Manage knowledge sources in an agent

After you add knowledge sources to your agent, you can view, update, and remove them from the Knowledge tab. Regular maintenance ensures your agent has access to current, relevant content.

Note

Features in this article are used by agents or workflows powered by the GitHub Copilot harness.

Usage-based billing applies to using, building, testing, and evaluating agents. These actions might consume Copilot Credits. Learn more in Manage costs for agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness.

View your agent's knowledge sources

  1. Open your agent in Copilot Studio.
  2. On the Build tab, find the Knowledge section in the right panel.
  3. Knowledge sources appear as chips showing the source name. There's no table view with type and status columns.

Update a knowledge source

  1. On the Build tab, in the Knowledge section, select the knowledge source you want to update.
  2. In the details pane, review and modify the configuration (URL, site, file, or connection settings).
  3. Select Save to apply changes.

Note

Changes to the underlying content (for example, updating a document in SharePoint) are reflected automatically. You only need to update the knowledge source configuration if the location or connection settings change.

Remove a knowledge source

  1. On the Build tab, in the Knowledge section, locate the knowledge source.
  2. Select the × button on the knowledge source chip.
  3. Select the × button to remove the source.
  4. Confirm the removal when prompted.

Note

Removing a knowledge source from your agent doesn't delete the original content. It only removes the agent's access to that source.

Turn web search on or off

Agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness include an option to turn web search on or off as a knowledge source:

  1. On the Build tab, in the Knowledge section of the right panel.

  2. From the Add knowledge dialog, select Public websites.

  3. Select the Search all websites knowledge source setting to turn on web search.

  • When web search is on, your agent can supplement its responses with information from the web.
  • When web search is off, your agent only uses explicitly configured websites.

Title matching for SharePoint sources

For SharePoint knowledge sources, the title of each document is one signal in how the agent selects content to reference. Documents with clear, descriptive titles are easier for the agent to surface; documents with missing or generic titles (for example, Document1) are harder to match.

To improve title quality for SharePoint sources:

  • In SharePoint, review the Title column for the library or list you connected, and rename generic titles to describe the content.
  • Use titles that include the words your users are likely to ask about.
  • After you update titles in SharePoint, you don't need to make any change in Copilot Studio. The updated titles are picked up automatically the next time the agent references the source.

Best practices

  • Review knowledge sources periodically to remove outdated or irrelevant content.
  • Use descriptive names so you can identify sources quickly.
  • Test your agent after removing sources to ensure it still answers key questions correctly.
  • Last updated on