Export key attribute for component must begin with a letter Power Automate [Solved]

While I was working on a Power Automate flow for our client that uploads policy documents from SharePoint to a Copilot Studio Agent’s Knowledge base, everything worked well until I uploaded a file that had spaces in the name, like:

Power Platform EBook.pdf

As soon as I did that, I received the following error in my flow:

Action 'Add_a_new_row' failed: Export key attribute {0} for component {1} must begin with a letter and only consist of alpha-numeric and _.{}! characters. Data[0] = "schemaname" Data[1] = "botcomponent"

This error occurred while trying to add a new row to the Copilot components table in Dataverse.

In this Power Automate error-solved tutorial, I will guide you through a simple solution to resolve this error.

Error: Action ‘Add_a_new_row’ failed: Export key attribute {0} for component {1} must begin with a letter

In the flow, I was using the following dynamic value to build the SchemaName field:

cr0e5_policyAssistantBot.file.@{triggerBody()?['{FilenameWithExtension}']}

The problem? If the file name contains spaces, such as Power Platform EBook.pdf, it causes an invalid SchemaName because Dataverse does not allow spaces in schema names.

Solved: Export key attribute for component must begin with a letter Power Automate

To fix the “Export key attribute” error in Power Automate, you have two simple solutions:

Solution 1: Use the replace() Function

If users are likely to upload files with spaces in their names, you can handle it inside the flow using the replace() function.

In the SchemaName field of the Add a new row action, use:

cr0e5_policyAssistantBot.file.@{replace(triggerBody()?['{FilenameWithExtension}'], ' ', '_')}

This will automatically replace all spaces with underscores (_) and ensure the SchemaName is valid.

Solution 2: Upload the File Without Spaces

If you want to keep your flow simple and avoid using expressions, make sure your file names do not contain spaces before uploading them to SharePoint.

For example, the file name below is not allowed.

Power Platform EBook.pdf
HR Policy 2024 Final.pdf
Remote Work Guide.pdf

Instead of that, you can use the following type of name:

Power_Platform_EBook.pdf  
HR_Policy_2024_Final.pdf  
Remote-Work-Guide.pdf  

Using underscores (_) or hyphens (-) Instead of spaces, keep the file names valid for Dataverse and avoid errors during flow execution.

You can choose the method that best suits your needs. If you’re building for end users who may not follow naming conventions, opt for Solution 1 (replace).

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