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Add SharePoint as a knowledge source

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SharePoint as a knowledge source for generative answers works by pairing your agent with a SharePoint URL, such as contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/policies. When a user asks a question and the agent doesn't have a topic to use for an answer, the agent searches the URL and all subpaths. For example, a URL such as contoso.sharepoint.com/sites also includes subpaths like contoso.sharepoint.com/sites/policies. Generative answers summarize this content into a targeted response.

When you publish your agent, the calls using generative answers are made on behalf of the user chatting with the agent, using the authentication settings configured in the agent. By default, agents created in Copilot Studio and in Microsoft Teams are configured with the Authenticate with Microsoft authentication option, which works in environments such as Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, and Microsoft 365 Copilot.

Note

It's possible to use generative answers with SharePoint data in Microsoft Teams chats, and not require manual authentication. To use this method for a previously published agent, reconfigure the agent to use Authenticate with Microsoft and then publish it again to Microsoft Teams. It might take a few hours before this change takes effect. If a user is in the middle of a conversation and the change doesn't appear to have taken effect, they can type "start over" in the chat to force the conversation to restart with the latest version of the agent. These changes are now available for Teams 1:1 chats between the user and the agent. They're not yet available for group chats or channel messages.

If you want to use manual authentication for your agent, see Advanced authentication scenarios.

For better search results from SharePoint and support of files up to 200 MB in size, use a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the same tenant as your agent, and turn on Enhanced search results.

For makers without the Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the same tenant as their agent, due to memory limitations, generative answers can only use SharePoint files that are under 7 MB. If a file is larger than 7 MB, consider splitting it into multiple smaller files. For more information, see File size support.

Note

Agent responses that use SharePoint as a knowledge source aren't included in conversation transcripts.

Supported pages and file types

Modern SharePoint pages are supported. In addition, SharePoint sites containing the following file types can be used as knowledge sources:

  • Word documents (DOC/DOCX)
  • PowerPoint (PPT/PPTX)
  • PDF files

Note

For better search results from SharePoint and support of files up to 200 MB in size, use a Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the same tenant as your agent, and turn on Enhanced search results.

Note

Only modern pages are supported. Content from classic ASPX pages on SharePoint aren't used to generate answers.

Adding a SharePoint knowledge source

To add SharePoint as a knowledge source, perform the following steps:

  1. Open the agent.

  2. Select Add knowledge from either the Overview or Knowledge pages, or the Properties of a generative answers node.

  3. Select SharePoint.

  4. Provide the SharePoint URL. Separate multiple URLs with manual line breaks (use Shift + Enter).

  5. Add a name (by default, the file's name is used).

  6. Add a description. The description should be as detailed as possible, especially if generative AI is enabled, as the description aids AI orchestration.

  7. Select Add to finish adding the knowledge source.

Advanced authentication scenarios

By default, Copilot Studio preconfigures agents to authenticate users using Microsoft authentication to access SharePoint sources when they're connecting to an agent through Microsoft Teams, Power Apps, or Microsoft 365 Copilot. However, if you need to manually configure authentication, the following steps are required for generative answers to work with SharePoint data sources.

Important

If Restricted SharePoint Search is enabled, use of SharePoint is blocked.

  • To authenticate your agent, see Authentication.

  • For instructions on how to create the needed Microsoft Entra ID application registration, see Configure user authentication with Microsoft Entra ID. When creating this registration you or your admin must specify the Sites.Read.All and Files.Read.All scopes in the Microsoft Entra ID app registration.

  • Selecting No authentication specifies that your agent doesn't retrieve information from SharePoint.

  • When you configure authentication, scopes control user access. Specify Sites.Read.All and Files.Read.All in the scopes field near the existing profile and openid values in Copilot Studio. These scopes don't give users increased permissions when using the agent, but allow their permissible content from the SharePoint site as configured for generative answers.

  • This configuration only applies to generative answers, and doesn't apply to Power Platform Connectors.

Known issues

  • For makers without the Microsoft 365 Copilot license in the same tenant as their agent, due to memory limitations, generative answers can only use SharePoint files that are under 7 MB. If a file is larger than 7 MB, consider splitting it into multiple smaller files. For more information, see File size support.
  • We recommend omitting https:// from the URL. Recognized SharePoint URLs are from the sharepoint.com domain.
  • Modern pages are supported. However, modern pages containing SPFx components aren't supported.
  • SharePoint sites with an accordion navigation menu or a custom CSS aren't used to generate answers.
  • Classic ASPX pages on SharePoint aren't used to generate answers.
  • If you want to use a dynamic SharePoint URL using a Power Fx formula, you must use the Classic data option, which is available from the generative answers node properties. For more information on how to use SharePoint content with a generative answers node in a topic, see Use SharePoint content for generative answers.