[Copilot Studio – Teams] Conversation Start topic not auto-triggering in Teams channel

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Posted on by PO-22050646-0

Hello community,

I'm building a conversational agent with Microsoft Copilot Studio (classic orchestration) deployed on Microsoft Teams with Microsoft 365 authentication.

Agent context:
My agent "Assistant IA SOG" is an IT helpdesk assistant deployed in production on Teams. The "Conversation Start" system topic is configured to automatically display a personalized welcome message when the conversation opens. This topic calls two Power Automate flows.

Dynamic Greeting flow: calculates the greeting based on local time (UTC+1, Libreville, Gabon) → "Good morning", "Good afternoon" or "Good evening"

User Profile Initialization flow: retrieves the connected user's profile via Microsoft Graph API (endpoint /users/{email}) with Azure AD application permissions → displays "Welcome, OZOUMET Priscilla!" followed by the list of available IT service.

What works:
In the Copilot Studio test panel, the "Conversation Start" topic triggers automatically and displays the complete message with the dynamic greeting, user name, and service list (see screenshot 1).

What does NOT work:
In Microsoft Teams, when I open the agent:

The welcome message does NOT display automatically

The screen shows either default conversation starters or an empty screen saying "Start a quick conversation"

The user must manually type "hello" to trigger the greeting

When the greeting finally triggers, it displays incomplete (without the user's name) and a "Sign in to continue" popup appears twice consecutively

Expected behavior:
Same behavior as in the test panel: when opening the agent in Teams, the personalized welcome message should display automatically, as shown in many Copilot Studio tutorials.

What I've checked:

"Conversation Start" system topic is enabled (toggle ON)

Authentication is set to Microsoft 365

Power Automate flows use the "When a Copilot Studio assistant calls a flow" trigger

SharePoint and Graph API connections work after initial authorization

Agent has been republished multiple times

I deleted and reinstalled the agent in Teams

System.User.Email is used (no custom variable for email

My environment:

Copilot Studio (classic orchestration, not generative)

Model: GPT-5 Chat

Channel: Microsoft Teams

Authentication: Microsoft 365

Power Automate: SharePoint connector, HTTP connector (Graph API)

Azure AD App: application permissions (not delegated)

Tenant: default environment

My questions:

Is the "Conversation Start" system topic supposed to auto-trigger when opening the agent in Teams, like it does in the test panel?

If yes, why doesn't it trigger in my case? Is it related to the topic calling Power Automate flows that require authentication?

Is the double "Sign in to continue" popup a known bug in the Teams channel?

What is the best practice for structuring a greeting topic that calls authenticated flows while ensuring it auto-displays in Teams?

Thank you for your help!

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Building Copilot Studio chatbots in Microsoft Teams

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Valantis 6,735 on at

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Hi @PO-22050646-0,

A few confirmed answers to your specific questions.

1. Yes, Conversation Start is supposed to auto-trigger in Teams. It works differently from M365 Copilot where it's a known limitation. Teams does support it.
2. The reason it's not triggering in your case is almost certainly the authenticated flows. When Conversation Start fires, it runs before the user has authenticated. The flows calling Graph API require a valid token, but the token isn't available yet at the moment the topic triggers. Teams shows the "Sign in to continue" prompt instead of completing the topic, which breaks the auto-trigger behavior.

3. The double Sign in popup is a known pattern when two flows both require authentication in the same topic turn. Each flow independently triggers the auth prompt.

try this:

Split the Conversation Start topic into two parts. Use Conversation Start only to send a static welcome message with no flow calls. Then use a separate topic triggered by a "let me personalize this" button or a follow-up trigger that fires after authentication is confirmed. The authenticated flows (Graph API, dynamic greeting) should run only after the user has signed in.

Alternatively, check if your Graph API call can use the service connection (application permissions) instead of delegated user permissions. If the flow uses application permissions with a client credentials flow, it doesn't need the user's token and won't trigger the sign-in prompt. This would let you keep the greeting in Conversation Start.

For System.User.Email specifically: this variable is only populated after authentication completes. If your flow depends on it at Conversation Start, it will be empty or trigger auth before the topic finishes.

also check and activate the inactivity after X minutes and clear the variables for better results.

Best regards,

Valantis

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S-Venkadesh 1,215 Super User 2026 Season 1 on at

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Hi @PO-22050646-0,

The expected behavior in MS Teams is that Conversation Start is triggered only the first time the conversation is created. Uninstalling and reinstalling the app in Teams will not trigger it again.
Please refer to the following article for more details:
https://microsoft.github.io/mcscatblog/posts/copilot-studio-teams-deployment-ux/#why-teams-deployment-is-different

Hope it helps!

Venkadesh Sundaramurthy

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