Manage Agent

Push and pull Copilot Studio agent content by calling the VS Code extension’s LanguageServerHost binary directly, using the same custom LSP protocol the extension uses internally.

IMPORTANT: Do Not Modify Scripts

This is a new capability under active development. The manage-agent scripts (manage-agent.bundle.js, chat-with-agent.bundle.js) are pre-built bundles that must not be modified, patched, or monkey-patched. If a script fails:

1. Report the error as-is — show the user the full error output
2. Do not attempt to fix, patch, or work around script errors — the scripts interact with the LSP binary using a specific protocol and any modifications will break things
3. Direct the user to raise an issue at https://github.com/microsoft/skills-for-copilot-studio/issues with the error output
4. Suggest using the VS Code extension directly — the user can perform the same push/pull/clone operations from the Copilot Studio VS Code extension UI as a fallback

Prerequisites

1. Copilot Studio VS Code extension must be installed (ms-copilotstudio.vscode-copilotstudio).
2. Azure AD app registration (optional) — only needed for device code flow (auth command). If --client-id is omitted, the script uses VS Code’s first-party client ID with interactive browser login instead.
3. Environment details — tenant ID, environment ID, environment URL, and agent management URL. These come from the .mcs/conn.json inside a cloned agent workspace (created automatically during clone).

Phase 0: Resolve Configuration

Search for .mcs/conn.json in the workspace and nearby directories to find existing connection details. The script auto-reads environment details from conn.json. If no conn.json is found, ask the user for the required parameters.

Phase 1: Authenticate

There are two different auth flows depending on the operation:

For push / pull / clone / changes / list-agents (interactive browser login)

These commands use VS Code’s first-party client ID with the Island API gateway. Authentication is interactive — a browser window opens automatically for sign-in. No manual code entry is needed.

• On first use, a browser window opens for Microsoft sign-in
• Tokens are cached in the OS credential store and silently refreshed for ~90 days
• After ~90 days, the browser will open again for re-authentication

No separate auth step is needed before push/pull. The commands handle token acquisition automatically. Just run the command directly (Phase 2).

For the auth command (device code flow — chat/test token)

The auth command acquires a generic api.powerplatform.com token using device code flow. This token is used by the chat and test skills, not by push/pull.

Run with a 5-minute timeout:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js auth \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --client-id "<clientId>" \
  --environment-url "<environmentUrl>"

Timeout: 300000ms (5 minutes) — set this on the Bash tool call.

Token caching and silent refresh

Tokens and MSAL refresh tokens are persisted in the OS credential store (macOS Keychain, Windows DPAPI, Linux secret-tool). After initial authentication:

• Access tokens are valid for ~1 hour
• Refresh tokens are valid for ~90 days
• The script automatically refreshes expired access tokens silently using the cached refresh token
• Re-authentication is only needed on the very first use or after ~90 days

When device code flow starts (auth command only)

The script emits a JSON line to stdout:

{"status":"device_code","userCode":"XXXXXXXX","verificationUri":"https://login.microsoft.com/device","message":"...","expiresIn":900}

When you see this in the output, immediately tell the user:

Authentication Required

Please open {verificationUri} in your browser and enter code {userCode}

The command is waiting for you to complete sign-in. You have {expiresIn/60} minutes.

The command will automatically continue once the user completes authentication. Do NOT cancel the command — it is waiting for the browser sign-in to complete.

Two tokens are acquired sequentially (Copilot Studio API, then Dataverse API), so the user may need to authenticate twice on first use.

If the command completes with status: "ok"

Tokens are cached. Proceed to Phase 2.

If the command fails with device_code_expired

The user didn’t authenticate in time. Re-run the auth command and remind them to authenticate promptly.

Phase 2: Execute Command

All commands auto-detect the agent directory (finds the subfolder with .mcs/conn.json) and read connection details from it.

Pull (download remote changes)

--client-id is optional. When omitted, uses VS Code’s 1p client with interactive browser login.

