Configure authentication and publish an agent
Every channel serves the agent's published version, and the agent's authentication option decides who can reach that version and whether you can share it. In this unit, you learn how to choose and set an authentication option, publish a live version of the agent, and publish updates that users can trace to a specific version.
Choose an authentication option
The authentication option decides whether users sign in before they chat. The right authentication option for your agent depends on who uses it and where they reach it. The GitHub Copilot harness offers two options:
| Option | What users experience | Fits |
|---|---|---|
| No authentication | Users chat without signing in. | Public-facing agents where user identity isn't required. |
| Authenticate with Microsoft | Users sign in with their Microsoft Entra ID account. | Internal agents that need to access user-specific data. |
The option you choose also shapes the rest of the deployment:
- Sharing: Sharing the agent with users, security groups, or your whole organization requires Authenticate with Microsoft. With No authentication, you can't use sharing to decide who chats with the agent.
- Channels: When you publish, a channel that your authentication configuration doesn't support appears in the list, but you can't select it.
For example, the HR benefits agent is for employees only, and they reach it in Microsoft Teams and Microsoft Copilot. Because you want to share it with a pilot group first and then with all employees, the agent needs Authenticate with Microsoft.
To set the authentication option:
- With the agent open, select the three dots (…) in the agent designer toolbar, and then select Settings.
- In the Agent settings dialog, select the Safety & access tab.
- In the Authentication dropdown, select No authentication or Authenticate with Microsoft.
- Save the agent.
Settings changes take effect only after you save and publish the agent, which is the next step in the deployment.
Publish a live version of the agent
Publishing creates a live version of the agent from its current draft, and channels serve that live version. The work follows a sequence: you build the agent, test the draft in Preview, publish it, and then distribute it through channels.
To publish the agent for the first time:
- With the agent open, select the chevron next to Publish.
- In the Publish agent dialog, review the agent details, and select each channel you want to publish to.
- If the dialog shows that the agent is missing a name, description, or instructions, add them. Copilot Studio checks for these items before it publishes.
- Select Publish, and wait while the dialog shows the progress.
Status indicators show whether the live version is ready:
| State | What it means |
|---|---|
| Not yet published | The agent exists only as a draft. Users can't reach it outside the Preview pane. |
| Publishing in progress | Copilot Studio is creating the live version. Wait for publishing to finish before you share the agent. |
| Published or Live | The latest published version is available to users through the agent's channels. |
| Publish failed | The publish didn't complete. |
When a publish fails, the dialog shows an error with a Retry option. Select Retry to try again. If the failure continues, check the agent configuration.
When publishing succeeds, the confirmation offers options to share the agent or add it to the organization catalog. Sharing comes later in the rollout, after you check the agent on the channels where its users work.
After the first publish, you add channels from the Channels area on the agent's Build tab.
Publish updates to the live agent
After the first publish, you keep editing the draft. Draft changes don't affect the live version until you publish again, so you can test each change in Preview before users see it.
A publish captures the draft's name, description, instructions, capabilities, knowledge, skills, workflow nodes, and triggers. When you update any of these items, publish again to make the change live:
- Make your changes on the Build tab.
- Select Publish in the upper-right corner.
- In the Publish your changes dialog, review the changes, and then select Publish.
Each publish creates a new version, and the new version replaces the previous published version.
Make each version identifiable
When a tester or user reports a problem, you need to know which version they used. One way to make the version visible is to state it in two places:
- Greeting message: On the Greeting & prompts tab of Agent settings, include the version number in the greeting. Users see it when a chat starts.
- Instructions: Add a line to the agent's instructions that states the current version and tells the agent to give that version when a user asks. The greeting appears only at the start of a chat, so the instructions let the agent answer the question mid-conversation.
Update the version in both places before each publish. After publishing finishes, start a new chat to confirm the version. A chat that's already open keeps the earlier greeting.
For the benefits agent, testers might review version 1.0.0. After you add content about leave policies and publish again, a new chat greets testers with version 1.1.0, so their feedback points to the right release.