Welcome to part 7 of this blog post series.
If you missed the previous parts, visit the links below:
- Part 1: Create a Microsoft Form
- Part 2: Create a Power Platform Environment
- Part 3: Create a Copilot Studio Agent (Name, Image, Description, and Instructions)
- Part 4: Create an Excel Spreadsheet Listing Trainers and Qualified Courses
- Part 5: Create an Excel Log File to Record Mentor Requests
- Part 6: Create a Trigger in Copilot Studio
In this part of this blog post series, I will connect a number of tools to my agent. Tools enable agents to automate processes and complete tasks without human intervention. There are over 1,000 pre-built connectors in the Power Platform, which allow us to connect to Microsoft and third party applications.
We can grant the agent access to the Excel files, Email, and more. Without tools, the agent would not have the permissions to access my data and make changes.
We need a combination of the trigger, the tools, and the instructions so the agent knows what is required of it. The end result is an agent that has access to the tools it needs, a trigger to start it, and clear instructions that guide how the tools should be used.
But haven’t we already added a trigger in an earlier post?
Correct, the trigger plays an important part. The trigger detects when a Microsoft Form is submitted and retrieves the responses. It allows the agent to capture details such as the course code submitted by the trainer.
However, for the agent to determine who to assign the request to, it also needs access to the central mentors Excel spreadsheet so it can compare the submitted course code with the central mentors.xlsx spreadsheet.
The agent therefore needs permission to read data from both the Microsoft Form and the Excel file. This is why we need to add tools. Tools allow the agent to access and work with external data sources such as Forms, Excel, and email.
In this post, we’ll explore the different types of tools available in Copilot Studio before adding the required tools to the Course Mentor Agent.
We will add and configure the following tools:
- Get response details (Microsoft Form)
- List rows present in a table
- Add a row into a table
- Send an email (V2)
Task: Add tools to agent
- Select tools
2. Click + Add a tool
You’ll find a number of tools to choose from. I have provided an explanation for each option in the table below.
| Tool option | What it does | Explanation |
|---|---|---|
| All | Shows all available tools | Displays every tool your agent can use in one place. Useful if you just want to browse everything that’s available. |
| Connector | Connects to other services | Lets your agent connect to Microsoft or third‑party services (for example SharePoint, Dataverse, Outlook, or Teams) using built‑in connectors. |
| Prompt | AI‑based instruction | Allows you to define a natural‑language prompt that the agent can run using AI, such as summarising text, rewriting content, or generating an explanation. |
| Flow | Runs Power Automate | Runs a Power Automate flow from your agent, such as saving data to Excel, sending an automated email, or creating a ticket. |
| REST API | Calls external APIs | Allows the agent to call an external REST API directly to send or retrieve data from custom or third‑party systems. |
| Model Context Protocol (MCP) | Connects to MCP servers | MCP is an open‑source standard for connecting agents to external tools and data through an MCP server. When you connect to an MCP server, Copilot Studio automatically discovers the tools and data it provides (including names, inputs, and outputs). In many cases this feels plug‑and‑play as you don’t need to build anything yourself unless you want to expose your own systems. The MCP server provides the context and capabilities, and the agent uses them as needed. |
There are over 1,000 tools available that allow an agent to connect to both Microsoft and third-party products to automate business processes. I’ve added a few images below that show the different types of tools available. This is just a small sample, there are many more available.
Task: Add tool – Get response details (Microsoft Forms)
3. Search for and select Get response details, or use the search box if the tool is not visible.
4. Click the Add and configure button, as shown in the image below
5. If a connection is not already established, click Create connection and sign-in
This will allow the agent to retrieve the Microsoft Form response, but we need to select the Microsoft Form created in part 1.
6. Click additional details, as shown in the image below.
7. I’ll be changing End user credentials to Maker-provided credentials, as shown in the image below.
Why change this setting?
If I leave as the default End user credentials option enabled, users will be prompted to sign-in before the agent can retrieve form responses. This may work fine for internal only forms, but it can cause problems if the form is shared publicly, as not everyone will be able to sign-in. By switching to Maker‑provided credentials, the agent uses my connection to Microsoft Forms instead of the end user’s credentials. This allows the agent to retrieve form responses automatically, even when the form is available to external or anonymous users.
This setting depends on your scenario and how you want users to interact with your form.
