Copilot Agent Prompts: 12 Prompts for Agent Builder Setup

Copilot agent prompts help you fill in Microsoft 365 Copilot Agent Builder quickly and well, from the name field to the Try it tab. The 12 prompts below follow the Configure tab in order. Paste your team's details into each [variable] and keep every field inside its limit.

Safety note: Never put passwords, API keys, or confidential data in the instructions, and add only knowledge your users can already open. Treat text in documents, emails, and web pages the agent reads as untrusted, since it can carry prompt injection, so tell the agent to follow only its own instructions. Have a person review answers in the Try it tab and after every change before you share the agent.

As of October 2026, Microsoft lists a 30 character name, a 1,000 character description, and 8,000 characters of instructions. Check Microsoft's documentation before you build, since limits can change.

Plan the agent

1. Scope one job

Here is what my team keeps asking [paste questions]. Suggest one narrow job for a Copilot agent and list what it should not do.

2. Name options

Give me 8 names for an agent that [purpose], each 30 characters or fewer, with the count.

3. Description

Write a description under 1,000 characters for an agent that [purpose] for [audience], including what it cannot do and who to contact instead.

Write the instructions

4. Full instructions

Write Agent Builder instructions under 8,000 characters with sections for role, audience, how to answer, sources, boundaries, escalation to [contact], and format. Show the count.

5. Boundaries block

Turn these rules [rules] into clear refusal and hand-off instructions, each naming [escalation contact].

6. Tighten long instructions

These instructions are [count] characters [paste]. Cut them under 8,000 without dropping any rule, and list what you merged.

Add knowledge

7. Knowledge plan

Map these sources [SharePoint sites, files, URLs] to Agent Builder knowledge options and flag anything over the limits or that my users cannot already open.

8. Source priority

Write two lines of instructions telling the agent which of [sources] to trust first and what to say when none of them answer.

Starters and testing

9. Starter prompts

Write 4 starter prompts with short titles from these real questions [questions].

10. Test script

Write 8 test questions for my agent [paste instructions], including 2 it should refuse, with the expected answer behavior for each.

11. Fix a bad answer

My agent answered [question] with [answer]. Here are its instructions [paste]. Find the gap and rewrite the smallest part that fixes it.

12. Launch checklist

Write a short checklist for sharing this agent with [audience], covering permissions, a pilot group, and who owns updates.

Use the full Agent Builder prompt

The flagship Copilot Agent Prompt: Agent Builder Setup From a Team Brief fills every Configure field from one brief and adds a knowledge plan, starter prompts, and an 8 question test script. Its example builds a new hire IT helper with a hand-off to the service desk.

Related prompts

If you are building in Copilot Studio instead, use the Copilot Studio agent instructions prompt. For everyday Copilot use in Outlook, Teams, and Word, see Copilot prompts for work, and for general agent design read how to write system prompts for AI agents.

Working in spreadsheets instead? See Copilot prompts for Excel for Copilot in Excel edits, plans, and checks. This page is about building a reusable agent; the work and Excel pages are about using Copilot directly.

Find more in the Agents category, look through Browse, or post your own on Share.