How to Configure Agent Instructions & Conversation Starters in Copilot Studio

When I started building an Employee HR Assistant in Microsoft Copilot Studio, I noticed something very quickly. Adding company documents as knowledge was not enough.

Employees asked simple questions like, “How many annual leave days do I get?”, “Can I work from home?”, and “How do I submit an expense claim?” The agent had the information, but I still needed to control how it answered those questions.

That is where Agent Instructions and Conversation Starters became important. In this guide, I will show you how I configure Agent Instructions in Microsoft Copilot Studio, add an HR policy PDF as knowledge, create useful conversation starters, test the agent, and publish it for users.

What Are Agent Instructions in Microsoft Copilot Studio?

I think of Agent Instructions as rules I give to my agent.

Knowledge gives the agent information, but instructions tell the agent how I want it to use that information.

For example, I may want my HR assistant to:

• Answer only HR-related questions.
• Use simple and professional language.
• Give short answers unless the user asks for details.
• Give numbered steps when explaining a process.
• Never make up company policies.
• Tell employees when information is unavailable.
• Ask a question when the employee’s request is unclear.
• Avoid sharing confidential employee information.

Without clear instructions, the agent may still answer questions, but I have less control over its behavior.

The easiest way I remember these concepts is:

• Knowledge = What my agent knows
• Instructions = How my agent behaves
• Conversation Starters = What I help users ask

If you are completely new to Copilot Studio, you can first learn how to create an agent using Microsoft Copilot Studio.

My Example: Employee HR Assistant

For this tutorial, I am using an Employee HR Assistant. I like this example because it is close to a real business requirement.

Imagine I am working with a company that has around 200 employees. The HR team gets the same questions every week.

Employees ask things like:

• How many annual leave days do I get?
• What is the sick leave policy?
• Can I work from home?
• What are the standard working hours?
• How do I submit an expense claim?
• What are the company holidays?
• How can I contact HR?

Instead of asking HR to answer these basic questions every time, I can create an HR assistant using Microsoft Copilot Studio.

The assistant will answer questions based on company HR information.

I can also use this Smart HR Assistant using Copilot Studio example if I want to explore a complete HR chatbot scenario later.

Create the Employee HR Assistant

First, I open Microsoft Copilot Studio and create a new agent.

For my example, I use:

Name: Employee HR Assistant

For the description, I enter:

An AI assistant that helps employees find information about company HR policies, leave, work from home, holidays, expenses, and common HR questions.

This description gives Copilot Studio a basic idea about what I want to build. However, I do not depend only on the description.

After creating the agent, I configure its Knowledge, Instructions, and Conversation Starters separately.

This gives me better control over the final experience.

Add an HR Policy PDF as Knowledge

The next thing I do is give my agent company-specific information.

For this example, I created an Employee HR Policy Handbook PDF.

My document contains information about:

• Annual leave
• Sick leave
• Casual leave
• Work-from-home policy
• Working hours
• Company holidays
• Expense reimbursement
• Employee benefits
• HR support

Inside my agent, I go to Knowledge and add the HR Policy Handbook.

After Copilot Studio processes the document, my agent can use that information when employees ask HR-related questions.

For example, if my PDF says:

Full-time employees receive 18 working days of annual leave per calendar year.

Then an employee can ask:

How many annual leave days do I get?

The agent can use the HR Policy Handbook to answer that question.

This is why I say:

Knowledge tells the agent what it knows.

PDF Knowledge vs SharePoint Knowledge

A PDF works very well for my demo because it is simple.

But in a real company, HR policies may already be stored in SharePoint.

In that case, I may use SharePoint instead of manually maintaining several PDF files.

For example, I can use a SharePoint list as knowledge in Copilot Studio when my information is stored in a structured list.

I usually choose the source based on where the business already maintains its information.

If HR already updates policies in SharePoint, I do not want them to maintain another copy only for the agent.

Why Knowledge Alone Is Not Enough

This is something I always explain when I show Copilot Studio to beginners.

Suppose I upload the HR Policy Handbook.

Now my agent knows about annual leave, working hours, expenses, and other HR policies.

But the document does not tell my agent:

• How long its answers should be.
• Whether answers should be formal or friendly.
• What to do when the answer is missing.
• Whether it should make assumptions.
• How it should answer process-related questions.
• What to do when someone asks a non-HR question.

That is why I configure Agent Instructions.

The HR document contains the business information.

My instructions define the behavior.

Keeping these two things separate also makes the solution easier for me to manage later.

If HR changes the annual leave policy, I update the knowledge source.

I do not need to rewrite the agent’s behavior rules.

