Oliver Kieselbach
0ac548bfce
Start-AutopilotMonitor.ps1 is the new stage 1 -- the file an administrator assigns in Intune. It carries no enrollment logic: it downloads the published installer, verifies its Authenticode signature, and runs it in the same process, passing through every remaining argument. Assigning the installer directly stays supported and unchanged. The point of the split is that the customer-held artifact stops changing. Today every bootstrap change forces customers to replace their Intune copy, so the fleet runs a distribution of script versions we do not control. It is also what makes script signing worth doing: signing a file that gets swapped by hand each release is a one-off gain, signing a loader that never changes is permanent. The loader is deliberately minimal, because it is the one piece that cannot be fixed remotely -- every guard placed in it would be frozen for years. All guards stay in stage 2. Verification pins the certificate SUBJECT, never a thumbprint: certificates get renewed and a deployed loader cannot be, so a thumbprint pin would strand the fleet at the next renewal. A hash oracle was rejected for a different reason -- it would have to be fetched from the same host as the script, so it could not survive a compromise of that host, while the expected publisher travels inside the loader. Fail-closed on verification, fail-soft on exit: nothing runs without a valid signature from us (running unverified code as SYSTEM is the risk being removed here), but the loader still exits 0, because a device without monitoring is acceptable and a failed enrollment step is not. The accepted cost is that a device which can never fetch or verify stays silent. Publisher changes: - every published script is signed (loader, installer, both -Dev renders, Test-ShouldBootstrapAgent, Grant-AutopilotMonitorAddOn), and signing is the LAST transformation: it covers exactly the CRLF/UTF-8 bytes Get-PublishBytes produced, so nothing may normalise or re-encode them afterwards. - signing is mandatory for a real publish. Only -DryRun may run unsigned, because the PR gate executes the publisher without any Azure login. - comparisons against a published copy strip the signature block first. A timestamped signature differs on every run, so without stripping the version-bump guard and the drift check would report a change for every unchanged script. - the bump guard became Assert-VersionBump and now covers the loader as well. - version.json gains loaderVersion. Additive, no consumer yet: stage 2 is current by construction, so only stage 1's version says anything about a customer's Intune copy. - -SignedOutputDir writes the exact uploaded bytes for the CI artifact, in a dry run too -- that is how a signed script gets inspected before it reaches anyone. publish-scripts.yml logs in with the signing identity first and only to fetch the Key Vault token (azure/login sets the default az account and the storage login has to be the one that stays), then publishes and offers the signed scripts as an artifact. build-agent.yml passes the same parameters on a stable cutover. Tests: 14 new Pester cases, including that a validly signed script from a FOREIGN publisher is refused -- that is what an attacker with any code-signing certificate can produce. Full bootstrap suite on Windows PowerShell 5.1: 43/43. Not covered: the MSI runner still downloads stage 2 without verifying it, and the customer docs still describe the direct assignment only. Co-Authored-By: Claude Opus 5 (1M context) <noreply@anthropic.com>
Autopilot Monitor
Autopilot Monitor is an open-source, real-time monitoring and troubleshooting platform for Windows Autopilot and Microsoft Intune enrollment. It records enrollment events, application installations, policies, device state, and diagnostics while provisioning is still running, instead of collecting logs by hand after a failure. Administrators get live enrollment tracking, Enrollment Status Page (ESP) visibility, detailed session timelines, automated issue detection, on-demand diagnostics, fleet health analytics, and AI-assisted troubleshooting through a hosted Model Context Protocol (MCP) server.
The platform supports classic Windows Autopilot and modern Intune provisioning scenarios, including Windows Autopilot Device Preparation.
Availability
Autopilot Monitor is publicly available — the Community plan is free. Sign in with your work account at autopilotmonitor.com; new organizations complete a short activation step after first sign-in.
