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[This article is prerelease documentation and is subject to change.]
In the new agent experience, tools and skills extend what your agent can do beyond answering questions.Tools let the agent perform actions—such as calling APIs, running flows, and interacting with external systems. Skills are reusable capabilities that you can add from other agents or packages.
Note
This article reflects the new agent experience in Microsoft Copilot Studio, which is currently available as a production-ready preview. Learn about the two experiences in Classic vs. new agent experience.
- Production-ready previews are subject to supplemental terms of use.
- Some capabilities available in the classic experience aren't yet available in the new experience.
- Agents created in the new experience can't be converted to the classic experience.
About tools and skills in the new experience
Tools and skills are configured from the Build tab using the components panel on the right. The Tools and Skills buttons in the components panel let you add and manage these capabilities. The new experience uses the agent's instructions and the enhanced orchestration runtime to decide when to invoke a tool or skill, based on the context of the conversation—rather than explicit topic-based triggers as in the classic experience.
For general background on tools (called "actions" in some contexts), see Add tools to custom agents.
Add tools
Open your agent in Copilot Studio.
Select the Build tab.
In the components panel on the right, select the Tools button (labeled "Connect the agent to external systems and actions") to open the Add a tool dialog.
Browse or search for the tool to add. Use the Featured, Model Context Protocol (MCP), or Connectors tabs to filter by tool type. Supported tool types include:
- Connectors: Power Platform connectors that expose actions from external services. See Use connectors as tools.
- MCP servers: Tools from Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. See Model Context Protocol (MCP) in Copilot Studio overview.
- REST APIs: Custom REST API endpoints. See Add tools from a REST API.
- Agent flows: Automated flows built in Copilot Studio's agent flow designer. See Use agent flows as tools.
- Prompts: Prompt-based tools using AI prompts. See Prompts overview.
Follow the configuration steps for the selected tool type.
Select Save or Add to confirm the tool.
Add skills
Open your agent in Copilot Studio.
Select the Build tab.
In the components panel on the right, select the Skills button (labeled "Define behaviors through structured instructions") to open the skills configuration panel.
Browse or search for the skill to add.
Follow the configuration steps for the selected skill.
Select Save or Add to confirm the skill.
How the agent uses tools and skills
In the new experience, the enhanced orchestration runtime determines when to invoke a tool or skill based on:
- The user's message and conversational context
- The agent's instructions
- The description and configuration of each tool or skill
You don't define explicit triggers for tools. Instead, write clear descriptions for each tool and skill so the orchestrator can correctly identify when to use them. Well-named, well-described tools perform better than ambiguously labeled ones.
Limitations
- Not all tool and skill types available in the classic experience may be available in the new experience.