Glossary¶
Key terms used throughout this book.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| A2A (Agent2Agent) | Open protocol for inter-agent communication. Copilot Studio supports connecting to A2A agents (preview). |
| Adaptive Card | A JSON-based UI card format for rendering interactive content (forms, buttons, images) in chat channels. Schema 1.5 for Teams, 1.6 for Web Chat. |
| Agent Instructions | The system prompt (Markdown text in GptComponentMetadata.instructions) that defines the agent's personality, capabilities, and behavioral rules. |
| Azure AI Search | Microsoft's enterprise search service supporting full-text, vector, and hybrid search. Used as an advanced knowledge source in Copilot Studio (GA since May 2025). |
| Child Agent | A specialist agent connected to and invoked by a main (orchestrator) agent. Routes based on name, description, and orchestrator instructions. |
| ConversationStart | A topic trigger (OnConversationStart) that fires when a new conversation begins. Does not fire in M365 Copilot. |
| Custom Connector | A Power Platform connector created from an OpenAPI specification. Reusable across agents, flows, and Power Apps. |
| Dataverse | Microsoft's enterprise data platform (part of Power Platform). Used for state persistence, configuration, and business data storage. |
| Direct Line | Bot Framework API for programmatic communication with a bot/agent. Used for custom Web Chat implementations and automated testing. |
| Environment Variable | A Power Platform configuration value (Env.Name) that can differ between environments (dev/test/prod). Used for URLs, API keys, and tenant-specific settings. |
| Fabric Data Agent | A Microsoft Fabric agent that translates natural language into SQL/DAX/KQL queries against warehouses, lakehouses, and semantic models. Consumable as a connected agent in Copilot Studio (preview). |
| Generative Orchestration | The AI-driven mode where the LLM automatically selects topics, tools, and agents based on user intent and available descriptions. Required for MCP tools. |
| Global Variable | A conversation-scoped variable (Global.Name) that persists across topic switches within one conversation. Resets between conversations. |
| Integrated Vectorization | An Azure AI Search feature that automatically chunks, embeds, and indexes content using a specified embedding model. Recommended for Copilot Studio connections. |
| KQL (Kusto Query Language) | Microsoft's query language for Azure Data Explorer, Application Insights, and Fabric KQL databases. |
| LogCustomTelemetryEvent | A Copilot Studio node that sends custom events to Application Insights for monitoring and analytics. |
| MCP (Model Context Protocol) | An open standard for connecting AI agents to external tools and data sources. Copilot Studio supports MCP servers (GA) with prebuilt connectors for Dataverse, Outlook, GitHub, etc. |
| OnError | A topic trigger that fires when an error occurs during conversation processing. Used for standardized error handling. |
| OnToolSelected | A topic trigger used for child agent/tool definitions. Fires when the orchestrator routes to this agent. |
| OData | A REST protocol for querying and manipulating data. Used in Dataverse and Azure AI Search APIs. |
| Power Fx | The expression language used in Copilot Studio for conditions, calculations, and variable manipulation. Similar to Excel formulas. |
| Prompt Tool | A Copilot Studio tool that executes an LLM prompt with defined inputs and outputs. Used for classification, summarization, and dynamic instruction generation. |
| RLS (Row-Level Security) | A data security mechanism that restricts which data rows a user can see, based on their identity. Applied in Dataverse and Power BI. |
| Semantic Ranker | An Azure AI Search feature that re-ranks initial search results using a deep learning model. Improves precision. Requires Standard tier. |
| SearchAndSummarizeContent | A Copilot Studio node that searches knowledge sources and generates a grounded answer using an LLM. The primary generative answers mechanism. |
| SendActivity | A Copilot Studio node that displays a message (text, card, or attachment) to the user. |
| Topic | A discrete conversation flow in Copilot Studio, triggered by user intent (trigger phrases), events, or system conditions. |
| Trigger Phrases | Natural language examples that train the agent's NLU model to recognize when a specific topic should activate. |
| VS Code Extension | The ms-CopilotStudio.vscode-copilotstudio extension for editing agent YAML files locally with IntelliSense, then syncing to Copilot Studio. |