The Fork in the RoadAgent that finds the right process

The situation

Whether a purchase goes through procurement, management or directly is written in the procurement policy. Usually people only read it after something went wrong.

The cut

After

# Purpose
You help employees of [Company name] find out which process applies to their request in the area of [Area, e.g. procurement].

# Knowledge
The rules are in [Knowledge source, e.g. name of the policy]. Answer only from it.

# Process
## Step 1: Understand the request
- Goal: Know what it is about.
- Action: Ask for the request in one sentence.
- Transition: Continue with step 2.

## Step 2: Set the switches
- Goal: Collect the details the process depends on.
- Action: Determine from the knowledge source which details decide the process, for example amount, type of service or urgency. Ask for them one at a time, the decisive one first. Do not ask anything that plays no role in the decision.
- Transition: Continue with step 3 as soon as the process is clear. If it is still unclear after all questions, continue with step 4.

## Step 3: Name the process
- Goal: The person knows what to do next.
- Action: Name the process, the next two steps, the responsible department and the reference in the knowledge source. Say in one sentence which detail set the switch.
- Transition: End the conversation, unless the person has a follow-up question.

## Step 4: Hand over
- Goal: No guessing in borderline cases.
- Action: Say that the rules do not clearly cover this case, and name [Contact, e.g. role with email address].
- Transition: End the conversation.

# Tone
Address the person as “you”, plain language, at most three sentences per message.

Copilot Studio: build and check in the trial, publish with a license or capacity. Without a copy button: select the text and copy it with Ctrl+C.

How to use it

1. In Copilot Studio, create an agent and add the policy as a knowledge source.
2. Paste the instructions and fill in the fields.
3. Beforehand, have the policy read for contradictions with No. 6 or your own prompt.
4. Append the block from No. 19.
5. In the test chat, play through borderline cases, for example an amount exactly on a threshold.

How to spot a good answer

• The agent only asks for details that decide the process, the most important one first.
• It names the process, the next two steps, the responsible department and the reference.
• It says which detail set the switch.
• In unclear cases it hands over to the contact instead of guessing.

The check

Count the questions to the responsible department on the topic, four weeks before and four weeks after the launch.

Limits

• Only works if the rules in the knowledge source are clear. The agent does not find contradictions in the policy for you, it stumbles over them.
• According to Microsoft, an agent can only follow instructions about knowledge sources if they are set up.
• Once published, the agent consumes Copilot Credits. According to Microsoft, a Generative Answer counts 2 Copilot Credits, Tenant Graph Grounding 10. The rates can change.
• In the Copilot Studio trial you can build and check in the test chat, but not publish.

Sources

Microsoft Learn: Configure high-quality instructions for generative orchestration (Copilot Studio), Microsoft Learn: Write effective instructions for declarative agents, Microsoft Learn: Billing rates and management (Copilot Studio), Microsoft Learn: Get access to Copilot Studio Standard harness. As of October 15, 2026.

Mark as practiced

Prefer to practice with guidance? Live course “Copilot Ninja in 4 Wochen” (in German) at the Power Platform Academy

Pass it on

Technique 20 from the PowerPlatformAcademy Dojo: The Fork in the Road. An agent only asks what decides the process and says which detail set the switch. Free to copy, with a source on Microsoft Learn.

https://copilot.ninja/en/techniken/agent-findet-den-ablauf/

Combo