How to Access and Extract Text from Uploaded Files (PDF, DOCX, etc.) in Custom Copilot Agent (Copilot Studio)?

Question

Hi everyone,

I'm building a custom copilot agent using Copilot Studio and currently facing an issue with accessing and extracting text from user-uploaded files (PDF, DOCX, etc.).

From what I’ve gathered, there doesn’t seem to be a straightforward method to handle this. Some forum responses suggest uploading the files to OneDrive, but they don’t explain how to read or extract the file content once uploaded. Also, those solutions seem to only handle the first uploaded file, not multiple attachments.

Is there any recommended or reliable approach to:

• Access all uploaded files (not just the first one)?
• Extract the text/content from each file (PDF, DOCX, etc.)?
• Include that text/content as part prompt (as context)?

Any guidance or examples would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Answer 1

I think i've figured out what needs to be done. I ended up using the question feature to ask a user to upload file & changed the response type to "File" - i could then access the file that was uploaded (it was a base64 string data:application/pdf; jv.....)

also have a look at some of the options given here https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/answers/questions/2145101/how-to-access-user-uploaded-files-in-copilot-studi

good luck