app registration. No secrets.

What makes the suite special is what’s not in it:

  • No MCP server – and no server at all.
  • No app registration in Azure / Entra.
  • No stored secrets.

Authentication runs exclusively through your existing az login session via the Azure CLI. You log in interactively once, and the rest just works. Only short-lived OAuth tokens are used; the tool stores nothing except the non-secret target of a command – which environment, which flow. Local, no hosted service, no running costs. As simple as it gets – and surprisingly effective in practice.

Flows as code: pull → diff → deploy → verify

At the core of the CLI is a clean lifecycle for every flow:

  • pull / backup – writes the live flow’s definition + connectionReferences to a JSON file.
  • diff / verify – compares your local artifact against the live flow (--unified for the full diff).
  • deploy – diff → backup → patch → verify. Run --dry-run first, then for real. Every deploy reads the live flow first, writes a timestamped backup, and reads the flow back to verify the result.
  • create – create new solution-aware cloud flows (deploy to DEV only).
  • runs / run-detail – run history and per-action detail for diagnostics.
  • start / stop – turn a flow on or off.

The result is a real DEV → PROD pipeline for flows: diffable, reviewable, recoverable.

Six skills that make Claude reliable

So that Claude doesn’t guess on Power Automate work, six Agent Skills bring the domain knowledge and the guardrails:

  • power-automate-api-client – drives the CLI: pull, diff, deploy, create, run history.
  • power-automate-docs – a documentation router that points each task to the correct Microsoft Learn source.
  • power-automate-expression-syntax – write and validate expressions; cleanly separate Workflow Definition Language (cloud flows) from Power Fx (desktop flows).
  • power-automate-action-configuration – configure triggers, actions and connectionReferences (Outlook, SharePoint, Dataverse, HTTP) correctly.
  • power-automate-workflow-patterns – design flow architectures: triggers, scopes, error handling – including translating n8n routines into Power Automate.
  • power-automate-run-forensics – read-only incident diagnosis from run history before any flow code is touched.

Who it’s for

For anyone running Power Platform seriously: Power Automate admins and developers, ERP and automation teams, everyone who finally wants to treat flows like code. If you already work with Claude Code, n8n or the Azure CLI, this will feel immediately familiar.

Still beta – and intentionally public early

This is early software (v0.1). The CLI surface, command output and skill contents may change between 0.x releases – pin to a tag if you depend on it. We’re making it public anyway: feedback and issues are explicitly welcome. If something’s missing or breaks, tell us.

Note: claude-power-automate is not affiliated with or endorsed by Microsoft or Anthropic. “Power Automate”, “Power Platform” and “Dataverse” are trademarks of Microsoft; “Claude” is a trademark of Anthropic – referenced here only.

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