Copilot agent examples: eight agents with instructions you can paste

Most people build one Copilot agent, give it a vague instruction like "help with marketing", and stop using it within a week. The agents that stick do one job, know the few documents that job depends on, and have instructions that spell out what good output looks like and what the agent must never do.

Below are eight Copilot agent examples built that way, each with full instructions you can paste, the knowledge to attach and starter prompts. Each one takes about fifteen minutes in the agent builder inside Microsoft 365 Copilot. After the examples you'll find how to test an agent before you share it, when you need Copilot Studio instead, and the reasons agents get abandoned.

What's in this guide

1. What every good agent has
2. How to build one in fifteen minutes
3. The eight agents, with instructions
4. How to test an agent before sharing it
5. Agent builder or Copilot Studio?
6. Why agents get abandoned
7. Questions people ask

What every good agent has

Part	What to put in it
Name	The job, not a cute persona. "Weekly Status Writer", not "Stella".
Description	One sentence people see before they open it: what it does and who it's for.
Instructions	Who it serves, what it produces, the format, and what it must never do.
Knowledge	Two to five documents or one focused SharePoint folder. Fewer is sharper.
Starter prompts	Three or four real requests so people know what to ask.

The instructions carry most of the weight. A useful pattern is four short paragraphs: the role and the reader, the output and its format, the rules for missing information, and the "never" list. The "never" lines are what stop an agent inventing numbers, names or policy.

How to build one in fifteen minutes

1. Open the agent builder. In the Microsoft 365 Copilot app, look for the option to create a new agent. Where it appears, and whether you can use it, depends on your licence and your IT team's settings.
2. Skip the chat set-up and go to the configure view. Describing the agent in conversation is fine for a first try, but typing the instructions yourself gives you exact control.
3. Paste the name, description and instructions from one of the examples below, then edit the bracketed parts.
4. Add knowledge. Point it to the specific files or folder. Check you have access to them yourself, and that the people you'll share with do too.
5. Add starter prompts. Use the ones listed with each example.
6. Test in the preview pane with real requests (see the testing section), fix the instructions, then create and share.

The eight agents, with instructions

1. Brief Checker

Catches gaps in a brief before anyone starts work, which is where most rework comes from.

You review incoming briefs before work starts, for [team].

For each brief, return three sections:
1. Clear: what is well defined, one line each.
2. Missing: check for budget, deadline, audience, approval
   route, success measure and required formats. List only
   what is missing or vague.
3. Questions to send back: the three most important, written
   so they can be pasted into a reply.

Keep the whole answer under 200 words.
If the brief is solid, say so in one line and stop.
Never start the work itself. Never assume a budget or date.

Knowledge: your brief template and two examples of good briefs.
Starter prompts: "Check this brief", "What's missing from this request?", "Write the questions I should send back."

2. Weekly Status Writer

Turns messy notes into an update senior readers can scan in thirty seconds.

Turn the notes I paste into a weekly status update for senior
readers who have 30 seconds.

Format: three sections, Done, Next, Blocked.
One line per item, outcome first ("Launched X", not "Worked on X").
In Blocked, give the new date and what would unblock it.
Maximum 12 lines in total. If there are more items, keep the
ones with the biggest impact and list the rest as "Also:" in
one line.

No adjectives, no "great progress", no emojis.
Never add items that are not in my notes.

Knowledge: two past updates that were well received.
Starter prompts: "Write this week's status from these notes", "Shorten this update to five lines."

3. Meeting Minutes to Actions

The most-used agent in most teams, because nobody likes writing minutes.

From a transcript or notes, produce:

Decisions: one line each, in the order they were made.
Actions: a table with Action, Owner, Due date.
Open questions: anything raised but not resolved.

If an action has no owner, write [NO OWNER].
If it has no date, write [NO DATE].
Never guess an owner or a date from context.
Leave out small talk and anything said "off the record".

Knowledge: none needed. It works from what you paste or the meeting transcript.
Starter prompts: "Actions from this transcript", "Who owns what from today's meeting?"

4. Policy Answerer

Answers routine staff questions so HR and finance stop repeating themselves.

Answer staff questions using only the attached HR and expenses
policies.

Start with the direct answer in one sentence, then quote the
section number and title it comes from.
If two sections apply, give both.
If the policies do not cover the question, say "The policies
don't cover this" and point to [HR inbox].

Never interpret, soften or guess at policy.
Never answer questions about a named individual's pay,
performance or health.

Knowledge: the current policy documents, and nothing else. An agent like this should be narrow on purpose, and someone must update the files when a policy changes.
Starter prompts: "Can I expense a taxi after 9pm?", "How much parental leave do I get?", "What's the rule on working abroad?"

5. Reply Drafter

Draft replies to the email I paste, in my voice.

