Question About Using Service Account for SharePoint Access in Copilot Studio

Question

We are currently working with Copilot Studio using SharePoint as the knowledge source. Based on the documentation, we understand that when we publish the agent, users who interact with it must have access to the SharePoint documents. However, we would like to know if there is any possibility for the agent to access those documents through a service account, so that users do not necessarily need direct access to SharePoint.

Answer 1

No, Copilot Studio agents cannot access SharePoint documents using a service account on behalf of users. Each user interacting with the agent must have their own permissions to the SharePoint documents. The agent uses the current user’s context to enforce security and compliance, and there is no supported way to delegate access via a service account or app-only permissions.

To achieve your requirements, we recommend you give your feedback in Microsoft 365 Copilot app Feedback Portal. Feature requests are reviewed by the engineering team and may be prioritized based on various factors, including the number of requests received.

Thanks,  

Prasad Das

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Answer 2

The documentation does not explicitly mention the use of a service account for accessing SharePoint documents through an agent in Copilot Studio. It states that users who interact with the agent must have access to the SharePoint documents. Therefore, it appears that direct access to SharePoint is required for users, and there is no indication that a service account can be used to bypass this requirement.

If you need to provide access to documents without granting individual users direct access, you may need to explore other options such as adjusting permissions or utilizing access governance policies available in SharePoint.

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References:

• Manage access to SharePoint agents
• Microsoft 365 Copilot agents admin guide