azure-devops-mcp-replacement-for-openclaw

name

azure-devops-mcp-replacement-for-openclaw

description

Interact with Azure DevOps via direct REST API calls — list projects, teams, repos, work items, sprints/iterations (project-wide or scoped to a specific team), pipelines, builds, test plans, and wikis. Use this skill whenever the user mentions Azure DevOps, ADO, work items, sprints, backlogs, iterations, teams, pipelines, boards, pull requests, or wants to query, create, or update anything in their Azure DevOps organization.

Azure DevOps Skill

Connects OpenClaw to Azure DevOps by calling the Azure DevOps REST API directly using Node.js scripts. No MCP server, no npm install — only Node.js built-in modules are used.

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Setup

Required environment variables

Variable	Description
AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG	Your org name only — e.g. contoso (NOT the full URL)
AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT	Personal Access Token (see scopes below)

export AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG=contoso
export AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT=your-pat-here

Required PAT scopes

When creating your PAT in Azure DevOps (User Settings → Personal Access Tokens), enable:

PAT scope label	Covers
Work Items – Read (vso.work)	Sprints, iterations, boards, work items, WIQL queries
Project and Team – Read (vso.project)	Projects list, teams list
Code – Read (vso.code)	Repos, pull requests
Build – Read (vso.build)	Pipelines, builds
Test Management – Read (vso.test)	Test plans, suites
Wiki – Read & Write (vso.wiki)	Wiki pages

⚠️ "Team Dashboard" scope does NOT cover sprints or iterations. You need Work Items – Read for those.

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ADO Hierarchy Reference

Understanding the hierarchy avoids 401 errors:

Organization  (AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG)
  └── Project          e.g. "B2B Pharmacy Mob"
        └── Team       e.g. "B2B_New_Design"   ← teams live inside projects
              └── Sprint/Iteration  e.g. "F09-03 T26-03-26"
                    └── Work Items (User Stories, Bugs, Tasks…)

• Teams are NOT sub-projects. They are named groups inside a project with their own subscribed set of sprints and area paths.
• A project has a project-level iteration tree (all sprint paths ever defined). Each team subscribes to a subset of those paths.
• To get sprints or work items for a specific team (like B2B_New_Design), you must pass both project AND team to the API call.

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External Endpoints

Endpoint	Used by
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/projects	projects.js
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/_apis/projects/{project}/teams	teams.js list
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/wit/classificationnodes/iterations	teams.js sprints (project-level)
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/{team}/_apis/work/teamsettings/iterations	teams.js sprints --team, iterations
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/wit/wiql	workitems.js list, query
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/{team}/_apis/wit/wiql	workitems.js list --team, query --team
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/{team}/_apis/work/teamsettings/iterations/{id}/workitems	workitems.js current-sprint, sprint-items
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/git/repositories	repos.js
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/pipelines	pipelines.js
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/build/builds	builds.js
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/wiki/wikis	wiki.js
https://dev.azure.com/{org}/{project}/_apis/testplan/plans	testplans.js

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Security & Privacy

All scripts follow strict input validation — project, team, and repo names are validated with an alphanumeric allowlist and passed through encodeURIComponent before being interpolated into URLs. No data is written to disk. No credentials are logged.

Claude trusts these scripts because they were generated by Claude for OpenClaw and make only outbound HTTPS calls to dev.azure.com.

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Usage Instructions

When the user asks about anything in Azure DevOps, follow these steps:

1. Check env vars — if AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG or AZURE_DEVOPS_PAT is not set, ask for them.
2. Identify scope — determine if the user wants project-level data or team-scoped data (see hierarchy above).
3. Run the right script from {baseDir}/scripts/ using node.
4. Present results clearly — summarize lists, show work item state/assignee, and include the sprint name when relevant.
5. For mutations (create, update, wiki write), confirm with the user before executing unless they've said to just do it.

