Guide Library

Agent Workshop

Agent Workshop - Give Your Agent a Home Inside Copilot

Week 1Agent Workshop

Set up a Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat Notebook for your . Keep your profile and instructions together so your agent is ready for your next task.

What You Need for This Guide

  • A desktop browser.
  • Your current Agent Profile file, saved where you can find it.
  • Your approved Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat account with Notebook and file-upload access.

Create your Agent Profile

Choose the tool you’re allowed to use

Your approved tool

The tool your company approved.

Pick your approved tool above to see the steps and screenshots for it.

Start guide
5 steps · At your own pace
About saved progress

No account needed. Checkmarks save on this browser and device when browser storage is available. If storage is blocked or full, new checkmarks last until you reload or close this page. Progress doesn’t sync to other browsers or devices. Clearing this site’s browser data removes it, and private browsing may not keep it after you close the window.

Standard Data rules for AI at work

Data Rules

Data rules for AI at work

Check with your IT Team before you paste any work data into an AI tool. Avoid names, account numbers, customer data, or anything sensitive without explicit permission from IT. If you aren't sure, redact anything sensitive and replace it with generic information. AI makes mistakes, make sure to fact check your agents outputs even if they sound right.

Before you start

  • Check with your IT teamAsk what your company allows before you put anything from work into an AI tool. Your company policy is the one that counts, and it is the one this library cannot see.
  • Use the tool your company approvedChatGPT, Claude, Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and Gemini Enterprise are all covered here. Use the one your company approved, not the one you like best.
  • Sign in with your work accountA work account keeps your chats inside the agreement your company signed. A personal account in the same product sits outside it.
  • No approved account yetFollow the steps with made-up example text, or on paper, until IT gives you one.

Never put this into an AI tool

  • Customer or personal detailsNo names, email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses or account numbers. That covers colleagues as well as customers.
  • Regulated recordsHealth, financial, HR and legal records stay in the systems built to hold them, unless IT has told you in writing that this tool may see them.
  • Passwords, keys and access codesNo credentials of any kind, yours or anyone else’s, and nothing that grants access to a system.
  • Anything under an NDA or not yet publicUnreleased plans, contracts, pricing and source code need clearance before they go near a chat window.
  • Anything your company policy prohibitsYour company’s rules win over anything in this library. If policy keeps something out of AI tools, it stays out, whatever a guide suggests.

Do this instead

  • Swap real details for placeholdersWrite “Customer A”, “[client name]”, “$X”. You get the same quality of answer, and you put the real details back yourself.
  • Describe the situation rather than pasting the documentMost of what an agent needs is the shape of the problem, not the file it arrived in.
  • Trim a file before you upload or paste itTake out the identifying columns and pages first, or work from a short extract.

Check the answer before you use it

  • Read it as if a colleague had drafted itAn agent states wrong things with complete confidence. Your name goes on the work, so the check is yours.
  • Say where the agent helpedFollow your company rule on disclosing AI assistance, especially in client-facing or formal work.

When you are not sure

  • Ask before you paste or upload, not afterA question to your IT team takes a minute. Cleaning up after a data incident takes a great deal longer.
  • When in doubt, leave it outIf you would not put it in an email to someone outside the company, keep it out of the chat.
Open the full page
Download Guide

Step

Give your profile a saved home

  1. Open your saved profile and check that it describes your current work. The recording uses My-Agent-Profile.txt. Your starting filename may differ.

  2. In Copilot Chat, expand Notebooks and select New notebook. Enter My Agent in Notebook name, then select Next. In Add to My Agent, choose the upload-arrow control, select your profile, then Open and Create. Wait for processing and check that References shows your file.

    Name the Notebook, then choose Next.
    Use the upload arrow in Add references.

If Notebooks or uploads are unavailable, stop and ask IT to check your approved account, license, service plan and permissions.

Step

Tell the Notebook how to use your profile

Instructions tell the Notebook how to use your profile.

  1. At the upper right of My Agent, open the three-dot menu and choose Instructions. Paste this card into Tell Copilot how to respond, then select Save.

    Notebook instructions
    You are my work agent. You help me with my day-to-day work.

You have these reference files. Use each one for its job:
- Agent Profile: my role, priorities, the people I work with and how I like answers. Use it as background whenever it's relevant.

How to work with me:
- Don't invent facts about me, my organization or my work. If a missing detail would change your answer, ask me one question first.
- Run a file's First Setup Check only when I ask for it.
- My files are the master copies. When I ask to update my profile, follow its PROFILE VERSIONS rules if present and give me the complete next version. Remind me to save it as my master file, keep the old file, and replace the profile in this Notebook. Don't tell me the saved setup has been updated.

  2. Reopen Instructions and check that the complete text was saved, including the final rule about master files. Leave the profile itself in References.

    Edit saved rules in Tell Copilot how to respond.

Step

Check what your agent understands

In My Agent, send this full First Setup Check.

First Setup Check
1. Summarize what you understand about:
   - My role
   - My responsibilities
   - The people I support
   - My goals and priorities
   - My recurring work
   - My organization
2. Identify anything that appears unclear, incomplete, or contradictory.
3. Do not fill in missing information with assumptions.
4. Ask me up to five questions that would most improve your ability to help me with my work.

Compare the summary with your profile: role, priorities and people you support. Answer useful questions from what you know. Correct any misread or invented facts.

If the file needs correcting, request the complete corrected profile, following existing versioning rules. Inspect and save it using step 4. Replace the Notebook reference in step 5, then repeat the setup check against the corrected fact.

