Copilot Studio: What to Do Next

Key insights

• Publish: Publish the agent to target channels (web, Teams, apps) once core functionality is stable.
  Run basic live tests after publishing and schedule regular checks to ensure availability and correct routing.
• Documentation: Use a clear template that explains purpose, audience (IT admins and non‑technical users), and change history.
  Keep steps, owners, and rollback instructions concise so anyone can pick up maintenance quickly.
• Variables: List each variable with name, data type, default value, and where the agent uses it.
  Note sensitive fields, validation rules, and who can change them to avoid accidental disruptions.
• Connectors: Inventory all connectors and their authentication method, scopes, and rate limits.
  Record linked Power Automate flows or APIs and document common failure modes and reconnection steps.
• Knowledge sources: Catalog documents, sites, and data endpoints with update frequency, owner, and indexing date.
  Include how to refresh or remove a source and how to validate answers against the current content.
• Troubleshooting: Define monitoring metrics, logging locations, and test scenarios to reproduce issues quickly.
  Provide an escalation path, common fixes, and a regular review cycle for performance and accuracy improvements.

Introduction

In a recent YouTube video titled What You Need To Do AFTER Building An Agent In Copilot Studio, Griffin Lickfeldt of the Citizen Developer channel outlines practical steps for documenting and maintaining AI agents built with Copilot Studio. The video aims to bridge the gap between technical teams and non-technical stakeholders by showing how clear documentation makes ongoing agent management easier.

Moreover, the presenter offers a downloadable documentation template and walks viewers through variables, connectors, topics, knowledge sources, and troubleshooting processes. Consequently, the piece serves as a how-to resource for IT administrators and business users preparing for handoff and long-term maintenance.

What the Video Covers

First, the video presents a step-by-step walkthrough of a documentation template meant to capture an agent’s key configuration and dependencies. Griffin highlights how documenting variables, connectors, and topics in a central, accessible file can prevent confusion when ownership changes or when agents require updates.

Next, the episode explains testing and publishing tasks that follow agent creation, including how to stage agents across channels and how to verify behavior after changes. In addition, the video references broader capabilities of Copilot Studio, such as multi-channel deployment and integration with automation tools, which inform how documentation should be structured.

Best Practices and Tradeoffs

The video recommends clear, concise documentation that differentiates what non-technical users need from what IT teams require. For example, simpler, descriptive sections help business users understand agent purpose and expected behavior, while technical appendices record connector credentials, API endpoints, and schema details for administrators.

However, tradeoffs exist between depth and usability. While detailed technical notes improve troubleshooting speed, they can overwhelm non-technical readers; conversely, overly simplified guides risk omitting critical implementation details. Therefore, Griffin suggests a layered approach: a high-level overview for business users with links to technical sections for IT teams.

Testing, Publishing, and Monitoring Challenges

Griffin stresses continuous testing after publishing, and he explains that agents often behave differently in live environments compared with test conditions. Consequently, issues such as connector timeouts, authentication changes, or variations in knowledge sources may surface only after deployment and require clear diagnostic notes in documentation.

Moreover, monitoring and telemetry present their own challenges because collecting useful metrics can increase cost and complexity. While richer telemetry improves error diagnosis and user experience insights, it also demands storage and analysis resources, so teams must balance desired visibility against operational expense.

Balancing IT and Non-Technical Needs

The video emphasizes making documentation accessible while retaining enough specificity to enable IT-driven fixes, and it even suggests templates to enforce consistency across agents. In practice, this balance reduces friction during handoffs because non-technical owners can follow clear steps for common tasks, while admins have the detail they need for advanced troubleshooting.

Additionally, Griffin points out that role-based views and checklists help manage this balance by directing different audiences to relevant sections. In this way, organizations can achieve both clarity for business users and completeness for administrators without duplicating effort.

Recommendations and Conclusion

As a practical takeaway, the presenter recommends adopting a standard documentation template, maintaining a changelog, and scheduling periodic reviews of agent behavior and knowledge sources. By doing so, teams can respond quickly to drift in data, connector updates, or business process changes that affect agent performance.

Finally, the video presents a realistic view of managing AI agents in Copilot Studio: the platform provides powerful no-code tools and advanced model options like GPT-5, yet long-term success depends on well-structured documentation and sound operational practices. Therefore, teams should invest time in clear handoffs, ongoing testing, and measured monitoring to keep agents reliable and useful.

Keywords

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