Add a Microsoft 365 Copilot Connector to a Copilot Studio Agent

Microsoft 365 Copilot connectors can index content from non-Microsoft systems into Microsoft Graph. Once a tenant administrator configures a connector, a Copilot Studio author can add that connection as an agent knowledge source. The agent can then ground responses in indexed enterprise content while respecting the source permissions represented in the index.

This is different from adding a Power Platform real-time connector. Copilot connectors are designed for indexed, searchable knowledge reused across Microsoft 365; Power Platform connectors can query supported systems at runtime without copying the underlying records into a knowledge index.

Prerequisites

• A tenant administrator has configured and deployed the required Microsoft 365 Copilot connector.
• The connector has completed its initial crawl and the expected content is searchable.
• Source permissions and identity mappings are configured correctly.
• The Copilot Studio agent is in the appropriate tenant and environment.
• You have a publishing authentication plan for every channel that will use the agent.

Microsoft recommends a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the same tenant and tenant graph grounding with semantic search for better connector search results. Review current requirements in the Copilot Studio connector documentation.

Add a Copilot connector to an agent

1. Open the agent in Copilot Studio.
2. Select Add knowledge from the Overview or Knowledge page. You can also add it from the properties of a generative answers node.
3. In the Add knowledge dialog, select the required Copilot connector. If it is not shown, select Advanced.
4. Select the configured connection.
5. Choose Add to agent.
6. Wait until the source is available, then test the agent with questions that should retrieve known indexed items.

You cannot create or deploy the underlying tenant connector from this dialog. If it is still missing under Advanced, ask the Microsoft 365 administrator to confirm that it is configured, deployed and available in the same tenant.

Configure authentication before publishing

An agent that works in the test pane can still fail or expose the wrong experience after publication if channel authentication is incomplete. Microsoft states that manually configured authentication for agents using Copilot connector knowledge must include the ExternalItem.Read.All delegated scope.

• Configure user authentication for the agent and target channel.
• Use delegated access so each user receives only content they are authorized to read.
• Verify admin consent and any conditional-access requirements.
• Test with at least one authorized user and one user who lacks access to the same source item.

Do not publish anonymously when the knowledge source contains permission-trimmed enterprise data.

Validate retrieval and permission trimming

1. Choose several indexed records with different source permissions.
2. Ask direct questions that should retrieve each record.
3. Confirm that the response is supported by the cited source item.
4. Repeat the questions while signed in as users with different access.
5. Test recently changed or deleted records to understand connector crawl latency.
6. Ask an out-of-scope question and confirm the agent does not present unsupported content as source-grounded.

Copilot connectors depend on crawled and indexed content, so changes are not necessarily visible immediately. Check the connector's crawl status when a known recent item cannot be found.

If the connector does not appear

• Select Advanced in Add knowledge.
• Confirm that the tenant administrator deployed the connector rather than only creating a draft.
• Verify that the connector belongs to the same tenant as the agent.
• Check connector health, crawl completion and identity mapping in the Microsoft 365 admin experience.
• Ask the administrator whether policies or licensing prevent the source from appearing.

Copilot connector versus Power Platform connector

Choose the architecture based on data movement, freshness, permission enforcement, licensing and where the indexed knowledge must be reused—not simply on which option appears first in Copilot Studio.