
Hello ZO-11061421-0,
Greetings! Thanks for raising this question in the Q&A forum.
You are not alone in experiencing this this is a known behavior gap in how Copilot Studio currently packages agent metadata when publishing to the org catalog. When you use the "Publish to org" flow in Copilot Studio, the agent metadata fields such as artwork/icons, website URL, description, and developer name are not always reliably written into the manifest that gets submitted for admin approval. Instead, the platform falls back to default placeholder values, which is exactly what you are seeing.
While Microsoft works toward a proper fix, here are the steps to manage this consistently:
Step 1: Fill In All Metadata Fields Before Publishing
In Copilot Studio, go to your agent's Settings and make sure all the fields under the "Details" section are completely filled in — including the agent icon, short description, long description, developer name, website URL, and privacy policy URL. Save the agent after making these changes, and then publish. Some users have found that saving explicitly before publishing helps the metadata get picked up correctly.
Step 2: Immediately Export the Agent After Publishing
Right after hitting "Publish to org," export the agent as a zip file from Copilot Studio. This gives you a copy of what was actually submitted, so you can inspect the manifest.json and verify whether your metadata was included or defaulted.
Step 3: Manually Fix the Manifest if Needed
If the exported zip shows missing or defaulted values in manifest.json, open the zip and update the following fields directly:
"name" — your agent's display name"description" and "shortDescription" — your descriptions"developerName" and "websiteUrl" — your developer info"icons" — reference the correct artwork files already present in the zip's icons folder (or add them if missing)Step 4: Save the updated zip and import it directly into the Admin Center agent registry via the manual import option. This bypasses the broken publish pipeline and ensures the correct metadata reaches the approval queue.
Step 5: Raise a Microsoft Support Ticket
Since this is reproducible and impacting your workflow, it is worth logging a support ticket with Microsoft referencing the specific fields that are being dropped (icons, website URL, description, developer name) during the "Publish to org" flow. This helps Microsoft prioritize a platform-level fix. Mention that the manifest is reverting to defaults even when the fields are set in Studio.
Step 6: Use the Export-Import Approach as Your Standard Process Until Fixed
Until Microsoft addresses this, treat the export-then-manual-import route as your standard deployment pipeline for org publishing. It is more steps, but it gives you full control over what lands in the registry.
For reference on managing agents in the admin catalog, see: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/admin-center-bots
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Best Regards,
Jerald Felix.