White paper: Choosing between the GitHub Copilot and Standard harnesses in Copilot Studio
The Standard harness and GitHub Copilot harness are two authoring and runtime options within Microsoft Copilot Studio. A harness is the operating layer between the model and the agent’s configuration. It determines how the model receives context, uses instructions and tools, interprets results, and moves through a task toward completion. Put simply, the model provides the reasoning capability, while the harness equips and directs it. Both harnesses are built for task-based, multi-step agents that create real business value, but they are suited to different scenarios. The Standard harness supports consistent, reliable execution of bounded business processes, while the GitHub Copilot harness extends these capabilities to longer-running, coordination-heavy, and reasoning-intensive work at a larger scale. This paper explains the key differences, tradeoffs, and scenarios to help you choose which harness is right for your business process. Read the full paper by clicking the PDF attachment below.
