The anatomy of a Studio agent
| Part | What it is | Review question |
|---|---|---|
| Knowledge | Grounding sources: SharePoint sites, files, connectors, websites | Scope creep — 'the whole intranet' is not a knowledge source, it's a liability |
| Topics/instructions | Behaviour: system prompts, conversation design | Does it claim authority it shouldn't ('HR-approved answers')? |
| Actions | Tools it can CALL: connectors, flows, APIs | The blast radius — every action is an egress+write review |
| Triggers | What starts it beyond chat (events, schedules) | The autonomy line (next concept) |
| Channels | Where it's published: M365 Copilot/Chat, Teams, web, custom | Audience: internal pilot vs the whole company vs THE INTERNET |
Under it all: an environment (dev/test/prod separation — the Power Platform discipline verbatim), Power Platform DLP governing which connectors may combine (already in the serv365 nightly scan — an ungoverned new environment is a drift alert you'll see), and since May 2026 an automatic Entra Agent ID per agent (governance concept).
The money mechanics
Studio runs on capacity (messages/credits): authoring licences for makers, consumption for usage — with the taxonomy concept's twist that custom engine agents reach unseated users through included Chat on credits. Budget consequence: a popular agent is a COST CENTRE with a growth curve; set the per-agent burn alerts before the success story does it for you.
The maker-governance loop (learned from Power Apps, applied to AI)
- Environments: makers create in dev; prod is promotion-only.
- DLP: connector combinations constrained BEFORE the first agent ships.
- Review at promotion: knowledge scope + action manifest + channel — the thirty-minute read (apps-module discipline, agent edition).
- Ownership: named owner + successor per prod agent (the flow-orphan lesson, third appearance in this curriculum — it keeps being the one that bites).
What to watch (proofs)
- Environment census: Studio agents per environment (admin center / Power Platform admin) — prod agents outside the promotion path are the finding.
- DLP truth: the Power Platform DLP policies in your scan — Studio obeys them; a Teams-connector + external-HTTP combination appearing is the exfil-path alert.
- Per-agent burn: consumption analytics by agent — the cost curve, plus the zero-usage agents to retire.
- Knowledge-scope drift: agent definition change events in audit — scopes that quietly widened are the precursor incident.