Adding a shared connected-agent bot to a solution pulls in all parent bots, no way to exclude?
I'm trying to add a single Copilot Studio bot to a solution, and it's pulling in every other bot that references it as a connected agent with no prompt and no way to include just the one bot. Repro: 1. Created a brand-new, empty solution (single publisher, no components added yet). 2. Objects → Add existing → Bot → selected only "agent_1" 3. No "include required components" dialog appeared the add just happened. Expected: the solution contains only the selected bot (at most, plus its own connection references). Actual: the solution jumped to 238 objects, 6 agents, 229 agent components, 3 connection references. It pulled in every other bot in the environment that has a connected-agent action pointing at "agent_1" (5 parent bots), plus their own further connected-agent dependencies. This makes it impossible to build a scoped solution around one client-facing agent when it shares a connected-agent bot with unrelated agents elsewhere in the tenant. Normal Dataverse solution dependencies pull in what a component requires; this also seems to pull in everything that depends on it, in reverse, with no override. Questions: 1. Is this expected/intended behavior for connected-agent solution dependency tracking? 2. Is there any supported way UI, PAC CLI, or Dataverse API to add a shared connected-agent bot to a solution without including every bot that references it?
New workflow designer accessing environment variables
Hi, I really enjoy using the new workflow designer. I've a triggered workflow (Email arrives) that I added into a solution. I'd like to use environment variables from within the workflow. The variables and the workflow are in the same solution. Unfortunatly the environment variables are not visible like they were in the old designer. How can I access them ? Thanks in advance
Custom Agent can’t read scanned PDF/Image received from Flows
I'm trying to build a Flow in Copilot Studio that triggers when a PDF/image is uploaded to SharePoint/OneDrive, passes it to a Custom Agent, which is able to extract text from the PDF/image to generate a standardized filename. The Custom Agent works well standalone (drag-and-dropping scanned PDF/image directly into the Copilot chat box works fine!) But passing the file to the Custom Agent via Flow fails. What I tried Approach A (Base64): Used Get file content, converted it to Base64 via base64(...), and sent a JSON payload (fileName, mimeType, documentBase64) to the Agent. Approach B (SharePoint Link): Used Create share link and passed the file's webUrl to the Agent instead of raw file content The issues Issue with Base64: The Agent receives the payload, but fails on scanned/image-based PDFs, replying: "The uploaded file content is a base64 stream for a PDF and contains no extractable text... requires manual verification." Issue with SharePoint Link: The Agent can't open/read the link, replying: "Since I cannot read SharePoint content directly from just the path, please upload the PDF file here." (even after added a SharePoint MCP tool for the Agent). Questions How can I pass a scanned PDF/Image via Flow so the Custom Agent can read & extract the text (just like it does on direct chat upload)? Thanks for any help!Unanswered Questions on GitHub Copilot Harness in Copilot Studio
We're piloting the GitHub Copilot harness in Copilot Studio (GA August 2026) and several operational and architectural details remain undocumented in the GA FAQ, Microsoft Learn, or licensing guides. Looking for official answers or PM contacts on: Architecture & Execution – When the harness breaks tasks into subtasks, does it use internal sub-agents or only skills/connected agents, what are the exact timeout/retry/max-execution-duration limits for long-running workflows, and are planning/context-retrieval/orchestration internals documented anywhere or is the orchestrator a black box? Model Selection – Can individual skills within one agent use different models or is selection strictly agent-level, how are models chosen internally when multiple skills execute, are any internal models developer-configurable, and what's the roadmap for models being added/retired/deprecated plus the lag between public release and Copilot Studio availability? Cost & Token Optimization – How exactly is the ~45% token reduction achieved, how much control do makers have over context/caching/retrieval/tool calls, what are per-model credit consumption characteristics, which models are most cost-effective for specific workloads, and what's the minimum credit cost for trivial interactions? Memory Management – What are retention periods for session/working/agent memory beyond the documented 28-day user-memory expiry, is true long-term memory supported, and what changed versus earlier implementations? Knowledge Retrieval – Can skills or system instructions influence retrieval strategy/document selection/prioritization/filtering, can planning stages perform conflict/duplicate/version detection before retrieval, and how does the harness decide which sources to search? Apps Feature – What is the "Apps (preview)" capability for, when does it GA, and how does it differ from workflows/skills/adaptive cards/agents? Billing & Credit Sizing – Is there a framework to classify users/agents by expected consumption and size credit allocation per group (citizen vs pro developers), and what's the minimum/typical consumption for simple/medium/heavy interactions? Governance & Admin – Can usage limits be set at user level (not just environment/agent), is there an API/IaC path for large-scale credit assignment, can non-admins view their own consumption/remaining allocation, and is there a self-service request-more-credits dashboard? ALM & Environments – What's the recommended path to move harness agents across Dev/Test/UAT/Prod (Solutions/ALM "setup differs" per parity chart—how?), does GitHub integration replace or complement solution-based deployment, are there recommended AgentOps practices for source control/releases/versioning, and what baseline credits and onboarding model are suggested for citizen developers under usage billing—any enterprise reference implementations?