8. Next, scroll down to Inputs. This is where I select which Microsoft Form to use. I chose the form I created earlier in this blog post series (Part 1).
Click Dynamically fill with AI and select custom value
9. Click inside the Unique identifier of the form field. A list of available Microsoft Forms will appear. I select the form I created earlier in part 1 of this series.
10. The Response Id field will be left set to Dynamically fill with AI. This is because each time a trainer submits the form, a new and unique form response ID is generated, so it isn’t possible to provide a fixed value.
11. Click Save
Task: Add tool – List rows present in a table (Excel Online Business)
Next, I need to add an Excel tool so that my agent can access my Mentors Excel file, which includes a list of all course mentors.
12. Select Tools and search for Excel. Select List rows present in a table, as shown in the image below. This allows the agent to read all rows from the Mentors table and dynamically determine which mentors are qualified based on the course code is associated with them. The agent can then use this information later to select a suitable mentor for the request.
13. If a connection is not already established, click Create new connection
14. Click Create
15. Sign-in
16. Check that the connection is enabled.
17. Again, as we did earlier with the Microsoft Forms tool, click the Add and configure button, as shown in the image below.
18. Click Additional details and change the credentials to Maker-provided credentials, so the tools uses my credentials. Leave the name and description set to their defaults.
19. Scroll down to Inputs
For Location, click the dropdown under Fill using, select Custom value. Click inside the Value box, and choose OneDrive for Business from the list.
For Document library, click the drop down under Fill using and select Custom value. Click directly inside the Value box, and select OneDrive from the list.
For File: Click and select the file. This would be my file named Mentors.xlsx
If you received the following error message: You are not authorized to use this connection. Please consider using a different connection. Manually type the name of the Excel file, such as Mentors.xlsx. This is common if you have only just created or uploaded the file.
20. Select Table1, or manually type Table1 if it does not appear.
Note: the table name comes from Excel when your data is formatted as a table. With the table selected in your Excel file, go to Table Design at the top of the Excel spreadsheet. You’ll find the table name there, which usually defaults to Table1.
21. Click Save
22. You should now have two tools added to the agent
Task: Add tool – Add a row into a table
23. We also need the agent to record the outcome of each mentoring request. This includes logging the requester’s details and the mentor who has been assigned.
To achieve this, we’ll add the Add a row into a table Excel tool, which will be used to add a row to the RequestLogs.xlsx file after a mentor has been selected.
In addition, we’ll add an email tool later in this post so the assigned mentor is notified when a new mentoring request has been assigned to them.
24. Select Tools and choose Add a tool. Search for Add a row into a table (Excel Online Business), and select it from the list.
25. Click Add and configure
26. Click Additional details and change the authentication setting to Maker‑provided credentials, so the tool uses my account.
27. Click Inputs and configure the following settings:
Location: Select Custom value from the drop box, click in the Value box, and choose OneDrive for Business.
Document Library: Select Custom value from the dropdown, click inside the Value box and choose OneDrive.
File: Select Custom value from the dropdown, click inside the Value box, and browse to select file RequestLogs.xlsx.
Table: Select table1
Row: Leave this set to the default (if not already greyed out). We can’t specify a specific row, as new rows will be added dynamically by the agent.
Note: If you’re unable to browse to the file, manually type the name of the Excel file. This can happen if the file has not yet been indexed.
28. Click save
Task: Add tool – Send an email
29. Select Tools, then click Add a tool. Search for and select Send an email V2 (Office 365 Outlook)
30. If a connection is not already established, click Create connection and sign in
31. Click Add and configure
32. Click Additional details and change the authentication setting from End user credentials to Maker‑provided credentials, so the tool uses my account.
33. Scroll down to Inputs and configure the following:
To: Leave this field dynamic. The agent will determine who to send the email to by analysing the MentorEmail field in the Excel spreadsheet (Mentors.xlsx).
Subject: Select Custom value from the drop down and add a subject, Course Mentor Request
Body: Leave this field dynamic. The agent will generate a suitable email message based on the mentoring request.
That’s it, we’ve successfully added four tools, as shown in the image below.
In the next post, we’ll return to the agent instructions we described in part 3 and make some amendments to instruct the agent to use the tools we’ve just created.
Click the following link to continue: Building an Autonomous AI Agent in Copilot Studio – Part 8: Amend Existing Agent Instructions to Use Tools – Cloud Build
