OneDrive

OneDrive is the personal-scope alternative to SharePoint. Same auth flow, same underlying API, different mental model: files live in a specific user's personal drive rather than in a shared site. That makes OneDrive a great fit for individual workflows and a poor fit for production team assets.

If the file is owned by a team, use SharePoint. If the file is owned by one person, OneDrive is fine.

Register an Azure AD app (one-time, per tenant)

OneDrive and SharePoint share the same app registration. If you already registered an app for SharePoint, skip this section and reuse the existing Client ID, Tenant ID, and secret. Just make sure Files.ReadWrite.All is added to the permissions.

Otherwise:

1. Sign in to the Azure Portal as an admin
2. Azure Active Directory → App registrations → New registration, name it Outpost SuiteApp, single-tenant
3. Note the Application (client) ID and Directory (tenant) ID
4. API permissions → Add a permission → Microsoft Graph → Application permissions, add Files.ReadWrite.All, click Grant admin consent
5. Certificates & secrets → New client secret, copy the secret value immediately

Create the Connection in Outpost

1. Open Outpost by VCG → Connections
2. Click New Connection and pick OneDrive
3. Fill in:
   • Connection name. e.g. Controller's OneDrive.
   • OneDrive user (UPN). The full email address of the user whose drive you're writing to, e.g. exports@contoso.com.
   • Folder path. Path relative to the drive root, e.g. /Outpost Exports.
   • Application (Client) ID, Directory (Tenant) ID, Client secret. From the Azure app registration.
4. Click Test connection. Outpost resolves the user's drive, writes a probe file, and deletes it.
5. Click Save.

Configure folder and filename on the export template

Same as SharePoint: in Step 2 of the wizard you can override the folder path and set the file name using tokens like {date}, {datetime}, or {search_id}:

/Outpost Exports/weekly_kpi_{date}.csv

What to expect on delivery

• File format: CSV, UTF-8, with a header row
• Overwrite behavior: Outpost overwrites files in place unless the filename contains a token
• Ownership: Files appear in the UPN's OneDrive as if they were uploaded by that user (via the app registration, not an interactive login)
• Latency: Seconds for normal result sets

Tips & gotchas

• Use a service account UPN, not a real person. If the UPN is a real employee and that employee leaves the company, IT deactivates the account, and every export template pointing at that OneDrive breaks. Ask IT for a dedicated service account with a mailbox (e.g. outpost-exports@contoso.com) and point OneDrive Connections at that.
• Folder paths are relative to the drive root. /Outpost Exports writes to https://contoso-my.sharepoint.com/personal/exports_contoso_com/Documents/Outpost Exports. Don't paste the full URL.
• Sharing is per-file, not inherited. OneDrive files start private to the UPN. To let other people read them, either share the folder out explicitly, or point your BI tools at the direct OneDrive URL with appropriate permissions. This is the main reason OneDrive is a worse fit for team-owned production data than SharePoint.
• The same app registration as SharePoint. If you already set up an Azure app for SharePoint Connections, reuse it. Add Files.ReadWrite.All and re-grant admin consent.

Permissions & access control

OneDrive files inherit the privacy of the user's personal drive: by default, only that user (and tenant admins) can read them. To let others consume the file:

• Share the parent folder explicitly with the users or groups who need it
• Move to SharePoint if the access list is more than 2-3 people or changes regularly

Outpost doesn't manage sharing on your behalf. It writes the file; permissions are your tenant's problem.

When to pick OneDrive (and when not to)

Troubleshooting

• 404 Resource not found. The UPN is wrong, or that user has never provisioned OneDrive (some tenants don't auto-provision until first sign-in). Ask the user to visit office.com once to initialize their OneDrive.
• 403 Forbidden. Missing Files.ReadWrite.All application permission, or admin consent wasn't granted. Fix in Azure Portal.
• Files show up in the wrong place. Folder paths are relative to the drive root, not absolute URLs. Strip the https://...-my.sharepoint.com/personal/... prefix and use /Outpost Exports.