Step

Keep a useful change in your master file

  1. If step 3 produced a corrected file, stay in that conversation. Otherwise, return to My Agent home and use Message Copilot for a fresh conversation. Replace the card’s preference line with: “Act as a devil’s advocate and challenge my ideas rather than agreeing with me.” Send the prompt.

    Preference + versioning prompt
    I want you to remember this work preference from now on:

[type your work preference]

Please update my Agent Profile with it and set up versioning, so I can track every change. Put it in my profile, not your built-in memory, so my file stays my master copy. Do all of this in one reply:

1. Add my preference to My Working Preferences, under the heading it fits best. Use my words, and don't add details I didn't give you. If it contradicts a preference already there, still add it, and name the conflict at the end so I can decide.
2. If my profile has no PROFILE VERSIONS section, add the one below to the end of it, word for word. If it already has that section, update its filename rule and active filename examples to use the hyphenated naming rule below; preserve the other rules and existing VERSION HISTORY entries. If it has no version number in its title, version line, or filename, treat the current profile as Version 1. Otherwise continue from its current number; do not restart numbering.
3. Follow PROFILE VERSIONS to return the entire updated Agent Profile, with the new version number in both its title and its filename. Keep every other section as it is, including FIRST SETUP CHECK.
4. In the What changed table, list my preference and any versioning-rule change: say whether you added PROFILE VERSIONS or updated its filename rule. Do not claim a section was added if it was already there.
5. End by walking me through saving it, as PROFILE VERSIONS describes.

PROFILE VERSIONS

The profile title, the version line under it, and the filename all show the same version number. Use simple whole numbers: v1, v2, v3, and so on. The title uses readable spaces, like My Agent Profile v2. The filename uses hyphens and no spaces, like My-Agent-Profile-v2.txt.

- If I ask which version you're using, give that line's number and date.
- If I ask you to update this profile, create the next version:
  1. Raise the current version number by one. Use that new number in the profile's title, like My Agent Profile v2, and in the version line below it, like Version 2 | Updated October 9, 2026. These are examples: use the actual next number and today's date. If you can't see today's date, write DATE NEEDED.
  2. Apart from the title, version line, and version history, change only what I asked. Keep everything else as it is, in the same order.
  3. Add a one-line summary to the top of VERSION HISTORY. Keep the five newest lines.
  4. Give me the entire updated profile as one downloadable plain-text file. The actual filename must follow My-Agent-Profile-vNUMBER.txt, replacing NUMBER with the new version number; for example, My-Agent-Profile-v2.txt. Use only plain ASCII letters, digits, hyphens, and the dot before txt. Do not use spaces, percent signs, or URL-encoded text in the filename. Set this name when creating the actual file, not only in the displayed download label, and use the same name for that label. Before returning the file, check that its filename follows this rule. Include every section and all unchanged content; do not return only the changes, summaries, or placeholders. If you can't create files, put the entire updated profile in one code block and give me the exact hyphenated filename to save it under above the code block.
  5. Show what changed in a table: Section, What changed, Why.
  6. Walk me through saving it: save the new file with its versioned filename in the same folder as my earlier profiles, keeping every older file. If you gave me a code block, tell me to copy the whole block into a new plain-text file with the exact filename you provided. Then replace the profile in your saved setup the same way I first added it, start a new chat, and ask which version you're using.
- If I tell you something new that belongs in this profile, offer a new version. Wait for my yes.
- Never overwrite an earlier version or reuse its number.
- You can't change your own saved setup, so don't say my profile is updated until I've replaced it.

VERSION HISTORY
- Version 1: Original profile.

  2. Open the updated profile beside your current file. Check that it includes your new preference and any correction from step 3, and keeps the existing content, including FIRST SETUP CHECK. Ask for a correction if anything is missing or a preference conflicts.

  3. Save the complete profile in your profile folder with its new versioned filename, keeping the earlier file. If Copilot Chat gives you the full text instead of a file, copy it into a new plain-text file with the supplied filename. Continue to step 5 to replace the Notebook reference.

Step

Refresh the Notebook and check a fresh conversation

Saving the master does not replace the Notebook reference. For an unchanged file, skip to the fresh-conversation check.

  1. In References, open the old profile’s three-dot menu and select Remove. Confirm removal from this Notebook. Keep your earlier saved file.

  2. Select Add references, then the upload-arrow control. Choose your checked file, select Open, then Add. Wait until References lists the new file and no longer lists the old profile.

  3. Return to My Agent home and use Message Copilot to begin a new conversation inside this Notebook. Send this check.

    Check the current profile
    Which version of my profile are you using?

Give the version number and updated date from the profile, then briefly summarize My Working Preferences. If the number or date is missing, say so. Do not guess or change the profile.

    Compare the answer with your saved file. Check the changed preference, version and date. For corrections elsewhere, repeat the relevant part of First Setup Check here. If they differ, check which file is in References and retry in a fresh Notebook conversation. A version number alone does not pass.

Keep using the save, replace and check loop whenever your work changes.

After your profile has PROFILE VERSIONS rules, use this shorter request inside My Agent. Edit the bracketed line to fit your work, then review, save, replace and check the complete returned file.

Future update pattern
Can you give me an updated version of my Agent Profile with this change?

[type the preference, assumption, or other detail you want changed]
Agent Workshop - Give Your Agent a Home Inside Copilot

Confirm your result

Confirm the outcomes below to finish this guide.

Final checks

You have a complete current Agent Profile saved outside Copilot Chat and a fresh My Agent conversation whose profile check agrees with its contents.

Provide Feedback

Thanks. That went straight to the people who write these guides.