🗺️ M365 Roadmap Tracker¶

Live at: aguidetocloud.com/m365-roadmap/ Repo: susanthgit/m365-roadmap Built: April 10, 2026 Cost: $0/month (GitHub Actions Free + Azure SWA Free + Azure OpenAI ~$0.01/day)

What It Does¶

An automated tracker that pulls all ~1,900 items from Microsoft's official M365 roadmap API, detects changes daily, generates AI summaries, and displays everything in an "Amber Command" dark dashboard — complete with delay detection, favourites, RSS feed, and CSV export.

Think of it like having a personal radar that watches the Microsoft 365 roadmap for you and highlights what changed overnight.

Architecture Overview¶

┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│                GitHub Actions (daily at 5:00 UTC)          │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│                                                           │
│  ┌────────────────┐  ┌──────────────┐  ┌───────────────┐ │
│  │fetch_roadmap.py│─▶│ summarise.py │─▶│generate_data  │ │
│  │  API + changes │  │ GPT-4o mini  │  │  .py          │ │
│  └────────────────┘  └──────────────┘  └───────────────┘ │
│         │                   │                  │          │
│   items.json          summaries.json     latest.json      │
│   previous_state.json cache.json         weekly/monthly   │
│   changelog.json                         feed.xml         │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┤
│   Clone main site repo → copy data → hugo build → deploy  │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
         │
         ▼
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│            aguidetocloud.com/m365-roadmap/                 │
│                                                           │
│  ┌───────────┐  ┌────────────┐  ┌──────────────────────┐ │
│  │roadmap.js │  │roadmap.css │  │m365-roadmap/list.html│ │
│  │  ~260 loc │  │  ~165 loc  │  │Hugo template          │ │
│  └───────────┘  └────────────┘  └──────────────────────┘ │
│                                                           │
│  "Amber Command" palette: #E5A00D gold on #141118 dark    │
└───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Data Source¶

Microsoft Roadmap API — free, no auth required:

https://www.microsoft.com/releasecommunications/api/v1/m365

Returns all ~1,900 roadmap items as JSON. Updated by Microsoft daily. The pipeline makes a single GET request with a custom User-Agent: M365RoadmapTracker/1.0 (aguidetocloud.com).

Pipeline Scripts¶

1. `fetch_roadmap.py`¶

Feature	Detail
API call	Single GET to Microsoft roadmap API (timeout: 30s)
Change detection	Compares each item against `site/previous_state.json`
Change types	`new`, `status_changed`, `date_changed`, `updated`
Content hash	`md5(title + description + status + GA dates)` for meaningful change detection
Delay flagging	If GA date < current month AND status ≠ Launched/Cancelled → `is_delayed = true`
Changelog	Accumulates changes into `site/changelog.json` with timestamps
First run	Suppresses all change flags (treats everything as baseline)
Output	`site/items.json`, `site/previous_state.json`, `site/changelog.json`

2. `summarise.py`¶

Feature	Detail
Model	Azure OpenAI `gpt-4o-mini`
Endpoint	`ainews-openai.openai.azure.com` (shared with AI News)
Auth	OIDC → Azure AD token (same service principal as AI News)
Cache key	`item.id + md5(description)[:12]` — only re-summarises when content changes
Cache file	`site/summaries_cache.json`
Batch size	10 items per API call
Temperature	0.2
Max tokens	200 × batch size
Fallback	Single-item mode if batch parse fails; cache-only mode if no token

3. `generate_data.py`¶

Feature	Detail
Daily archive	`site/data/YYYY-MM-DD.json` (raw item snapshots)
Index files	`site/latest.json`, `site/weekly.json`, `site/monthly.json`
RSS feed	`site/feed.xml` (100 items max, changed first then active)
latest.json shape	`generated_at`, `total_items`, `active_items`, `summarised`, `changes_summary`, `product_categories`, `status_counts`, `items`

GitHub Actions Workflow¶

File: .github/workflows/daily-roadmap.yml (~98 lines)

Schedule: Daily at 5:00 UTC
Triggers: cron + manual dispatch

Steps:
1. Checkout repo
2. Setup Python 3.12
3. Install requirements
4. Run fetch_roadmap.py
5. Azure OIDC login (azure/login@v2)
6. Get Azure OpenAI token
7. Run summarise.py
8. Run generate_data.py
9. Commit site/ back to pipeline repo
10. Clone main site repo → copy data → hugo build → swa deploy
11. On failure → create GitHub Issue