Key Features
- Real-time Windows Autopilot monitoring — follow device provisioning while enrollment is still running
- Detailed enrollment timelines — correlate Autopilot, ESP, Intune Management Extension, apps, policies, device state, and system events
- Enrollment Status Page visibility — see which phase, application, or policy is delaying provisioning
- Automated issue detection — define custom analysis rules that identify known failure patterns
- Targeted evidence collection — gather registry values, event log entries, files, log-parser matches, and allow-listed commands when specific conditions are detected
- On-demand diagnostics — request diagnostics packages from enrolled devices remotely
- Fleet health analytics — success rates, deployment duration, device models, applications, errors, and recurring issues
- Session reporting — inspect and share detailed enrollment information for individual devices
- Windows Autopilot Device Preparation support — monitor Device Preparation deployments alongside classic Autopilot scenarios
- Centralized agent configuration — control diagnostic behavior, automatic reboots, timezone adjustment, and other monitoring settings from the web dashboard
- AI-assisted troubleshooting — query enrollment data through the built-in Model Context Protocol server
How it works
Autopilot Monitor consists of several components working together throughout Windows enrollment:
- Bootstrap Script — PowerShell script deployed through Microsoft Intune that starts monitoring early in the provisioning process
- Monitoring Agent — lightweight .NET application that collects telemetry and evidence during enrollment
- Backend API — Azure Functions-based ingestion and processing pipeline
- Web Dashboard — Next.js application for real-time monitoring, troubleshooting, and fleet analytics
- MCP Server — Model Context Protocol server that lets AI assistants query Autopilot Monitor data in natural language
Windows Autopilot and Intune Troubleshooting
Autopilot Monitor helps investigate common Windows provisioning and enrollment problems such as:
- Windows Autopilot deployments that fail or appear stuck
- Enrollment Status Page (ESP) delays and unusually long deployment phases
- Win32 application installation failures and slow application downloads
- Intune Management Extension problems
- Microsoft Entra join, Hybrid Join, and device registration issues
- policies that block or delay provisioning
- inconsistent behavior across hardware models and recurring failures affecting multiple devices
Because telemetry is collected during enrollment, many problems can be investigated without reproducing the issue or manually collecting logs from the affected device.
AI Integration (MCP)
Autopilot Monitor ships a hosted Model Context Protocol server. Connect Claude Desktop, VS Code, or any MCP client that speaks Streamable HTTP with OAuth, and ask questions like:
- "Show me all failed enrollments from the last 24 hours and group them by failure reason."
- "Why did session X fail, and which app install caused the delay?"
- "Which devices had unusually long ESP application phases this week?"
- "Which device models have the highest Autopilot failure rate?"
- "Which devices in my fleet are affected by CVE-2024-30078?"
Server URL: https://mcp.autopilotmonitor.com/mcp — sign-in runs through your existing work account, access is scoped to your tenant exactly like in the portal, and the MCP server stores no credentials. Setup guide: AI Integration (MCP).
Documentation
Full admin documentation is available at docs.autopilotmonitor.com — deployment, configuration, monitoring, diagnostics, troubleshooting, analysis and gather rules, integrations, and AI-assisted troubleshooting.
Open Source
Autopilot Monitor is developed openly on GitHub. The source is published so that customers and security reviewers can see what runs on their devices and with their data: the repository contains the device agent, shared library, backend, web dashboard, and MCP server.
Feedback
Bug reports and feature requests go through Issues, questions and ideas through Discussions. Security issues are reported privately, see SECURITY.md. For a problem in your own tenant, the Report Session button in the portal is the fastest path.
License
This project uses a split licensing model. The root LICENSE is AGPL-3.0, which covers the server-side components; the device-side components carry their own MIT license file:
- MIT License — Agent (
src/Agent/) and Shared library (src/Shared/) — unrestricted use on end-user devices, no copyleft obligations - AGPL-3.0 — Backend (
src/Backend/), Web Dashboard (src/Web/), and MCP Server (src/McpServer/) — modifications to server-side components remain open source, especially when deployed as a network service
The Shared library is MIT because it is a dependency of the MIT-licensed Agent. The license file inside each component directory is authoritative for that component.