Power Platform Developer Setup

All Power Platform development at CMS requires the following tools, plugins, and configuration. Complete this setup before starting any Power Platform development task.

#Required tools

#1. Power Platform CLI (pac)

The Power Platform CLI (pac) is the primary command-line tool for managing environments, solutions, and deployments.

Install:

# macOS / Linux (via npm)
npm install -g @microsoft/powerplatform-cli

# Windows (via MSI)
# Download from https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/power-platform/developer/cli/introduction

Verify:

pac help

Disable telemetry:

pac telemetry disable

Confirm telemetry is off:

pac telemetry status
# Should output: Telemetry: Disabled

#2. Azure CLI (az)

Required for Entra ID / authentication operations, service principal management, and Azure resource access.

Install:

# macOS
brew install azure-cli

# Linux
curl -sL https://aka.ms/InstallAzureCLIDeb | sudo bash

# Windows
winget install Microsoft.AzureCLI

Verify:

az version

Disable telemetry:

az config set core.collect_telemetry=no

#3. Node.js 20+

Required by pac CLI (npm install) and the KB MCP server tooling.

node --version  # must be v20 or later

#4. ripgrep (rg) — optional but recommended

Fast content search. Useful for searching solution files and Power Fx formulas across a repo.

# macOS
brew install ripgrep

# Linux
sudo apt-get install ripgrep

# Windows
winget install BurntSushi.ripgrep.MSVC

#Required AI development plugins

#MS Power Platform Skills (Codex / Claude)

All Power Platform AI-assisted development must use the MS Power Platform Skills extension. This gives Codex and Claude up-to-date Power Platform knowledge, connector context, and Power Fx patterns.

Install (Codex):

codex install https://github.com/microsoft/power-platform-skills

Or add to your Codex config manually:

# ~/.codex/config.toml
[plugins]
power_platform = "https://github.com/microsoft/power-platform-skills"

Why required: The Power Platform product surface changes frequently. Without this plugin, AI assistants rely on potentially stale pre-training data and may suggest deprecated patterns, unsupported connector syntax, or outdated Power Fx functions.

#CMS Power Platform KB MCP server

Install the CMS Power Platform Knowledge Base MCP server. This gives Codex and Claude access to our internal KB — CMS-specific patterns, GCC environment quirks, DLP workarounds, and approved solutions.

See the MCP server installation instructions in the repo README.md.

#Authentication setup

# Log in to Azure (required for Entra operations)
az login

# Log in to Power Platform / Dataverse
pac auth create --kind ADMIN --tenant <TENANT_ID>
pac auth list

For the GCC tenant, use:

pac auth create --kind ADMIN --tenant <TENANT_ID> --cloud UsGov

#Verify setup

Run the following to confirm all tools are installed and telemetry is off:

echo "=== pac ===" && pac telemetry status && pac --version
echo "=== az ===" && az config get core.collect_telemetry && az version --output table
echo "=== node ===" && node --version

Expected output:

• pac: Telemetry: Disabled, version 1.x or later
• az: collect_telemetry = no, version 2.x or later
• node: v20.x or later

#Telemetry summary

Both must be disabled before doing any development work. CMS policy prohibits sending usage telemetry from developer workstations when working with GCC tenant resources.