Shared OIDC Service Principal¶

Uses the same ainews service principal as AI News:

Client ID: 51b70f10-db98-4c14-84ef-2ca661e51b6d
Federated credential: m365-roadmap-github-actions-oidc
Scoped to: Azure OpenAI resource (ainews-openai)

Frontend Implementation¶

Hugo Templates¶

Template	Purpose
`layouts/m365-roadmap/list.html`	Main page — search, status/product filters, RSS/CSV links
`layouts/m365-roadmap-category/list.html`	Category SEO pages — pre-filtered by `roadmap_filter`, CollectionPage JSON-LD

JavaScript — `roadmap.js` (~260 lines)¶

Feature	How it works
Data source	Fetches `/data/roadmap/latest.json`
sessionStorage cache	Key: `rdmap_v7`, caches full JSON if < 2MB, 30-min freshness
Product filter	Dropdown populated from `product_categories` in JSON
Category chips	Horizontal bar with per-category item counts
Status filter	Dropdown — "In Progress" excludes Launched + Cancelled
Search	Matches title + AI summary + products
AI summaries	Rendered inline in each row if present
Pagination	`PAGE_SIZE = 50`, "Load more (N remaining)" button
Favourites	`localStorage` key `rdmap_favourites` — star toggle per item
CSV export	Client-side generation: `ID,Title,Status,Product,GA Date,Delayed,Summary,URL`
URL state	Reads/writes `?product=`, `?status=`, `?q=` for shareable views
Category pages	Respects `window.__roadmapCategoryFilter` for pre-filtering
Keyboard	`/` focuses search box

CSS — `roadmap.css` (~165 lines)¶

Element	Detail
Accent colour	Gold `#E5A00D`
Background	`#1a1510` → `#141118` gradient
Cards	`#1C1924` bg, `#2A2533` borders
Text	`#E8E4ED` primary, `#8B8594` muted
Chips	Horizontal scroll on overflow
Mobile	`@media (max-width: 768px)` — stacked controls, 1-column rows
CSS namespace	`.rdmap-*` classes throughout

SEO Category Landing Pages¶

11 pages under content/m365-roadmap/:

Page	Product Filter
`/m365-roadmap/copilot/`	Copilot
`/m365-roadmap/teams/`	Teams
`/m365-roadmap/outlook/`	Outlook
`/m365-roadmap/sharepoint/`	SharePoint
`/m365-roadmap/office-apps/`	Office Apps
`/m365-roadmap/purview/`	Purview
`/m365-roadmap/intune/`	Intune
`/m365-roadmap/viva/`	Viva
`/m365-roadmap/entra/`	Entra
`/m365-roadmap/admin/`	Admin
`/m365-roadmap/edge-media/`	Edge & Media

Each uses type: "m365-roadmap-category" + roadmap_filter param in front matter.

Key Design Decisions¶

Decision	Rationale
"Amber Command" palette	Military radar aesthetic — gold on charcoal conveys authority + monitoring
Same OIDC as AI News	One service principal for both pipelines — simpler governance
Hash-based summary cache	Only re-summarise items whose content actually changed — saves API costs
Delay flagging	Automatically highlights items past their GA date — useful for customer conversations
Change detection	Customers want to know "what changed since yesterday" — changelog answers this
sessionStorage v7	Bump `CACHE_VERSION` when changing JSON schema to invalidate stale cached data

Maintenance¶

Task	How
Force a refresh	Trigger `daily-roadmap.yml` manually via GitHub Actions
Bump cache version	Edit `CACHE_VERSION` in `roadmap.js` when JSON schema changes
Add a category page	Create `content/m365-roadmap/<slug>/_index.md` with `type: "m365-roadmap-category"`
Check for failures	Look at GitHub Issues in `m365-roadmap` repo (auto-created on failure)
Update OIDC	Same service principal as AI News → Federated credentials in Entra ID
Cache headers	`staticwebapp.config.json` sets `/data/roadmap/*` to `max-age=1800` (30 min)

Last updated: 11 April 2026