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How To Prompt For M365

Best practices to get the results you want

Updated over a week ago

The Outlook MCP Server is a Model Context Protocol (MCP) implementation that provides AI assistants with comprehensive Microsoft Outlook and Office 365 integration. Built on the FastMCP framework, it leverages the Microsoft Graph API to enable seamless email and calendar management through natural language interactions.

Email Questions

Viewing Your Inbox

Capability: Retrieves recent emails from user's inbox

  • Input: Number of emails to fetch (1-50)

  • Output: Structured list with subject, sender, body preview, timestamp

  • Intelligence: Automatic body truncation for large result sets

  • Use Case: Quick inbox overview, recent message scanning

Prompts:

  • "What are my recent emails?"

  • "Show me my last 15 emails"

  • "What emails did I receive today?"

  • "Check my inbox"

  • "What's in my email?"

Reading Specific Emails

Capability: Fetches complete email content by ID

  • Input: Email ID (obtained from list or search operations)

  • Output: Full email body content

  • Intelligence: Handles rich text and HTML content

  • Use Case: Detailed email analysis, complete message reading

Prompts:

  • "Read the full content of that email from John"

  • "Show me the complete text of the email about the budget"

  • "Can you read the entire message from HR?"

  • "What does that email from Sarah say exactly?"

Searching for Emails

Capability: Advanced email search with multiple criteria

  • Input: Keywords, subject, body text, sender email, email type, result limit

  • Output: Filtered email results matching criteria

  • Intelligence: Multi-field search, sent/received filtering

  • Use Case: Finding specific communications, email organization

Prompts:

  • "Find emails from my manager about the project"

  • "Search for emails containing 'invoice'"

  • "Show me all emails from clients this week"

  • "Find emails I sent about the marketing campaign"

  • "Search for messages with 'budget approval' in them"

  • "Find all emails mentioning 'quarterly review'"

  • "Search my sent emails for messages about the product launch"

Creating Draft Emails

Capability: Creates draft emails in user's Drafts folder

  • Input: Subject, body, recipients (TO/CC/BCC)

  • Output: Draft creation confirmation with Outlook web link

  • Intelligence: Automatic HTML conversion, recipient validation

  • Use Case: Email composition, message drafting

Prompts:

  • "Draft an email to the team about tomorrow's meeting"

  • "Write a draft email to all department heads about the quarterly planning"

  • "Draft a follow-up email to the client about their proposal"

  • "Create an email thanking the team for their hard work"

Calendar Questions

Viewing Your Schedule

Capability: Retrieves calendar events with comprehensive details

  • Input: Number of events to fetch (1-50)

  • Output: Event details including attendees, location, online meeting info

  • Intelligence: Organizer/attendee relationship mapping

  • Use Case: Schedule overview, meeting preparation

Prompts:

  • "What's on my calendar today?"

  • "Show me my meetings this week"

  • "What are my upcoming events?"

  • "Do I have any meetings tomorrow?"

  • "What's my schedule for Friday?"

  • "Show me my next 10 calendar events"

Scheduling Meetings

Capability: Creates calendar meetings with attendees

  • Input: Date, time range, subject, attendees, timezone, description, location

  • Output: Meeting creation confirmation with web link

  • Intelligence: Timezone handling, attendee management, location booking

  • Use Case: Meeting scheduling, event coordination

Prompts:

  • "Schedule a meeting with the dev team for tomorrow at 2 PM"

  • "Set up a project kickoff meeting for next Tuesday from 10 AM to 11 AM ET"

  • "Schedule a team standup for tomorrow at 9:30 AM PT"

Managing Meeting Invitations

Capability: Declines meeting invitations on user's behalf

  • Input: Meeting ID (from list_events)

  • Output: Decline confirmation

  • Intelligence: Automatic decline message generation

  • Use Case: Calendar management, meeting declination

Prompts:

  • "Decline that 4 PM meeting on Friday"

  • "I can't make the client call at 3 PM, please decline it"

  • "Decline the meeting about budget planning"

Productivity Questions

Email Management

  • "Help me organize my emails from today"

  • "What emails do I need to respond to?"

  • "Show me important emails I might have missed"

  • "Find any urgent emails from today"

Information Gathering

  • "Summarize emails about the budget approval process"

  • "What meetings do I have with clients this week?"

  • "Show me all communications about the product launch"

  • "Find emails and meetings related to the quarterly planning"

Combination Questions

  • "Check my emails and calendar for today"

  • "What do I need to prepare for based on my emails and meetings?"

  • "Schedule a meeting to discuss that email from the client"

  • "Find emails about the project and schedule a follow-up meeting"

  • "Create a summary email of today's meeting action items"

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