diff --git a/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/AppHost.cs b/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/AppHost.cs
index fe66f60..b5da0cb 100644
--- a/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/AppHost.cs
+++ b/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/AppHost.cs
@@ -2,10 +2,34 @@
 
 var config = builder.Configuration;
 
+var mcpMarkItDown = builder.AddContainer(ResourceConstants.McpMarkItDown, "mcp/markitdown", "latest")
+                           .WithHttpEndpoint(targetPort: 3001)
+                           .WithArgs("--http", "--host", "0.0.0.0", "--port", "3001");
+
+// Azure Cosmos DB (NoSQL). Uses the local emulator in run mode and provisions a managed
+// account when published. Aspire creates the database and container as resources, so no
+// runtime resource creation is required (see the EnsureCreatedAsync note in the MCP server).
+var cosmos = builder.AddAzureCosmosDB(ResourceConstants.Cosmos);
+if (builder.ExecutionContext.IsRunMode)
+{
+    cosmos.RunAsPreviewEmulator(emulator => emulator.WithDataExplorer());
+}
+
+var cosmosDb = cosmos.AddCosmosDatabase(ResourceConstants.CosmosDatabase);
+cosmosDb.AddContainer(ResourceConstants.CosmosContainer, "/id");
+
+var mcpInterviewData = builder.AddProject<Projects.InterviewCoach_Mcp_InterviewData>(ResourceConstants.McpInterviewData)
+                              .WithReference(cosmosDb)
+                              .WaitFor(cosmosDb);
+
 var agent = builder.AddProject<Projects.InterviewCoach_Agent>(ResourceConstants.Agent)
                    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
+                   .WithLlmReference(config, args)
                    .WithEnvironment("AZURE_TENANT_ID", config["AZURE_TENANT_ID"] ?? string.Empty)
-;
+                   .WithReference(mcpMarkItDown.GetEndpoint("http"))
+                   .WithReference(mcpInterviewData)
+                   .WaitFor(mcpMarkItDown)
+                   .WaitFor(mcpInterviewData);
 
 var webUI = builder.AddProject<Projects.InterviewCoach_WebUI>(ResourceConstants.WebUI)
                    .WithExternalHttpEndpoints()
diff --git a/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/appsettings.json b/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/appsettings.json
index 70567b4..7588450 100644
--- a/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/appsettings.json
+++ b/src/InterviewCoach.AppHost/appsettings.json
@@ -7,7 +7,7 @@
       "Microsoft.EntityFrameworkCore": "Warning"
     }
   },
-  "AgentMode": "Single",
+  "AgentMode": "HandOff",
   "LlmProvider": "MicrosoftFoundry",
   "MicrosoftFoundry": {
     "DeploymentName": "gpt-5-mini",