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Copilot Studio Agent: Private Chat vs Teams Group Chat (Knowledge Source Not Used)

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Posted on by Dave_UK

Hi All,

I’ve been experimenting with Copilot Studio to create agents (not Microsoft 365 Copilot Agents, but custom Copilot Studio Agents).

Our corporate documentation is stored in SharePoint, and I’ve configured the agent’s knowledge base to reference a SharePoint path. The agent is published with these settings:

Show in the store: Show to my teammates and shared users (I haven’t selected “Show to everyone in my org” yet as this is early testing).

Teams settings:
- Users can add this to a team
- Use this for group and meeting chat

Here’s the behavior I’m seeing:

When I ask the bot a question in a group chat, it responds with a generic answer.

When I message the bot privately, it responds using the SharePoint-based knowledge as expected.

All members in the Teams chat have access to the SharePoint path.

My question:

Is this difference because the agent isn’t set to “Show to everyone in my org”?

Or do Copilot Studio agents simply not use their SharePoint knowledge when responding in group chats?

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General topics

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Sam_Fawzi 904 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hey @Dave_UK

This behavior is not caused by the “Show to everyone in my org” setting. That option only controls visibility in the Copilot Studio store, not how knowledge sources are applied in Teams conversations.
The difference occurs because of how Copilot Studio agents process knowledge sources in Teams contexts:

Private Chat Behavior
When you interact with the agent in a 1:1 private chat, the agent can fully leverage its configured knowledge sources (e.g., SharePoint URLs) through the Generative Answers feature. This is because the conversation is scoped to the user and the agent, and permissions for accessing SharePoint content are validated against your Microsoft Entra ID (formerly Azure AD) identity.
Reference: Knowledge sources summary – Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Group Chat or Meeting Chat Behavior
In Teams group chats, Copilot Studio agents currently do not automatically ground responses in external knowledge sources like SharePoint unless the agent is explicitly configured to use Teams chat data as a knowledge source. By default, group chat interactions rely on the agent’s system topics and generative fallback, which often produce generic answers.
Reference: Use Teams chats as knowledge sources in Agent Builder.

Permissions and Context
Even if all participants have access to the SharePoint site, the agent does not automatically aggregate that context in a multi-user chat. Knowledge grounding is tied to the conversation context and user identity, and multi-user chats introduce complexity that is not yet fully supported for external knowledge sources.
Reference: Add knowledge sources to your declarative agent.

Key Takeaways from Microsoft Guidance

Visibility settings (e.g., “Show to everyone in my org”) affect discoverability, not knowledge source usage.

Knowledge sources like SharePoint work best in private chats or when explicitly scoped in the agent configuration.

For Teams group chats, consider adding Teams messages or meeting transcripts as knowledge sources if you need contextual answers in those scenarios.

Generative answers in group chats default to system topics unless additional configuration is applied.

If you want consistent behavior across private and group chats:

Add Teams chat data as a knowledge source.

Ensure permissions and agent configuration align with Microsoft’s guidelines for generative answers and knowledge grounding.

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Dave_UK 15 on at

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@Sam_Fawzi

Thank you for taking the time to respond with such a detailed explanation.

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Sam_Fawzi 904 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hey @Dave_UK

Thank you, Dave. Glad the explanation was helpful — appreciate you taking the time to review it.

Cheers!

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