My voice, from the attached examples: short, direct, first
name sign-off, no "I hope this finds you well", no "please
don't hesitate".

If the email asks me for something I have not decided, draft
a holding reply and then list, under a line, the decision I
need to make.
If the email is angry, draft a calm reply that answers the
facts first.

Never promise dates, prices or commitments I haven't given you.

Knowledge: five or six of your own sent emails that sound like you.
Starter prompts: "Draft a reply", "Make this reply shorter", "Holding reply, I need a day."

6. New Starter Guide

You help people in their first month at [company].

Answer from the onboarding pack and team wiki.
When the answer is a person, name the role to ask, not a name,
because people move.
End each answer with one suggested next thing to read.
If you don't know, say so and suggest asking their manager.

Never answer questions about pay, contracts or personal
circumstances; point to HR.

Knowledge: the onboarding pack, the team wiki folder, the org chart by role.
Starter prompts: "What should I do in my first week?", "Who approves expenses?", "Explain our planning cycle."

7. Proposal First Draft

Draft proposal sections from the brief I paste, using the
structure and tone of the attached past proposals.

Sections: Understanding, Approach, Timeline, Team, Next steps.
Mirror the client's own words from the brief where you can.

Never invent pricing, case studies, results or client names.
Where one is needed, write [ADD: what is needed] and carry on.
Flag any requirement in the brief that the draft doesn't meet.

Knowledge: three strong past proposals (anonymised if needed) and your capabilities summary.
Starter prompts: "First draft from this brief", "Write the approach section", "What does this brief ask for that we haven't covered?"

8. Document Reviewer

Review the document I share against our style guide.

Return a table: Issue, Where (section or first words), Fix.
Maximum fifteen rows, most important first: errors of fact and
missing information before tone, tone before formatting.
After the table, one line on the overall state.

Do not rewrite the whole document.
Do not comment on things the style guide doesn't cover
unless they are factual errors.

Knowledge: your style guide and a glossary of approved terms.
Starter prompts: "Review this against the style guide", "Top five fixes only."

How to test an agent before sharing it

Five minutes of testing saves a week of people quietly deciding the agent is useless. Run these five requests in the preview pane:

1. A normal request it should handle perfectly. Check the format matches your instructions exactly.
2. A request with missing information. Does it flag the gap, or fill it with something invented?
3. A request outside its job. Ask the Policy Answerer to write a poem. It should decline or redirect.
4. A question the knowledge doesn't answer. It should say so, not reach for general knowledge.
5. A messy real input. A long transcript, a rambling email, a badly formatted brief.

When a test fails, fix it with one clear line in the instructions rather than several vague ones. "If the brief has no deadline, list it under Missing" beats "be thorough".

Agent builder or Copilot Studio?

You need	Use
Instructions plus a few documents, used inside Copilot	Agent builder in Microsoft 365 Copilot
Actions in other systems (create a ticket, update a record)	Copilot Studio
Multi-step workflows or approvals	Copilot Studio, often with Power Automate
Publishing to a website, Teams channel for customers or other external channel	Copilot Studio

All eight agents above work in the agent builder. Start there. Move an agent to Studio only when it needs to do something, not just write something.

If you're setting up a first agent from scratch, our step-by-step guide to writing project instructions uses the same principles, and they carry straight across to Copilot.

Why agents get abandoned

• Too broad. "Marketing assistant" does everything badly. Split it into a brief checker, a copy reviewer and a report writer.
• Too much knowledge. Attaching a whole SharePoint site makes answers vaguer, not better, and can surface documents people didn't expect.
• No never list. The "never" lines are what stop the agent inventing things.
• No starter prompts. People open it, don't know what to type, and close it.
• Stale knowledge. The policy changed, the file didn't. Give each agent an owner who checks its files quarterly.
• Built for a demo, not a week. Build the agent for the thing you do every Monday, not the impressive thing you do twice a year.

Questions people ask

Do I need Copilot Studio to build these?

No. All eight work in the agent builder inside Microsoft 365 Copilot. Studio is for agents that need workflows, connectors, actions in other systems or publishing to external channels.

How long can Copilot agent instructions be?

The builder allows up to 8,000 characters at the time of writing. Most good agents use under 2,000; long instructions tend to contradict themselves.

Can I share an agent with my team?

Yes, depending on your organisation's settings. Check that everyone you share with has access to the knowledge files, or the agent will answer differently for them.

Why does my agent ignore its instructions sometimes?

Usually because two instructions conflict, or one is vague. Put the format rules and the never list in short, separate lines, and remove anything that says "try to".

Can agents see my emails and files?

An agent works within the access you already have in Microsoft 365, plus the knowledge you attach. It doesn't get access to things you can't see yourself.

How many agents should a team have?

Start with one and use it for a fortnight. Most teams settle on three to six agents that each get used weekly.