Part I — Foundations: State & Context¶
Every agent in this book builds on one assumption: the agent knows something about the user and the conversation. This Part establishes the patterns for making that happen.
What You'll Learn¶
| Gem | Pattern | Key Question |
|---|---|---|
| GEM-001 | Persisting User Context Across Sessions | How does the agent remember who you are after the conversation ends? |
| GEM-011 | Conversation Memory Within a Session | How does the agent remember what was said 5 turns ago? |
| GEM-017 | Multi-Tenant Agent Configuration | How does one agent serve multiple clients with different settings? |
Why Start Here¶
State management is the most referenced pattern in the entire collection. Out of 26 Gems:
- GEM-002 (persona) needs persisted user context from GEM-001
- GEM-004 (debug mode) can persist debug preferences via GEM-001
- GEM-005 (language) persists language choice via GEM-001
- GEM-007 (roles) caches detected roles via GEM-001
- GEM-017 (multi-tenant) extends GEM-001's persistence to configuration
If you skip Part I, you'll see "link to Gem 001" in almost every other Gem.
The Core Challenge¶
Copilot Studio conversations are stateless by default. Global variables reset between conversations. Conversation history vanishes when the session ends. The platform has no built-in persistence mechanism.
Everything in this Part addresses: How do you give the agent memory?