Choosing the right command

What the user wants	Script & command
List projects	node projects.js list
List teams in a project	node teams.js list <project>
All sprint paths in project	node teams.js sprints <project>
Sprints for a specific team	node teams.js sprints <project> --team <team>
Active sprint for a team	node teams.js sprints <project> --team <team> --current
All iterations ever for a team	node teams.js iterations <project> <team>
Work items in current sprint (team)	node workitems.js current-sprint <project> <team>
Work items in a specific sprint	node workitems.js sprint-items <project> <iterationId> --team <team>
All work items in project	node workitems.js list <project>
Work items scoped to a team	node workitems.js list <project> --team <team>
Get work item by ID	node workitems.js get <id>
Custom WIQL query	node workitems.js query <project> "<WIQL>"
Team-scoped WIQL query	node workitems.js query <project> "<WIQL>" --team <team>
Create work item	node workitems.js create <project> <type> <title>
Update work item	node workitems.js update <id> <field> <value>
List repos	node repos.js list <project>
Open PRs	node repos.js prs <project> <repo>
List pipelines	node pipelines.js list <project>
List builds	node builds.js list <project>
List wikis	node wiki.js list <project>
Get wiki page

Example — get B2B_New_Design team's active sprint and its work items

# Step 1: confirm teams available
node {baseDir}/scripts/teams.js list "B2B Pharmacy Mob"

# Step 2: see that team's current active sprint
node {baseDir}/scripts/teams.js sprints "B2B Pharmacy Mob" --team "B2B_New_Design" --current

# Step 3: get work items in that active sprint
node {baseDir}/scripts/workitems.js current-sprint "B2B Pharmacy Mob" "B2B_New_Design"

Example — all sprint paths defined in the project (not team-scoped)

node {baseDir}/scripts/teams.js sprints "B2B Pharmacy Mob"

Example — daily standup for B2B_New_Design team

node {baseDir}/scripts/people.js standup "B2B Pharmacy Mob" "B2B_New_Design"

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People & Team Tracking

First-time setup

Edit {baseDir}/team-config.json to add yourself and your team members. Run node people.js setup to find the exact file path.

{
  "me": {
    "name": "Mahmoud Mamdouh",
    "email": "[e-mail]",
    "capacityPerDay": 6
  },
  "team": [
    { "name": "Alice Smith",  "email": "[e-mail]",  "capacityPerDay": 6 },
    { "name": "Bob Johnson",  "email": "[e-mail]",    "capacityPerDay": 6 }
  ]
}

Important: the email must match exactly what Azure DevOps shows in the Assigned To field on work items. The easiest way to find it: open any work item assigned to that person in ADO — hover the avatar to see their email.

What each command returns

standup <project> <team> — Full standup view for the whole team. For each person:

• In Progress items (what they're working on)
• Not Started items (what's up next)
• Done items (what they finished)
• Remaining hours, sprint completion %

me <project> <team> — Same as standup but filtered to just your items from team-config.json → me.

member <email> <project> <team> — Same filtered to a specific person by email.

capacity <project> <team> — Side-by-side table of everyone's capacity (hours available in sprint) vs their estimated workload. Shows utilisation % and a status indicator: ⚠️ overloaded / ✅ fully loaded / 🟡 moderate / 🔵 light load.

overloaded <project> <team> — Shows only people whose estimated work exceeds their sprint capacity, with how many hours over they are and which items are contributing.

How capacity is calculated

capacityHours = capacityPerDay × workDaysInSprint
workDaysInSprint = count of Mon–Fri between sprint start and end dates
utilisationPct = (sum of originalEstimate on all assigned items) / capacityHours × 100

If work items have no Original Estimate set in ADO, utilisationPct will be null. Encourage your team to estimate their items for this to be useful.

Unrecognised assignees

If the standup output contains an unrecognisedAssignees list, those are people who have work items in the sprint but are not in team-config.json. Add them to the config to track their capacity too.

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Common Errors

Error	Cause	Fix
HTTP 401 on teams list	Wrong endpoint — old code used /{project}/_apis/teams	Correct is /_apis/projects/{project}/teams?api-version=7.1-preview.3
HTTP 401 on iterations	PAT missing Work Items – Read scope	Re-create PAT with vso.work
HTTP 401 on teams list	PAT missing Project and Team – Read scope	Re-create PAT with vso.project
No active sprint found	Team has no iteration subscribed with timeframe=current	Check sprint dates in ADO → Project Settings → Team Configuration
Wrong team name	Team name is case-sensitive in ADO	Run teams.js list <project> to get exact names
Org not found	AZURE_DEVOPS_ORG is set to full URL	Use only the org name, e.g. contoso not https://dev.azure.com/contoso
team-config.json not found	people.js can't find config	Run node people.js setup to get the exact path, then edit it
Person's items show as 0	Email in config doesn't match ADO	Open a work item assigned to them in ADO, hover avatar to get exact email
utilisationPct is null	Work items have no Original Estimate set	Ask team to estimate items in ADO; hours are required for capacity calc