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How to get the agent's knowledge source to refresh every 30 minutes?

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Posted on by CU09041801-1

I am building a custom agent for my daily workflow to run some scripts on excel, and according to the modified excel which is also added in knowledge source it should answer some questions, but I want this to reflected every 30 minutes or so or whenever the excel gets updated. So my question is how do I get the knowledge source to get updated without manual intervention?

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Vish WR 3,748 on at

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30-Minute Refresh Isn't Possible (Natively) .This refresh job runs automatically in the background, refreshing and reindexing content — but you cannot manually trigger a refresh, and the interval is not configurable.

The background sync cadence documented by Microsoft is 4–6 hours for SharePoint/OneDrive sources — nowhere near 30 minutes.

Additionally, knowledge indexing and cache are asynchronous. There is currently no way to force immediate re-indexing or purge the cache

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-ca/answers/questions/5789868/why-my-copilot-agent-in-teams-is-not-using-my-new

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rezarizvii 352 on at

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Hi @CU09041801-1, hope you are doing well.

You can't force refresh a knowledge source in Copilot Studio. Knowledge sources are meant for static/semi-static data that don't change much like websites, PDFs, etc.

To query a live, constantly changing data, you should instead try to store the data in a more traditional place like SharePoint or Dataverse and query them at run-time using actions and tools.

Alternatively, you can add your ever-so-changing excel file to a SharePoint document library and query it using tools at run-time. This is the most optimal way to avoid stale data when using the agent without changing much of your infra.

Reza M. Rizvi
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Vish WR 3,748 on at

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Hi Reza

Querying it using tools at run-time might slow down the response. I would suggest removing and adding a knowledge source via Power Automate

Reference: https://www.matthewdevaney.com/how-to-add-copilot-studio-knowledge-files-using-power-automate/#:~:text=Matthew%20Devaney%20wrote%20an%20article%20about%20adding,again%20at%20the%20end%20of%20the%20flow

@CU09041801-1, You can try using the Power Automate option to see if it solves your problem

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Sayali-MSFT Microsoft Employee on at

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Hello CU09041801-1 ,

Knowledge sources in Copilot Studio are designed for static reference content and are not intended for frequently changing operational data such as Excel files updated by scripts. When you add an Excel file as a knowledge source, Copilot Studio does not read it live at runtime—instead, the file is chunked, embedded, and indexed as a semantic snapshot during ingestion. This means that even if the Excel file is updated in SharePoint or OneDrive, the agent continues answering based on the last indexed version unless the knowledge source is manually refreshed. Because automatic re‑embedding does not occur, scenarios requiring updates every 30 minutes cannot be reliably supported through knowledge ingestion.
The recommended approach is to shift from knowledge‑based grounding to action‑based dynamic retrieval by using a Power Automate flow to fetch live Excel data at runtime, convert it into JSON, and pass it into the agent through an action. This enables the agent to respond using the most current spreadsheet data without requiring re‑indexing, manual intervention, or scheduled refresh cycles, making it a more stable and production‑safe solution for daily workflow automation involving frequently updated datasets.

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