Manage knowledge sources in an agent

After adding 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 is 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 panel, 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. Add or remove the Search all websites knowledge source chip to enable or disable 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 knowledge sources.

When existing Dataverse, Dynamics 365, or file sources stop returning results

If a Dataverse, Dynamics 365, or uploaded-file knowledge source stops returning results and the Add knowledge dialog shows an admin-action banner about the Dataverse search-and-index setting, the environment's setting has changed to a mode that doesn't support agent knowledge.

  • Existing sources of these types stay configured on the agent, but the agent might not be able to retrieve from them until the environment setting is updated.
  • Ask your administrator to update the environment's Dataverse search-and-index setting to a mode that supports agent knowledge.
  • You don't need to remove or re-add the source. Once the setting is updated, retrieval resumes.

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.
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