How to preserve document format and structure with Copilot Agent
Hi everyone, I was building a copilot agent that should be able to accept a document and then make changes to it before returning the new version of that document, which has the same format and structure as the original. What is the best way to accomplish this in copilot studio? So far, I have tried using a power automate flow and external tools but it seems that there is no free included tool that can achieve this task. All the document writing tools seem to be paid services requiring API keys. Is there an alternate free way of achieving this task? Thank you
Agent response duplicated in email
Hi, I have created a Copilot Studio Flow which has 3 agents. 2 agents do some research in parallel, I catch the results in 2 different string variables and hand the variables over to a third agent. The third agent should merge both variables, format them and hand them over to "Send Email". In the email body I add the output of agent 3. The workflow itself works. But I always have the complete email body text twice in the email received by the recipients. Where is the duplicate of the agent output coming from? I have this issue also when I add the agent response of agent 1 and agent 2 directly to the "send email" node. Does anyone have an idea? Would be great to get feedback. Appreciate it. Thanks!Update: Root Cause Identified
Hi everyone, I would like to share the root cause and solution in case someone else encounters the same issue. The Problem I created several agent flows directly in Power Automate using: https://make.powerautomate.com The flows were configured correctly: The flow starts with When an agent calls the flow The flow ends with Respond to the agent The flow and agent are in the same environment The flow is included in a solution The flow is published and fully functional The flows could be added to an agent and executed successfully. However, unlike flows created directly from Copilot Studio, they did not appear in the Global Tools directory. What I Investigated I verified: Trigger configuration Respond to the agent action Environment consistency Solution membership Publish all customizations Asynchronous response settings Synchronization delays between Power Automate and Copilot Studio None of these were the root cause. Root Cause The issue was related to the workflow Plan. I discovered that: Flows created directly in Power Automate were assigned: Plan = The user running the flow Flows created directly in Copilot Studio were assigned: Plan = Copilot Studio Although the Power Automate flow was fully functional and could be used by the agent, it was not visible in the Global Tools directory. Solution After changing the workflow Plan to: Plan = Copilot Studio the flow immediately appeared in the Global Tools directory. Configuration Location The setting can be found in the workflow properties under: Primary owner → Plan Important Note Based on my testing, changing the Plan to Copilot Studio appears to be a one-way operation and may not be reversible. It may be a good idea to export or save the flow before making the change. Acknowledgements Special thanks to sohnash for reproducing the scenario and providing troubleshooting suggestions, and to Patty_Velasquez for sharing similar observations that helped confirm the behavior. Hopefully this helps others who encounter the same issue. Best regards, Adhonaï KOUKA
All Copilot Studio Workflow Tools Suddenly Returning HTTP 403 Before Execution
Hello Copilot Studio Community, I am experiencing an authorization issue with multiple workflows connected to an agent built using the Copilot Studio new experience and new Workflows experience. These workflows worked successfully for multiple users yesterday. Today, all workflow tools connected to the agent began returning an immediate HTTP 403 authorization error. I did not intentionally change the agent, workflows, environment, or workflow permissions before the issue started. Error message: You don’t have permission to use this tool. You’re signed in, but access to this resource is blocked. Error details: Authorization - 403 Example error information: Status: Failed Error message: Flow returned HTTP 403 Error code: Http403 Inner error code: NotSpecified Tool duration: Approximately 93 milliseconds Configuration: - Copilot Studio new agent experience - Copilot Studio new Workflows experience - Agent and workflows are in the same Power Platform environment - Workflows use the "When an agent calls the workflow" trigger - Each workflow includes a "Respond to the agent" action - Workflows are saved and published - Agent is saved and published Observed behavior: The problem affects several independent workflows, including: - New-request submission - Current-user identity resolution - Approval decisions - Requester justification - Executive decisions - Fulfillment updates For every affected workflow: - The agent fills the workflow inputs correctly. - The tool call fails almost immediately. - No corresponding run appears in the workflow Activity history. - The workflow trigger is never reached. - No workflow actions execute. Because no workflow run is created, the rejection appears to occur before workflow execution, possibly within the Copilot Studio agent-to-workflow authorization or invocation layer. Troubleshooting already completed: - Confirmed that all workflows are published. - Confirmed that the agent is published. - Tested in a completely new conversation. - Removed an affected workflow tool from the agent. - Saved the agent. - Added the same published workflow back to the agent. - Reconfigured and verified the tool inputs. - Republished the agent. - Confirmed that no workflow Activity run is created. - Confirmed that the issue affects multiple workflows rather than one specific workflow. Removing and re-adding the workflow did not resolve the problem. Questions for the community: 1. Is anyone else currently experiencing HTTP 403 errors when Copilot Studio agents invoke workflows? 2. Is this a known issue or regression in the new Workflows experience? 3. Is there an environment-level or tenant-level permission that controls agent-to-workflow invocation? 4. Could a tenant policy, Conditional Access change, service principal, connection reference, or workflow-sharing configuration cause all workflow tools to fail simultaneously? 5. Where can an administrator find detailed authorization logs when the workflow never creates a run? 6. Has anyone found a workaround for this issue? Any guidance or confirmation from others experiencing the same behavior would be appreciated. I can provide screenshots, complete error details, timestamps, and additional configuration information if needed. Thank you.Copilot Studio consistent System Error issue
I have built an agent that invokes a Power Automate flow as a tool. Inside the flow, I'm using the Execute Agent and Wait activity, which calls another agent. This execution takes around 10–15 minutes to complete, after which the flow returns the result using Respond to Agent (asynchronous response). Although the flow completes successfully and the downstream agent finishes its execution, the calling agent still receives a System Error instead of the expected response. Why I'm using a Flow instead of directly connecting the agent Normally, I would connect the agent directly. However, the agent being invoked is already connected to another agent. Since agent → agent → agent chaining is not supported in Classic mode, I used a Power Automate flow as an orchestration layer to work around this limitation. Looking for someone who have faced this issue and has any solution to this.