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js pull \
  --workspace "<path-to-agent-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-id "<envId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  --agent-mgmt-url "<mgmtUrl>"

Push (upload local changes)

Important: Always pull before push to get fresh row versions. If you push without pulling first, you’ll get a ConcurrencyVersionMismatch error.

Push automatically validates all .mcs.yml files before pushing and blocks if there are errors. Add --force to bypass validation (not recommended).

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js push \
  --workspace "<path-to-agent-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-id "<envId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  --agent-mgmt-url "<mgmtUrl>"

Validate (check YAML before pushing)

Validates all .mcs.yml files in the workspace using the LSP binary’s full diagnostics (YAML structure, Power Fx, schema, cross-file references).

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js validate \
  --workspace "<path-to-agent-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-id "<envId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  --agent-mgmt-url "<mgmtUrl>"

Returns JSON: { "valid": true|false, "summary": { "errors": N, "warnings": N }, "files": [...] }

Clone (download agent to new local folder)

Requires either --agent-id (the bot GUID from list-agents) or --url (a Copilot Studio web URL). Uses Island API token automatically.

With explicit IDs:

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js clone \
  --workspace "<target-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-id "<envId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  --agent-mgmt-url "<mgmtUrl>" \
  --agent-id "<agentId>"

With a Copilot Studio URL (recommended shortcut):

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js clone \
  --workspace "<target-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --url "https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com/environments/<envId>/bots/<agentId>/overview"

When --url is provided, the script extracts environmentId and agentId from the URL and resolves environmentUrl and agentMgmtUrl automatically via the BAP API. The --url flag also works with push, pull, changes, and validate commands.

View Changes (diff local vs remote)

--client-id is optional. When omitted, uses VS Code’s 1p client with interactive browser login.

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js changes \
  --workspace "<path-to-agent-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-id "<envId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  --agent-mgmt-url "<mgmtUrl>"

Publish (make draft agent live)

Publishes the agent so that the current draft becomes the live version reachable by external clients (/chat-with-agent, /run-tests, Teams, etc.). Uses the Dataverse PvaPublish bound action directly (no LSP binary needed).

IMPORTANT — Publishing makes this version of the agent available to ALL users the agent is shared with. If you are working in a development environment this is fine, but if the agent is shared with production users, always confirm with the user before publishing. Ask: “This will publish the agent and make it live for all users it’s shared with. Should I proceed?”

The command polls the publishedon field on the bot entity until the timestamp changes, confirming that publish has taken effect. Default timeout is 5 minutes.

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js publish \
  --workspace "<path-to-agent-folder>" \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  [--timeout <ms>]

Timeout: 300000ms (5 minutes) — set this on the Bash tool call.

Optional: --agent-id "<agentId>" overrides the bot ID from conn.json.

Publish output (success)

{"status":"ok","botId":"...","publishedOn":"2026-03-27T12:00:00Z","previousPublishedOn":"2026-03-26T10:00:00Z","durationMs":45000,"durationSeconds":45}

When to publish

• After a successful push, if the user wants changes to be testable via /chat-with-agent or /run-tests
• In an improvement loop (edit → push → publish → test), publish is required between push and test
• The command confirms publish completion via API — do not use time-based waits

List Agents

Uses Dataverse REST API directly (no LSP binary needed). --client-id is optional.

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js list-agents \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>" \
  --environment-url "<envUrl>" \
  [--no-owner]

By default lists only agents owned by the current user. Add --no-owner to list all unmanaged agents.

List Environments

Uses BAP REST API directly (no LSP binary needed). --client-id is optional.

node ${CLAUDE_SKILL_DIR}/../../scripts/manage-agent.bundle.js list-envs \
  --tenant-id "<tenantId>"

Output Format

All commands output JSON to stdout with a status field:

Device code prompt (during auth)

{"status":"device_code","userCode":"XXXXXXXX","verificationUri":"https://login.microsoft.com/device","message":"...","expiresIn":900}

Success

{"status":"ok","method":"powerplatformls/syncPull","result":{...}}

Error

{"status":"error","error":"description of what went wrong"}

Error Handling