Summary

  • 1 minute

In this module, you explored how Microsoft Copilot Studio harnesses support different types of agents and workflows.

You learned that:

  • A harness controls how an agent uses a model, information, and tools, and how usage is billed.
  • The GitHub Copilot harness supports reasoning-heavy, multistep work that can adapt to intermediate results.
  • The standard harness supports rule-based agents and predictable, structured conversations.
  • The Copilot Chat harness extends Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat with enterprise knowledge.
  • Agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness use instructions, knowledge, tools, skills, models, connected agents, and memory.
  • Build, Preview, Evaluate, and Monitor support different stages of the agent lifecycle.

Select a harness before detailed authoring because you can't move an agent between the GitHub Copilot and standard harnesses. Base the decision on the work, the level of control you need, where people use the agent, and billing requirements.