System.Response.Citations (References) Not Populated in Multi-Agent Setup - AI Orchestration

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Posted on by ADAM-23010942-0

📌 Context:
I'm working on a multi-agentic setup in Microsoft Copilot Studio (not lightweight but standalone agents). The architecture involves a main agent that delegates tasks to child agents using Generative AI orchestration.

Each child agent is configured with its own knowledge sources (e.g., SharePoint, Dataverse, public URLs), and when tested individually, they respond correctly and cite sources as expected. The citations are visible in the Activity Map of the child agent.

However, when the child agent responds, the main agent receives the response, but the system variable System.Response.Citations remains empty—even though the child agent clearly used a source and the citation is visible in its own activity map. => References will not displayed in the parent Agent.

🔍 What I’ve Tried:
Confirmed that the source is indexed and citation metadata is present.
Checked the response in the child agent’s activity map—citations are shown.
Attempted to access System.Response.Citations in the main agent after the child agent responds—table is empty.
Tried using Response.FormattedText and System.LastMessage.Text to extract citation-like data—no structured citation info available.

⚠️ Why This Is a Problem:
In an AI-driven experience, transparency and traceability are critical. If the main agent cannot access references from child agents, it:

Undermines trust in the response.
Prevents proper attribution of sources.
Limits the ability to display citations in UI or adaptive cards.
Breaks consistency across agents in multi-agent setups.

❓ Questions:
Is this a known limitation of System.Response.Citations in orchestrated multi-agent flows?
Is there a recommended workaround to extract citation data from child agent responses?
Can citation metadata be passed manually via variables or Prompt Actions?
Is there a way to access the full response object from the child agent, including citations?
Are there plans to improve citation handling in multi-agent orchestration?

🧪 Setup Details:
Copilot Studio with Generative AI orchestration enabled.
Main agent delegates to child agents via orchestration.
Child agents use Generative Answers nodes with knowledge sources.
Citations visible in child agent activity map, but not accessible in main agent.

Any insights, workarounds, or roadmap updates would be greatly appreciated!

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SwatiSTW 807 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Yes this is a known limitation: when a child/connected agent returns information, citations may be missing in the main agent. Consequently, System.Response.Citations can be empty even though the child shows sources.

Refer - https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/authoring-add-other-agents

Root cause- the orchestration layer summarizes/normalizes the child’s reply and doesn’t propagate the structured citation array.

Microsoft’s workaround - instruct the child agent to immediately send its answer including a “References” section and to retain citations in any summaries.

Also There’s no public API to fetch the child’s full “answer object” with citations from the parent.

To intercept/replace the orchestrated text, use the “AI-generated response is about to be sent” trigger and read Response

Official Microsoft limitation reference (URL): https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/authoring-add-other-agents#known-limitations

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ADAM-23010942-0 10 on at

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Hi @SwatiSTW!
I’m coming back to you, thank you very much for highlighting this limitation.

Beyond the fact that this limitation makes many multi-agent scenarios quite useless — since the end-user is mostly relying on the agent to find information — I’ve had very mixed experiences with the suggested workaround.

Our agent has six child agents, all instructed as follows:

"Once you have searched knowledge and found an answer, always send a message with the answer immediately. When producing a summary, always maintain all citations and include them in the summary."

This improves the situation in some cases, but the outcome is still very unpredictable: sometimes we do get citations, sometimes we don’t.

Changing the Instruction of the Main Agent to this stronger Prompt will improve the results, still no 100% solution:

"Always include all original citations and references in every response without omission or alteration. Do not summarize or rewrite in a way that removes or hides citations. If you generate a summary, ensure every citation from the source content remains visible and correctly associated with the relevant information. Never provide an answer without its citations."

Is there a way to force a child agent (in a Topic?) to answer immediately?

What has been your experience with this? In your view, what is the key to getting citations reliably?

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