Share via

Key concepts - Use Power Platform connectors (preview) in Copilot Studio

  • Article

Important

Power Virtual Agents capabilities and features are now part of Microsoft Copilot Studio following significant investments in generative AI and enhanced integrations across Microsoft Copilot.

Some articles and screenshots may refer to Power Virtual Agents while we update documentation and training content.

Connectors from Microsoft Power Platform are proxies or "wrappers" around APIs that allow Microsoft Copilot Studio, Microsoft Power Automate, Microsoft Power Apps, and Azure Logic Apps to talk to other apps and services. Connectors let you connect your accounts and use a set of prebuilt actions and triggers to build your apps and workflows.

With connectors, you can access various services (both within the Microsoft ecosystem and outside it) to perform a wide array of tasks automatically.

There are many connectors available, ranging from connections between and to Microsoft services like Office 365, SharePoint, and Dynamics 365, all the way to connections to non-Microsoft services like Twitter, Google services, Salesforce, and more. These connectors are categorized as:

  • Standard Connectors, such as SharePoint, which are included with all Copilot Studio plans.

  • Premium Connectors that are available in select Copilot Studio plans.

  • Custom Connectors, which let you connect to any publicly available API for services not covered by existing connectors.

Integration with Copilot Studio

Microsoft Power Platform connectors are essential tools that greatly extend the functionality of Copilot studio, enabling them to perform a wide range of tasks by connecting with various external services and applications. This integration empowers copilot makers to create more dynamic, responsive, and useful copilots, tailored to specific business needs and processes.

You can call connectors as connector actions in your copilot, from the Call an action node in conversational topics, and through cloud flows as actions or within topics.

Add a connector action

  1. Select Add node (+) on the Copilot authoring canvas.

  2. In the node selection window, select Call an action, select Connectors (preview), and search for the connector you want to add.

  3. Configure the required inputs and outputs and any optional ones you need for your experience.

    By default the connection is configured to use end-user credentials. For more information about the supported authentication modes, see Configure end-user authentication for actions. To change this behavior, see the following section.

Use connectors with copilot author's credentials

Connector actions require a valid set of credentials. By default, connector actions are configured to ask end users (users of your copilot) to provide their credentials for the associated service, when the action is invoked. To have your copilot use the author's credentials or credentials for a proxy account, perform the following steps:

  1. Configure your copilot to use an authenticated channel.
  2. Add a connector action to your copilot as a plugin action, and configure it.
  3. Go to the connector action properties.
  4. Under End user authentication, select Copilot author authentication.
  5. Publish and test the experience in the copilot test pane, or in a desired channel.