Quickstart: Create and deploy an agent

Copilot Studio empowers teams to quickly and easily create powerful agents using a guided, no-code graphical experience without needing data scientists or developers.

This quickstart article helps you create an agent for the first time. Learn how to add knowledge to your agent, test content changes in real time, and deploy your agent to a test page you can share with others.

Create an agent

When you create an agent, you can describe what you want your agent to be and do, or add those details as separate pieces of information.

The examples in this quickstart create an agent called the Friendly Agent Tutor to help users learn about Copilot Studio. However, you can create your own unique agent using a publicly available website.

  1. After logging in or signing up for Copilot Studio, you land on the Home page. Select Create in the left navigation.

    Screenshot of the Create button location on the Copilot Studio Home page.

  2. On the Create page, select New agent.

  3. Use the chat to describe your agent, using the provided questions for guidance.

    Keep your description simple for now, but make sure you include information about what your agent helps users do and what conversation style and tone it uses. Copilot Studio uses your responses to fill in the details in name, description, instructions, and knowledge that define your agent.

    For example: Your name is Friendly Agent Tutor. You help users learn how to create agents. You should talk to users like a kind, patient teacher.

    Tip

    Instructions determine the goals, tone, and limitations of your agent. When writing instructions, make sure you:

    • Use conversational language with a full description of how you want your agent to behave. Avoid single-word responses, because they don't give the agent enough information or context.
    • Provide details about the specific goal you want your agent to help users achieve. For example, Create an agent for topics related to Human Resources and employee benefits.
    • Describe the tone as how you would want a person to respond in a conversion. You can use words and phrases like casual, formal, and understandable for children in grade three.
  4. Add an image to represent your agent.

    1. Select the agent icon in the top bar.

    2. Select Change icon.

    3. Choose an image from your device. The image file must be in PNG format and less than 30 KB in size.

    4. Select Save.

  5. After you have a name, icon, description, and instructions, your agent is ready. Select Create. The Overview page for your agent appears.

You now have an agent you can start testing! You can chat with your agent in the Test your agent chat.

Improve your agent

Now that you have an agent, you can start testing and improving it.

To open your agent, in the left navigation select Agents, then select your agent.

Test changes to your agent

The best way to improve your agent? Test it. Make some changes. Test it again. Repeat.

In this section, you test how changing your agent's knowledge sources affects how your agent responds to users.

  1. Start by testing how your agent currently responds in the Test your agent chat. Ask your agent a question. For example, ask how to create an agent.

    Screenshot of a test question in the Test your agent chat.

  2. In this example, the agent's instructions are to talk to users like a kind, patient teacher. What if you give your agent different instructions?

    In the Details card, select Edit. Change your agent's instructions to use a different tone, like talk to users like Jane Austen.

  3. Test your agent's new instructions with another question. How has the response changed?

Change your agent's introduction

Help your agent make a great first impression with a new introductory message. This message lets users know what your agent does and encourages them to interact with your agent.

  1. In the Test your agent chat, select your agent's introductory message. The Conversation Start topic opens, and the Message node for your introductory message is in focus.

    Tip

    If you can't see the introductory message in the test panel, select the Refresh icon at the top of the panel to restart the conversation.

  2. In the Message box, select the text of the message.

    Screenshot of the location of the message content to edit the introduction message.

  3. Replace the default message with your own. In the introduction message, your agent should greet users, tell them what your agent does, and tell them how to start interacting with your agent. You can also give users an example question or prompt.

    For the Friendly Agent Tutor, the introduction message says Hello, I'm here to help you learn how to use Microsoft Copilot Studio. You can ask me all about agents: "What is an agent?" "How do I make an agent?" "How do agents work?"

  4. Select Save.

    Screenshot of the location of the Save button on the Topics page.

  5. To test this change, select the Refresh icon in the Test your agent chat panel.

Suggest ways of starting conversations

If your agent is meant to be used in Teams or Microsoft 365, you can configure up to six starter prompts to suggest ways your customers can start conversations with the agent. When Copilot Studio creates an agent, it might automatically generate starter prompts based on information in the description and instructions for the agent.

To add or update starter prompts:

  1. On the Overview page, and select the Edit icon at the top of the Starter prompts section.

  2. Revise or add titles and prompts, as desired, and select Save when you're done.

Note

Starter prompts are only supported in Teams and Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat. They appear on the agent's welcome page, before you start a new chat. You can't see or use them when you test your agent in Copilot Studio. Learn more about configuring starter prompts.

Edit your agent's basics

You can change your agent's name, description, instructions, and knowledge sources after creating it. Remember to test your changes as you go!

To update your agent's name, description, or instructions:

  1. On the Overview page, select Edit, at the top of the Details section.

  2. Make your changes.

  3. Select Save. Remember, editing the instructions changes how your agent engages with users. Make sure to test your changes.

To add a knowledge source:

  1. On the Overview page, go to the Knowledge section, and select Add knowledge.

    Screenshot of the location of the Add knowledge button on the Overview page.

  2. Select the type of knowledge. This quickstart uses Public websites sources.

  3. Enter the URL for the website, then select Add beside the textbox.

  4. Name and describe the knowledge source so you can keep track of all your agent's sources.

    Screenshot showing where to name and describe a new knowledge source.

  5. Select Add.

To change an existing knowledge source:

  1. On the Overview page, go to the Knowledge section, and select the three dots () for the knowledge source.

  2. Select Edit to change the knowledge source, or Delete to remove it from your agent's sources.

Publish your agent

Once you're happy with the content authored in your agent, you can publish your agent to a website.

Note

You might need to change the authentication for your demo website, depending on who you want to access your agent. Go to Key concepts - Publish and deploy your agent for information on authentication levels and how to change them.

  1. At the top of the page, select Publish, and then select Publish again in the Publish this agent confirmation message. If the publish is successful, you see a green banner on the top of the page.

  2. At the top of the page, select the three dots () and select Go to demo website.

    Screenshot showing the location of the agent menu.

  3. Send the URL to others to demonstrate it.

Note

For more information on publishing your agent to other channels, see Key concepts - Publish and deploy your agent.

What's next?

You created an agent, tested it out, and published it to a demo site. Congratulations! Your agent has many more capabilities, so try it out and play with the advanced features.

For questions not covered in the documentation or for feature ideas, visit our community and post questions.

We'd love to hear your ideas on Copilot Studio. Visit our Ideas board and post your ideas.