How I Configure Agent Instructions in Copilot Studio

Now I open my agent’s Instructions section.

I may already see some instructions created when I first created the agent.

I review them carefully.

I do not recommend using an instruction like this:

You are an HR assistant. Answer HR questions.

It is too basic.

It tells the agent what its role is, but it does not tell the agent enough about how I want it to behave.

For my Employee HR Assistant, I use something like this:

You are the Employee HR Assistant.

Your primary responsibility is to help employees understand company HR policies and procedures.

Answer questions related to leave policies, work-from-home policies, company holidays, working hours, expense reimbursement, employee benefits, and general HR procedures.

Use the configured HR knowledge sources when answering company policy-related questions.

Do not invent company policies, leave allowances, reimbursement limits, dates, or HR rules.

If the requested information is not available in the configured knowledge sources, clearly tell the employee that you could not find the information and recommend contacting HR.

Use simple and professional language.

Keep answers concise unless the employee asks for more details.

When explaining a process, provide numbered step-by-step instructions.

If the employee's question is unclear, ask a clarifying question before providing an answer.

Do not provide legal, medical, or financial advice.

Never expose confidential information belonging to another employee.

If the employee asks something unrelated to HR, explain that you are an HR assistant and ask them to provide an HR-related question.

I like this format because every instruction has a clear purpose.

How I Structure My Agent Instructions

When I write instructions, I normally break them into a few simple areas.

1. Define the Agent’s Role

First, I tell the agent what it is.

For example:

You are the Employee HR Assistant for Contoso.

This gives the agent a clear identity.

2. Define What the Agent Should Answer

Next, I define its scope.

For example:

Answer questions related to leave, work from home, working hours, company holidays, expenses, benefits, and HR procedures.

I do this because I do not want my HR assistant answering every possible question.

If somebody asks:

Write JavaScript code for me.

that request has nothing to do with my HR agent.

3. Tell the Agent Which Information to Trust

I also tell it:

Use the configured HR knowledge sources when answering company policy-related questions.

This is especially important for company-specific information.

For example, I do not want the agent using a general answer about how many annual leave days employees normally receive.

I want it to use my company’s policy.

4. Tell the Agent Not to Guess

This is one of the most important instructions I use.

I tell the agent:

Do not invent company policies, leave allowances, reimbursement limits, dates, or HR rules.

If my HR document does not contain a maternity leave policy, I would rather see:

I could not find this information in the available HR resources. Please contact HR.

That is much better than showing an employee a made-up company rule.

5. Define the Response Style

I also tell the agent how I want its answers to look.

For example:

Use simple and professional language.

and:

Keep answers short unless the employee asks for more details.

I have found this useful because employees normally want quick answers.

They usually do not want five long paragraphs for a simple question like:

What are our working hours?

6. Tell the Agent How to Explain Processes

For process-related questions, I use:

When explaining a process, provide numbered step-by-step instructions.

This works well for questions such as:

How do I apply for annual leave?

or:

How do I submit an expense reimbursement claim?

Instead of one large paragraph, I want the answer to look more like:

1. Open the employee portal.
2. Select the leave request option.
3. Choose the leave type.
4. Enter the start and end dates.
5. Submit the request.

That is much easier for the employee to follow.

Pro Tip: I’ve found that simple instructions usually work better than a large block of complicated rules. I tell the agent exactly what I expect and keep company policy details inside the knowledge source.

Test Agent Instructions in Copilot Studio

After configuring the instructions, I always test them.

I do not publish the agent immediately.

I start with a normal HR question.

Test 1: Ask a Policy Question

I ask:

How many annual leave days do I get?

My agent should find the answer from the HR Policy Handbook.

For my example, the answer may say that eligible employees receive 18 annual leave days.

This test tells me whether the agent is using my knowledge correctly.

Test 2: Ask for a Process

Next, I ask:

How do I apply for leave?

This test is important because I specifically told my agent to provide numbered steps for process questions.

I check whether the answer is easy to follow.

If the answer is still too long, I can improve my instructions.

For example:

Keep process instructions concise and provide only the steps required to complete the process.

Test 3: Ask About Missing Information

I also test something that does not exist in my HR Policy Handbook.

For example:

What is our paternity leave allowance?

If that information is not available, I want the agent to tell me it could not find the policy.

I do not want it to guess.

Test 4: Ask an Unrelated Question

I ask:

Can you write Python code for a calculator?

My HR assistant should tell me that it focuses on HR-related questions.

This tells me whether my scope instruction is working.

Test 5: Ask an Unclear Question

Finally, I ask:

Tell me about leave.

This question is very broad.

