Prepare an agent for other agents to connect

  • 5 minutes

Before a primary agent can delegate to a specialist, the specialist has to be ready to accept connections. In this unit, you explore the requirements a specialist agent must meet and the steps its owner takes to make it available: allowing connections, publishing, and sharing.

Check the connection requirements

At the time of writing, an agent powered by the GitHub Copilot harness can connect only to other agents built in Copilot Studio. Before you add a connected agent, confirm these requirements:

  • The primary agent is powered by the GitHub Copilot harness.
  • The agent you want to connect is also powered by the GitHub Copilot harness. An agent built on the standard harness doesn't meet this requirement, even if it's published and shared with you.
  • The agent you want to connect is in the same environment as the primary agent.
  • The agent you want to connect is published and configured as available to connect, which means its Allow other agents to connect setting is on.
  • The maker of the primary agent owns the agent to connect, or the agent is shared with them.

Each connected agent keeps its own instructions, knowledge, and tools, and its owning team maintains it. The same specialist can serve more than one primary agent.

Allow other agents to connect

The Allow other agents to connect setting lets other agents in your organization invoke this agent. The owner of the specialist agent turns it on:

  1. Open the agent that you want other agents to connect to.
  2. In the agent designer toolbar, select the ellipsis (...), and then select Settings.
  3. On the AI & behavior tab, turn on Allow other agents to connect.
  4. Save your changes.

Changes to settings take effect after you save and publish the agent.

Publish the agent

A connected agent must be published. Select the chevron next to Publish to open the Publish agent dialog, select the channels, and then select Publish. If a different maker needs to connect to the agent, include Teams + Microsoft 365, because sharing requires that channel. The dialog flags a missing name, description, or instructions before you publish.

Publish the specialist again after each later change. Each new version replaces the previous published version.

Share the agent with the makers who connect to it

When a different maker builds the primary agent, the owner of the specialist agent shares it with that maker. Sharing has its own prerequisites:

  • The agent's user authentication is set to Authenticate with Microsoft.
  • The users you share with have a Copilot Studio per-user license.
  • The agent is published to Teams + Microsoft 365, with Make agent available in Microsoft 365 Copilot turned on.

To share the agent:

  1. Open the agent, and on the top menu bar, select the Share icon near Publish.
  2. In the Share panel, enter the users or security groups to share with.
  3. Select Share.

People you share with can view and test the agent, but they can't edit it or its content. That boundary suits a connected agent that another team owns.

Before you share, check how the agent's connections to external services authenticate. Connections tied to one person's identity can make an agent work for you but not for others. Depending on the service, use a service principal, environment-level connections, or individual user authentication.

In the example, the HR team confirms that its benefits agent is in the same environment as your help agent, turns on Allow other agents to connect, publishes the agent, and shares it with you. The IT team does the same for the IT support agent.

Reflect: Pick an agent your team owns that another agent might delegate to. Which of these steps are already done, and who needs to own the rest?