Building your own Agents with Copilot Studio

The Microsoft Copilot Landscape

This module introduces the various Microsoft Copilot products available today and helps you understand where and how each one fits into the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. You will gain insights into licensing, extensibility and the Copilot Studio platform.

• Microsoft Copilot for Personal Usage
• Microsoft 365 Copilot for Business Users
• Using Microsoft 365 Copilot in the Web and Teams
• Understanding Agents
• Copilot Studio Licensing Options
• Copilot Credit Consumption and Pricing Models

Creating Declarative Agents

This chapter explains how declarative agents let you extend Microsoft 365 Copilot with custom instructions, knowledge, and tools, using Agent Builder, SharePoint, Teams or Copilot Studio. It covers the full lifecycle from creation and configuration to publishing, sharing, and usage.

• What are Declarative Agents?
• Creating Declarative Agents with Agent Builder
• Configuring Agents with Knowledge and Tools
• Publishing and Sharing Declarative Agents
• Using a Declarative Agent
• Building Declarative Agents in SharePoint and Teams
• Building Declarative Agents with Copilot Studio
• Best Practices for Building Agents

Copilot Studio and the Power Platform

Microsoft Copilot Studio is a low-code tool within the Power Platform that allows you to create, customize and manage AI-powered agents. In this module, you will discover how Copilot Studio leverages Power Platform features such as environments and solutions to support enterprise-grade governance and lifecycle management.

• Introduction to Microsoft Copilot Studio
• How Copilot Studio Relates to the Power Platform
• Understanding Environments in the Power Platform
• Introduction to Dataverse
• Solutions in the Power Platform
• Packaging Agents for ALM
• LAB: Prepare Your Environment for Agent Creation

Creating Your First Agent with Copilot Studio

Learn how to build your first custom agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio. This chapter introduces you to the core components of an agent — Knowledge, Topics, and Tools — and guides you through the process of creating, configuring and publishing your first agent.

• Getting Started with Copilot Studio
• Creating a New Agent
• Setting Agent Name, Description and Settings
• Configuring General vs Custom Knowledge
• Understanding Topics and Their Purpose
• Using Tools to Extend Agent Functionality
• Understanding Generative vs Classic Orchestration
• Publishing Your Agent to Channels (Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot, Web, etc.)
• LAB: Create Your First Agent

Adding Knowledge Sources to an Agent

To make your agent truly intelligent, you can connect it to various knowledge sources — including websites, SharePoint, documents, and Dataverse. This chapter explains how to ground your agent in organizational data and configure secure access to enterprise knowledge.

• Overview of Knowledge Sources
• Adding Public Website Knowledge
• Adding Document Knowledge
• Adding Dataverse Knowledge
• SharePoint and OneDrive Knowledge
• Adding Knowledge via Copilot Connectors
• Editing and Testing Knowledge
• LAB: Adding Knowledge Sources to an Agent

Working with Topics

Topics define how your agent interacts with users. They represent structured conversations your agent can handle. In this chapter, you’ll learn how to create, configure, and manage topics, define triggers, and design engaging conversation flows.

• What are Topics?
• System Topics vs Custom Topics
• Creating and Editing Topics
• Configuring Topic Triggers
• Sending Messages and Asking Questions in a Topic
• Branching and Looping
• Working with Variables
• Working with Power FX and Adaptive Cards
• Orchestrating Topics Using Generative AI
• LAB: Working with Topics

Enhancing Agents with Tools

Tools enable your agents to interact with external systems, perform actions, and extend their functionality beyond simple conversations. This module explores how to define, configure, and use Tools in Microsoft Copilot Studio, including connectors, flows, and Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers.

• What are Tools?
• Creating Connector Tools
• Customizing Responses using Adaptive Cards and Power FX
• Invoking Tools in Generative Mode and from Topics
• Creating and Using Power Automate Flow Tools
• Creating Agent Flows in Copilot Studio
• Integrating MCP Servers as Tools
• LAB: Enhancing Agents with Tools

Building an Autonomous Agent

Autonomous agents are capable of executing actions automatically based on events or triggers, without human intervention. This module teaches how to configure agents that respond to real-world signals such as incoming emails, new data entries, or scheduled events.

• Introduction to Autonomous Agents
• Understanding Event Triggers
• Adding Event Triggers in Copilot Studio
• Event Triggers and Power Automate
• Testing Event Triggers
• Publishing Agents with Event Triggers
• Licensing Considerations
• Limitations of Knowledge Sources
• LAB: Building an Autonomous Agent

Publishing and Monitoring an Agent

Once your agent is developed, it’s essential to thoroughly test its performance before making it available to users. After testing, you can publish your agent across multiple platforms and monitor how it performs through detailed analytics. This chapter walks you through the full process: testing your agent, configuring authentication, sharing it with others, publishing to various channels, and analyzing its overall effectiveness.

• Testing Agent Performance
• Setting up Authentication for Agents
• Authentication Modes (None, Microsoft, OAuth2, Entra ID)
• Sharing Agents with Users and Teams
• Publishing to Channels (Web, Microsoft Teams, Microsoft 365 Copilot)
• Adding an Agent to a Website
• Customizing Agent Appearance in Teams
• Monitoring Agent Performance and Usage
• Analyzing Engagement, Resolution, and Satisfaction Metrics
• Exporting and Reviewing Conversation Transcripts
• Capturing and Analyzing Telemetry with Azure Application Insights

Managing Agents at Scale with Component Collections and the Copilot Studio Kit

This module introduces the Power CAT Copilot Studio Kit and Component Collections, key capabilities and guidance that help standardize, reuse, and govern agent components across your organization. You will learn how these concepts enable scalable agent development by centralizing tools, prompts, and configurations, ensuring consistency, compliance, and simplified lifecycle management across environments.

• Understanding Component Collections
• Creating and Reusing Collections Across Agents
• Managing Updates and Versioning of Shared Components
• Introduction to the Power CAT Copilot Studio Kit
• Using Copilot Studio Kit for Governance, Testing, and Optimization
• Accelerating ALM with Templates and Automation