From Clicks to Code: How Graph X-Ray Transforms the Way Admins Work with the Microsoft Graph

I asked Merill Fernando, the creator of Graph X-Ray, to talk me through how the tool came to be and some use case scenarios.

Microsoft Graph is the unified API that connects data across Microsoft 365, from Entra ID and Teams to Exchange, Intune, and more. It’s the foundation for automation, reporting, and integration across the Microsoft ecosystem, allowing administrators and developers to query and modify nearly every aspect of a tenant through RESTful calls or SDKs.

But working directly with Graph can be tricky. It often requires deep knowledge of endpoints, permissions, and payload formats, details that can slow down even experienced PowerShell users.

What is Graph X-Ray?

That’s where Graph X-Ray comes in. Graph X-Ray acts as a bridge between what you do in the Microsoft Entra or Intune portals and the underlying Graph API calls being made in real time. It reveals exactly what’s happening behind the scenes, showing you the API requests and even converting them into PowerShell.

When you’re managing users, writing PowerShell scripts, or creating dynamic groups in Microsoft Entra, there’s often a hidden layer of complexity. You know what you want but figuring out how to make the Graph API do it can take a lot of time.

“Typically you’d have to go open up the docs, go through the API documentation, and it would take anywhere from 10–15 minutes — or if you’re new to PowerShell, maybe half an hour — to do something as simple as creating a dynamic group,” said Merill Fernando, the tool’s creator.

That repetitive grunt work, finding the right endpoints, testing calls, and translating them into scripts, is exactly what Graph X-Ray was built to eliminate.

The hidden power behind the portal

If you’ve ever made changes in Microsoft Entra or Intune through the browser, you’ve already been using the Graph API — you just might not realize it.

“I was doing this in the browser, selecting these things, and the browser was actually making Graph API calls against the Microsoft Graph API to create this,” Merill explained.

Each dropdown selection or form submission in the portal triggers an API request behind the scenes. For admins and IT pros, those calls contain a treasure trove of insight into how Microsoft’s services really work. But unless you’re comfortable digging through browser developer tools and raw JSON payloads, that treasure is buried.

From hackathon idea to essential tool

The idea for Graph X-Ray started at a Microsoft hackathon. The problem was clear: finding and understanding the right Graph API calls was too slow and too technical for many users.

“At one of the hackathons, we said, why don’t we build a browser extension — like Fiddler — that as you make changes in the browser in your tenant, it’ll give you all the APIs in a neatly formatted way so you can easily figure out what’s happening?”

That simple concept evolved into Graph X-Ray, a browser extension that intercepts and formats Graph API calls in real time. The tool watches the portal as you work and instantly displays the Graph requests, showing you exactly what Microsoft’s own interfaces are doing under the hood.

“Suddenly you can go from making some changes in the portal to, on the right-hand side in this Chrome extension, seeing all the PowerShell scripts for those changes. You can go from 15 minutes to under a minute.”

How Graph X-Ray works

When you open a blade in the Microsoft Entra or Intune admin portal, the portal makes API calls to Microsoft Graph. Graph X-Ray listens for those calls, captures them, and then, using an internal Microsoft API, automatically converts the REST API into PowerShell, C#, Java, or Go.

If you’ve ever seen Microsoft’s documentation that shows code samples in multiple languages, that same backend system is powering Graph X-Ray’s conversions.

“Someone figured out there’s actually another internal API that Microsoft uses for the docs… to convert the REST API to various languages like PowerShell or C#. We plugged that in.”

The result is an immediate side-by-side view: make a change in the Entra portal, and Graph X-Ray generates the corresponding PowerShell command. Need to tweak it? You can copy and modify the code directly.

Why it matters for IT pros

For administrators, Graph X-Ray bridges the gap between UI convenience and API control.

• You can see exactly what API calls are being made when you interact with Entra.
• You can copy those calls as PowerShell or C# scripts to automate repetitive tasks.
• You can learn Graph API syntax naturally, by watching what the portal does.

“It’s a really easy way to understand what’s going on behind the scenes. People like the Intune folks love this because you can quickly see what’s happening without having to read a bunch of documentation.”

Even for developers, the extension provides clarity. Microsoft’s portals often batch multiple Graph calls together or mix in internal APIs, something that’s nearly impossible to untangle manually.

“Graph X-Ray explodes all those out into individual top-level calls, so it’s really easy to figure out what’s happening.”

Where Graph X-Ray works best

Graph X-Ray shines anywhere the Microsoft Graph API is used extensively, particularly in Entra ID, Intune, and user or group management workflows.

However, not every portal blade uses Graph under the hood.

“It only catches the blade that you’re looking at in the admin portal if it’s using Graph API calls. Some use internal first-party APIs which won’t show up in Graph X-Ray.”

In other words, if you’re working in areas like application management, you might not see much activity. But in the most common admin areas, users, groups, devices, it’s a goldmine.

A new way to learn and automate

The power of Graph X-Ray isn’t just in saving time, it’s in making the invisible visible. It demystifies the Graph API and gives every admin, not just developers, the ability to understand and automate Microsoft 365.

“You have a nice visual UI, and you get the PowerShell script from that. It’s a very, very handy tool to have in your toolkit.”

How to get started with Graph X-Ray

If you’re ready to see what’s happening behind the scenes in your own tenant, here’s how to get started with Graph X-Ray:

1. Install the extension
   Visit the Graph X-Ray page on the Chrome Web Store and install the extension in your browser. It works with both Microsoft Edge (Chromium) and Google Chrome.
2. Open the Microsoft Entra admin portal
   Navigate to entra.microsoft.com and sign in with your administrator account.
3. Activate Graph X-Ray
   Click the Graph X-Ray icon in your browser toolbar. The extension will begin monitoring your current session and display detected Graph API calls in a panel on the right-hand side.
4. Explore live API calls
   As you click through blades (like Users, Groups, or Devices), Graph X-Ray will automatically capture the API requests the portal makes and display them in readable form.
5. Generate scripts automatically
   The extension can show equivalent PowerShell, C#, Java, or Go code for any detected API call. Copy these snippets directly into your automation workflows.
6. Refine and reuse
   You can tweak parameters or combine the captured calls into your own scripts. This makes Graph X-Ray a great teaching and prototyping tool for Graph API learning.

“You can go from doing things manually in the portal to seeing the PowerShell output instantly — and understand exactly what’s happening under the hood.”

The bottom line

Graph X-Ray turns Microsoft’s own portals into a live learning lab for automation. By surfacing the exact Graph API calls your browser makes, it helps you write better scripts, faster. No documentation deep dives required.

What started as a hackathon experiment has become an indispensable tool for IT professionals everywhere who want to understand and harness Microsoft Graph.