Manage Microsoft Teams with Graph API: Channels, Members, Messages (2026)

Provisioning Teams by hand is repetitive. Provisioning 50 Teams for 50 new project workgroups by hand is a full day of work. The Microsoft Graph API and PowerShell SDK turn that into a script you run once. This guide is the practical reference: the scopes you need, the cmdlets that actually work in 2026, and the patterns for the four most common operations — create a team, add channels, manage membership, and post messages.

Free PDF cheat sheet at the bottom condenses everything onto a single page.

Required scopes

For most Teams admin scripts:

• Team.Create — create new Teams
• TeamSettings.ReadWrite.All — modify team-level settings
• TeamMember.ReadWrite.All — manage members and owners
• Channel.Create, Channel.Delete.All, ChannelSettings.ReadWrite.All — channel ops
• ChannelMessage.Send (delegated) or ChannelMessage.ReadWrite.All (application) — post messages
• Group.ReadWrite.All — required because Teams sit on top of M365 groups

Posting messages as the app (not as a user) requires the Resource-Specific Consent (RSC) permission model — a separate setup we cover at the end.

Team templates

Microsoft ships a few baseline templates: standard, educationClass, educationProfessionalLearningCommunity, plus any custom ones you have published. Most admin scripts use standard.

Create a team

$team = New-MgTeam -BodyParameter @{
    "template@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/teamsTemplates('standard')"
    displayName  = "Project Atlas"
    description  = "Engineering for Project Atlas"
    visibility   = "Private"   # or Public
    members = @(
        @{
            "@odata.type"     = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"
            roles             = @("owner")
            "user@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('alice@contoso.com')"
        }
    )
}

# $team.Id is the Group Id - the team uses the same Id as its underlying M365 group

Provisioning is asynchronous. The cmdlet returns immediately; the team is fully ready a few seconds later. Poll for readiness if your next step depends on it:

$ready = $false
1..10 | ForEach-Object {
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 3
    if (Get-MgTeam -TeamId $team.Id -ErrorAction SilentlyContinue) {
        $ready = $true; break
    }
}

Channels — public, private, shared

# Standard public channel
New-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter @{
    displayName    = "engineering"
    description    = "Engineering work"
    membershipType = "standard"
}

# Private channel
New-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter @{
    displayName    = "leads-only"
    membershipType = "private"
    members = @(@{
        "@odata.type"     = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"
        roles             = @("owner")
        "user@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('alice@contoso.com')"
    })
}

# Shared channel (cross-tenant)
New-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter @{
    displayName    = "vendor-sync"
    membershipType = "shared"
}

Add and remove members and owners

$user = Get-MgUser -UserId "carol@contoso.com"

# Add as member
New-MgTeamMember -TeamId $team.Id -BodyParameter @{
    "@odata.type"     = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"
    roles             = @()
    "user@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/users('$($user.Id)')"
}

# Promote to owner
$mem = Get-MgTeamMember -TeamId $team.Id |
    Where-Object { $_.AdditionalProperties.email -eq "carol@contoso.com" }
Update-MgTeamMember -TeamId $team.Id -ConversationMemberId $mem.Id -BodyParameter @{
    "@odata.type" = "#microsoft.graph.aadUserConversationMember"
    roles         = @("owner")
}

# Remove
Remove-MgTeamMember -TeamId $team.Id -ConversationMemberId $mem.Id

Post messages and replies

$channel = Get-MgTeamChannel -TeamId $team.Id |
    Where-Object DisplayName -eq "general"

# Post a message
$msg = New-MgTeamChannelMessage -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $channel.Id -BodyParameter @{
    body = @{
        contentType = "html"
        content     = "Welcome to Project Atlas — kickoff meeting Friday 10:00 CEST."
    }
}

# Reply to it
New-MgTeamChannelMessageReply -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $channel.Id -ChatMessageId $msg.Id -BodyParameter @{
    body = @{ contentType = "text"; content = "Calendar invite sent." }
}

Posting as the application (no signed-in user) is restricted to specific scopes and requires Protected APIs approval from Microsoft for production use. Posting as a user (delegated) works without that step.

Add tabs and apps

# Add a Wiki tab
New-MgTeamChannelTab -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $channel.Id -BodyParameter @{
    displayName = "Project Wiki"
    "teamsApp@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/appCatalogs/teamsApps/com.microsoft.teamspace.tab.wiki"
}

# Add a website tab
New-MgTeamChannelTab -TeamId $team.Id -ChannelId $channel.Id -BodyParameter @{
    displayName = "Roadmap"
    "teamsApp@odata.bind" = "https://graph.microsoft.com/v1.0/appCatalogs/teamsApps/com.microsoft.teamspace.tab.web"
    configuration = @{
        contentUrl = "https://confluence.contoso.com/atlas/roadmap"
        websiteUrl = "https://confluence.contoso.com/atlas/roadmap"
    }
}

Archive / unarchive / delete

# Archive (read-only, keeps content)
Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method POST -Uri "/v1.0/teams/$($team.Id)/archive"

# Unarchive
Invoke-MgGraphRequest -Method POST -Uri "/v1.0/teams/$($team.Id)/unarchive"

# Delete (hard - same as deleting the underlying M365 group)
Remove-MgGroup -GroupId $team.Id

Cheat sheet

Every cmdlet, scope, and snippet on a single PDF: Teams Graph API Cheat Sheet.

FAQ

Related reading

• Teams Graph API Cheat Sheet (PDF)
• Graph SDK getting started
• Graph auth deep dive