Test your copilot in Copilot Studio

Important

Power Virtual Agents capabilities and features are now part of Microsoft Copilot Studio following significant investments in generative AI and enhanced integrations across Microsoft Copilot.

Some articles and screenshots may refer to Power Virtual Agents while we update documentation and training content.

As you design your copilot in Copilot Studio, you can use the Test copilot pane to see how the copilot leads a customer through the conversation.

To help you find and fix unexpected behavior, you can enable tracking between topics to take you through the copilot conversation step by step, and go to the corresponding node in the authoring canvas.

Web app

Use the Test copilot pane to walk through your copilot conversations as a user. It's a good way to make sure your topics are working and that conversations flow as you expect.

Preview a conversation

1. If the Test copilot pane is hidden, open it by selecting Test your copilot at the bottom of the navigation pane.

   

2. In the Type your message field, enter some text. If the text is similar to a trigger phrase for a topic, that topic begins.

   

3. Select the copilot response in the Test copilot pane. This takes you to the topic and the node that sent the response. Nodes that have fired have a colored checkmark and a colored bottom border.

   

   As you continue the conversation within the active topic, notice that each node that fires is marked with the checkbox and bottom border, and centered on the canvas.

4. If you would like to follow the whole conversation automatically, as it moves from topic to topic, turn on Tracking at the top of the Test copilot pane.

   

5. Continue the conversation until you're satisfied that it flows as intended.

You can update a topic at any time while interacting with the test copilot. Simply save your topic to apply changes and continue the conversation with your copilot.

Your conversation is not automatically cleared when you save a topic. If at any point you want to clear the conversation from your test copilot and start over, select the Reset icon.

Test variable values

You can observe the values of your variables as you test your copilot.

1. Select Variables on the secondary toolbar to open the Variables pane.

   

2. Switch to the Test tab and expand the desired variable categories.

   As you proceed with your test conversation, you can monitor the value of the variables in use.

   

3. To inspect variable properties, select the desired variable. The Variable properties panel appears.

   

For information about using the Variables pane to test slot filling, see Use entities and slot filling.

Save conversation snapshots

While you're testing your copilot, you can capture the content of the conversation, and diagnostics data, and save it as a file. You can then analyze the data to troubleshoot issues, such as the copilot not responding in the way you expect.

Warning

The snapshot file contains all your copilot content, which may include sensitive information.

1. At the top of the Test copilot pane, select the More icon (…), then select Save snapshot.

   

   A message appears, notifying you that the snapshot file might include sensitive information.

2. Select Save to save the copilot content and conversational diagnostics in a .zip archive named botContent.zip.

   The botContent.zip archive contains two files:

   • dialog.json contains conversational diagnostics, including detailed descriptions of errors.
   • botContent.yml contains the copilot's topics and other content, including entities and variables.

Classic

Test a topic in the Test bot pane

Use the Test bot pane to walk through your bot conversations as the user. It's a good way to make sure your topics are working and that conversations flow as you expect.

1. If the Test bot pane is hidden, select Test your bot at the bottom of the left side panel to open it.

   

2. Select the Reset icon at the top of the Test bot pane to clear previous conversations.

   Resetting makes it easier to follow the flow of the current topic without getting confused by previous conversations.

   

3. At the Type your message prompt, enter one of the topic's trigger phrases.

Track through the topic's conversation path

The trigger phrase starts the conversation. The Test bot pane displays the bot's response and the user response choices you specified.

1. Continue the conversation, testing that it flows as intended when you designed in the topic.

2. You can return to a topic's authoring canvas at any time to revise the conversation path. The Test bot pane automatically refreshes when you save changes to a topic.

Save conversation snapshots

While you're testing your bot, you can capture the content of the conversation, and diagnostics data, and save this as a file. You can then analyze the data to troubleshoot issues, such as the bot not responding in the way you expect.

Warning

The snapshot file contains all your bot content, which may include sensitive information.

1. At the top of the Test bot pane, select the More icon (⋮), then select Save snapshot.

   

   A message appears, notifying you that the snapshot file might include sensitive information.

2. Select Save to save the bot content and conversational diagnostics in a .zip archive named DSAT.zip.

   The DSAT.zip archive contains two files:

   • dialog.json contains conversational diagnostics, including detailed descriptions of errors.
   • botContent.json contains the bot's topics and other content, including entities and variables.

Teams

Test a topic in the Test bot pane

1. If the Test bot pane is hidden, open it by selecting Test your bot in the navigation menu.

   

2. It's a good idea to select Reset at the top of the Test bot pane to clear previous conversations. Clearing previous conversations makes it easier to see the flow of the topic you want to see without getting confused by previous conversations.

   

3. At the Type your message prompt at the bottom of the Test bot pane, enter a trigger phrase for the topic.

   The trigger phrase starts the topic's conversation, and the Test bot pane displays the bot responses and user response choices you specified.

4. Continue the conversation, testing that it flows in the intended as designed in the topic.

5. Select a response in the Test bot pane, which will take you to the response in the conversation editor for that topic. The authoring canvas displays highlighted nodes in green.

   

You can return to the authoring canvas for the topic at any time to revise it's conversation path. The Test chat pane will automatically refresh itself when you save changes to a topic.

Track through the topic's conversation path

As you fine-tune your bot, it can be useful to enable tracking between topics so you can follow through the conversation path step by step.

1. If the Test bot pane is hidden, open it by selecting Test your bot in the navigation menu.

   

2. At the top of the Test bot pane, set Track between topics to On.

   

3. Enter a trigger phrase for the topic you want to check, and then continue testing the conversation.

4. As you move through the conversation in the Test bot pane, the authoring canvas highlights the current place in the conversation path. The authoring canvas displays highlighted nodes in green.

5. To navigate to an earlier place in the conversation path in the authoring canvas, select it in the Test bot pane.

If the conversation path in the Test your bot pane moves from one topic to another topic, the authoring canvas refreshes and moves between topics to the appropriate highlighted nodes.

Note

Help us improve Copilot Studio by reporting issues. Use the Flag icon near the top of the test pane to submit your conversation ID to Microsoft. The ID is a unique identifier that Microsoft uses to troubleshoot issues in a conversation. Other information, such as what is stored in a conversation snapshot file, is not sent when you report an issue. All information collected remains anonymous and will be used to help improve copilot quality.