Note : This article applies to agents who have a standalone Copilot Studio subscription. If you have a Teams plan, available in some Microsoft 365 subscriptions, see the guide on creating a classic agent and publishing to Microsoft Teams.
Using Copilot Studio , you can quickly and easily create powerful agents through a guided graphical experience, requiring no programming. You don't need data scientists or developers.
This quick guide will show you how to create an agent for the first time. Learn how:
- Add more knowledge to your agent.
- Check for content changes in real time.
- Publish your agent to a demo website that you can share with others.
Create agent
When creating an agent, you can describe what you want your agent to do in your own words.
For example, this quick guide creates an agent called Copilot Studio Guide to help users learn about Copilot Studio based on knowledge from the official Copilot Studio documentation.
1. Log in to Copilot Studio or register . You will be redirected to the Home page .
Note : If you don't see a dialog box asking you to describe what your agent needs to do, your environment does not support creating agents using natural language.
2. Optionally, change the primary language, solution, and schema name for your agent.
3. Enter a brief description of what you want your agent to do. For example: "Help users learn how to create agents with Copilot Studio." The description can be up to 1,024 characters long.
The Overview page for your agent appears.
When you start with your own verbal description, the AI will generate a name, description, and instructions for your agent. Additionally, the AI suggests triggers and channels, knowledge sources, and tools. You can ignore, accept, or reject these suggestions. They are not saved beyond the current session.
4. After Copilot Studio finishes setting up the agent, you can change its name, description, and instructions. You can add triggers, knowledge sources, tools, and prompts. Remember to test your changes as you go. For example, add the official Copilot Studio documentation as a knowledge source:
- In the Knowledge section , select Add next to the suggestion for https://learn.microsoft.com/copilot-studio .
- Select Add , then select Add to agent .
5. Review and improve your agent.
Improve your agent
Now that you have an agent, you can test how changing the agent's instructions affects its behavior and improve it.
Check for changes to your agent.
The best way to improve your agent? Test it. Make some changes. Test it again. Repeat the process.
In this section, you examine how changing the agent's knowledge source affects how the agent responds to the user.
1. Start by checking how your agent is currently responding in the test chat. Ask your agent a question. For example, ask: "How do I add a knowledge source?"
In this example, the instruction for the agent is to talk to the user like a kind and patient teacher. What would happen if you gave your agent different instructions?
2. Go to the Overview page and update your agent's instructions to use a different tone of voice, for example, speaking to users like Jane Austen.
3. Check the agent's new instructions with a different question. How has the answer changed?
Change the agent's introduction.
Help your agent make a great first impression by replacing the default introductory message with a new one. This message lets users know what your agent does and encourages them to interact with the agent.
1. In the Test your agent section , select the agent's introductory message. The Conversation Start topic will open, and the Message node for your introductory message will be selected.
Tip : If you don't see the introductory message in the test panel, select the Start new test session icon at the top of the panel to restart the conversation.
2. On the Message node , select the message text.
3. Replace the default message with your own. In the introductory message, your agent should greet the user, explain the agent's function, and how to begin interacting with it. You can also provide the user with a question or example prompt.
For the Copilot Studio Guide, please update the introductory message as follows:
Hello, I'm here to help you learn how to use Microsoft Copilot Studio. You can ask me anything about agents: "What is an agent?" "How do I create an agent?" "How does an agent work?"
4. Select Save .
5. To check this change, select the Start new test session icon at the top of the Test your agent panel .
Suggest ways to start a conversation.
If you're creating an agent for use in Teams or Microsoft 365, you can configure up to 10 prompts that clients can select to start a conversation with the agent.
To add or update a prompt:
1. On the Overview page , go to the Suggested prompts section and select Add suggested prompts (if you don't already have any prompts) or the Edit icon .
2. Modify or add to the title and prompt, then select Save when you're finished.
Note : Prompt suggestions are only for Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot. They appear on the agent's welcome page before you start a new conversation. You cannot see or use them when testing your agent in Copilot Studio.
Make your agent stand out with a unique logo.
1. Select the agent icon on the top bar.
2. Select Change icon .
3. Select an image from your device. The image file must be in PNG format and smaller than 72 KB, with a maximum resolution of 192 × 192 pixels.
4. Select Save .
Publish your agent
Note : The trial license allows you to access Copilot Studio to create agents. You can test your agent using the test chat panel. However, you cannot publish the agent.
Once you're happy with your agent, publish it to a live website or a demo website. This step depends on the platforms and channels you have access to. You may need to change the authentication for your demo website, depending on who you want to access your agent.
1. At the top of the page, select Publish , then select Publish again in the Publish this agent confirmation message . If successful, you will see a green banner at the top of the page.
2. At the top of the page, select the three dots (…) and choose Go to demo website .
3. Send the URL to others for illustration.
What's the next step?
You've created an agent, tested it, and published it to the demo website. Congratulations! Your agent is now more capable, so try exploring the advanced features.
For questions not addressed in the documentation or feature ideas, visit the Copilot Studio community and post your question.
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