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name: "cipp-groups" description: "Tenant-scoped Entra/M365 group enumeration and creation in CIPP, the four group types (Security, Microsoft 365, Distribution, Mail-Enabled Security) and when to pick each, and the boundary where CIPP's group surface ends and Graph/M365 takes over." when_to_use: >- When enumerating or creating Entra ID / M365 groups across managed tenants. Use when: cipp group, create group, m365 group, distribution list, security group, or group membership.

CIPP Groups

Groups in CIPP cover all four Entra/M365 group types: Security, Microsoft 365 (unified), Distribution List, and Mail-Enabled Security. Most groups are managed through CIPP for delegation simplicity, but membership changes for individual users typically flow through cipp_list_user_groups (read) and the M365 plugin or graph-API for write operations.

Anti-triggers

• Adding or removing a member of an existing group — CIPP exposes create and list only; there is no membership-write tool. Use the m365 plugin or microsoft-graph-querying.
• Which groups one user belongs to — cipp_list_user_groups is in cipp-users, and cipp_offboard_user strips memberships as part of the offboard.
• Reviewing group and role assignments for a governance report — read-only identity inventory across a baseline is inforcer-identity-governance.
• A shared mailbox — a Microsoft 365 group is not a shared mailbox; mailbox objects and their delegates are cipp-mailboxes.

Tools

cipp_list_groups

cipp_list_groups(tenantFilter='contoso.onmicrosoft.com')

Returns all groups in the tenant with id, displayName, groupTypes, mailEnabled, securityEnabled, and member count. Use to audit group sprawl, find candidate distribution lists for cleanup, or resolve group names to IDs.

cipp_create_group

cipp_create_group(tenantFilter, displayName, description?,
                  groupType='Security'|'Microsoft 365'|'Distribution'|'Mail-Enabled Security',
                  mailNickname?, members?)

mailNickname is required for any mail-enabled group type. Members can be supplied at creation time as a list of UPNs or object IDs.

Group type matrix

Type	Mail-enabled	Use case
Security	No	RBAC, conditional access scoping, license assignment
Microsoft 365	Yes	Teams, SharePoint, shared inbox + collaboration
Distribution	Yes	Email distribution only, no shared workspace
Mail-Enabled Security	Yes	Both: mail distribution AND security scoping

Pick Security for permissions-only, Microsoft 365 for collaboration with a shared mailbox/Teams workspace, Distribution for plain mailing lists.

Common patterns

Find groups a user belongs to before offboarding

groups = cipp_list_user_groups(tenantFilter, userId='leaver@contoso.com')

cipp_offboard_user with removeFromGroups=true handles this automatically; only do it manually when you need an explicit audit trail.

Audit large unmanaged groups

After cipp_list_groups, sort by member count and flag any with > 50 members and no description. These are usually historical distribution lists no one owns.

Caveats

CIPP's group toolset is intentionally narrow — for membership changes (add/remove user), conditional access scoping, or license assignment via groups, use the M365 plugin or work directly against the Graph API. CIPP focuses on the multi-tenant CRUD surface.