The agent may ask whether I want information about annual leave, sick leave, casual leave, or the leave application process.

That is exactly why I added this instruction:

If the employee’s question is unclear, ask a clarifying question.

Configure Conversation Starters in Copilot Studio

Now my agent knows how I want it to behave. But I still need to think about the employee using the agent.

Suppose an employee opens Employee HR Assistant for the first time. They may not know what questions the agent can answer.

This is where Conversation Starters, also called Suggested Prompts, become useful.

I use them to show users examples of useful questions.

For my HR assistant, I can configure prompts like these:

Title	Prompt
Leave Policy	Explain the company’s leave policy and leave types.
Apply for Leave	Give me step-by-step instructions for applying for leave.
Work From Home	Explain the company’s work-from-home policy.
Expense Claim	How can I submit an expense reimbursement claim?
Company Holidays	Explain the company holiday policy.
Contact HR	How can I contact HR if you cannot answer my question?

I prefer specific prompts like these.

I avoid conversation starters such as:

Help me

or:

Ask HR

Those prompts do not show the employee what the agent can actually do.

If I want to improve the opening experience further, I can also customize the welcome message in Copilot Studio.

Agent Instructions vs Conversation Starters

This is one area where beginners sometimes get confused.

The easiest way I explain it is:

• Instructions are for my agent.
• Conversation Starters are for my users.

For example, this is an instruction:

When explaining a process, use numbered steps.

The employee does not need to know about that rule.

But this is a conversation starter:

How do I apply for leave?

The employee can select that prompt and immediately start a useful conversation.

So I use Instructions to control behavior and Conversation Starters to improve the user experience.

What Happens When Information Changes?

HR information changes over time.

For example:

• Annual leave entitlement may change.
• Work-from-home rules may change.
• Reimbursement limits may change.
• Company holidays change every year.

I do not want to put this changing information directly inside my Agent Instructions.

Instead, I update the HR knowledge source.

For example, if annual leave changes from 18 days to 20 days, I update the source where HR manages that policy.

My behavior instruction can remain:

Use the configured HR knowledge source when answering company policy questions.

This separation makes the agent much easier for me to maintain.

Authentication and Employee Information

For the example in this article, I mainly use company policy information.

That is very different from employee-specific information.

For example:

What is the company’s annual leave policy?

is a general company question.

But:

How many leave days do I personally have remaining?

is a personal question.

If I want my agent to work with employee-specific information, I need to think carefully about authentication and security.

The agent must know who the employee is before showing personal data.

I should never allow Employee A to ask for Employee B’s confidential HR information.

If I need more control over user identity, I can review how to set up manual authentication in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

For my HR assistant, I also include this instruction:

Never expose confidential information belonging to another employee.

The instruction helps define expected behavior, but I still need proper security on the data source itself.

Publish the Employee HR Assistant

Once I am happy with my testing, I publish the agent.

Before publishing, I check:

• Does the agent use the HR knowledge correctly?
• Are responses short and clear?
• Does it avoid inventing company policies?
• Does it handle missing information properly?
• Does it stay within the HR scope?
• Are the conversation starters useful?
• Does it avoid exposing confidential information?

Once those tests pass, I publish the latest version.

I can then make the agent available through the channel my employees will use.

A channel is simply where users interact with my agent.

For example, I may want employees to use it inside the Microsoft 365 experience or another supported channel.

If I am building an agent for a public website instead, I can also follow this guide to publish a Copilot Studio agent to a live website.

For an internal HR assistant, I normally try to place the agent where employees already work. This makes adoption easier because users do not need to learn another system.

Some Useful Tips

• Keep instructions simple. I avoid writing one huge instruction full of complicated rules. Clear instructions are easier to test and maintain.
• Do not copy every policy into Instructions. I keep policy information in the knowledge source and use instructions only for behavior.
• Tell the agent not to guess. I always define what should happen when company-specific information is unavailable.
• Protect employee information. I never depend only on a prompt instruction for security. I also secure the actual data source.
• Test different question types. I test normal questions, unclear questions, missing information, unrelated questions, and sensitive requests.
• Review instructions when policies change. Usually I update the knowledge source, but I still review the overall agent behavior after major business changes.

Frequently Asked Questions

I configured my Employee HR Assistant by combining company knowledge, clear Agent Instructions, and useful Conversation Starters. I have found that keeping knowledge and behavior separate makes the agent much easier to control, test, and maintain.

I hope you found this article helpful.

You may also like

• Create autonomous agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio
• Microsoft 365 Copilot vs Copilot Studio
• Create a custom agent in Microsoft 365 Copilot
• Copilot Studio demo website authentication error
• SharePoint Online overview