Copilot Responses - How to not let users view the source documents

Hi iding

Jamony covered the access side, so I'll only add how to hide the citations. There's no switch for it in Copilot Studio. The documented way is the generative answers node: under Advanced, clear Send a message and save the answer to a variable. Then show that variable yourself in a Message node, so no citation links come with it.

The [1] and [2] markers can stay in the text, so strip them in the message with Power Fx:

Substitute(Substitute(Topic.Answer.Text.Content, "[1]", ""), "[2]", "")

Change Topic.Answer to your own variable. In Teams, customized answers don't get citation links on their own, which suits what you want. Which channel do you publish to?

Hiding the citation link and preventing access to the original document are separate requirements. Removing a source link from the conversation does not revoke the user’s existing permission to open that document, and the answer itself can still disclose its contents.

For a Copilot Studio generative answers node, Microsoft documents saving the generated response to a variable, clearing Send a message, and rendering a customized Message or Adaptive Card. Citations are not automatically rendered for customized answers, so this lets you control their presentation. Test in the actual publishing channel because citation behavior differs between channels.

If the requirement is to protect the underlying files, review the knowledge source and authentication configuration instead. SharePoint-based answers should respect the authenticated user’s permissions; hiding links is not an access-control boundary. Use an approved, separately maintained knowledge set containing only information those agent users are allowed to receive.