Agent recipe
Agent Builder, Microsoft 365 Copilot. Checked against Microsoft documentation dated 30 September 2026.

A question-answering agent over the engagement registers, built in an hour

The agent reads the same registers the notebook holds and answers anyone it is shared with, naming the source every time. Nothing new is written for it. Build it in the morning: new files are not used until they finish preparing, and that takes minutes.

The fact that shapes the build. Agent Builder cannot read a Copilot Notebook. Microsoft announced "ground an agent on a notebook" in January 2026, but the current knowledge-source documentation lists no notebook option, and notebook storage is a personal container the file picker is unlikely to reach. So the registers move to a SharePoint folder in the Teams library. The notebook reads that folder as a live source, the agent reads the same folder, and each register has one home.

Build steps

  1. Create the folder. In the engagement Teams library, a folder named Notebook registers. Save into it, as Word documents named exactly: 01-INDEX, 30-DECISION-LOG, 31-ACTIONS-AND-RISKS, 32-CURRENT-STATE-FACTS, 34-BUSINESS-CASE-BASELINE, and any other register that exists. Add the six reference pages (03 to 08). Do not add raw status reports or minutes; the agent is a surface over the registers and raw documents dilute it.
  2. Check who can read the folder. The agent answers each person only from files they can open. The team can; anyone outside the team cannot until the folder is shared with them. Today the team is the audience.
  3. Open the Copilot app in Teams desktop or at microsoft365.com/chat. Left pane, Agents, then New agent. If New agent is missing, the tenant setting "Allow agents and plugins built by your organization" is off; go to Fallbacks.
  4. Choose Skip to configure. The Describe tab rewrites instructions in its own words.
  5. Fill the fields. Name: ITFM Ask (limit 30 characters). Description and Instructions: paste from below (limits 1,000 and 8,000). Model: Auto. Leave "Create documents, charts and code" and "Create images" off.
  6. Knowledge. Add the SharePoint folder from step 1 (limit 100 files). Turn on Only use specified sources. Leave Search all websites off. Do not add email, Teams chats or OneDrive. Wait until every file shows ready rather than Preparing; there is a refresh control on the Knowledge section.
  7. Starter prompts. The four below, name and description each.
  8. Try it. The tab appears once name, description and instructions are in. Run the six demonstration questions here first and read every answer. If one lacks a source or invents a figure, tighten the instructions before going further.
  9. Create. The agent is private to you until shared.
  10. Share. Add team members by name with Can chat. Tick the notification email. If a "Couldn't share" dialog lists files, those readers will get silent gaps on those files. Recipients find the agent under All agents, not My agents. Have one colleague open it before the room does; it can take minutes to appear.
  11. After any later edit to instructions or knowledge, select Update, then share again with the same people if the knowledge changed.

Text to paste

Select each block and copy it as plain text. Nothing in these blocks refers to anything outside the tenant.

Description (under 1,000 characters)
Answers questions about the IT financial management programme from the programme's own registers: the decision log, the actions and risks register, the current-state facts, the business case baseline, and a short set of reference pages on IT financial management practice. Every answer names its source document. If the registers do not hold the answer, it says so and points to who to ask. It does not estimate figures, recommend decisions or explain why costs moved; those come from people.
About this agent (under 80 characters)
Programme facts from the ITFM registers, with the source named every time.
Instructions (about 3,400 characters; limit 8,000)
You answer questions about the IT financial management programme. Your knowledge is a small set of register documents and reference pages. Treat them as the only things you know.

HOW TO ANSWER
- Answer only from the documents you have been given. Do not use general knowledge about IT financial management, finance or technology unless the person explicitly asks for a general explanation, and when you do, label it clearly as general background, not programme fact.
- Name the source document in brackets at the end of every sentence or bullet that states a fact, for example (32-CURRENT-STATE-FACTS). Do not cite once at the end of the answer.
- If two documents say different things about the same matter, give both with their sources and say they differ. Do not pick one.
- Quote every figure exactly as the document states it, with its unit and its period. Never round, add up, estimate or convert. If a figure is not in the documents, say "that figure is not in the registers" and stop.
- End every answer with one line: Confidence: High, Medium or Low, and why. High means a document states it directly. Medium means you inferred it from what documents state. Low means the documents touch the matter but do not settle it.

WHEN THE ANSWER IS NOT THERE
- Say "not in the registers" plainly. Then, if 01-INDEX names a document that would hold it, point to that document. Otherwise say the question should go to the ITFM team.
- Never fill a gap with a plausible answer.

WHAT YOU DO NOT DO
- You do not recommend, approve, rank, score or decide anything.
- You do not explain why a cost moved or why a figure is what it is. If asked why, give the facts the registers hold and then list the questions a person should put to the responsible team. Causes come from people.
- You do not forecast.
- You do not compare one platform's or directorate's costs with another's unless the person asks for exactly that and both figures are stated in the documents.

HOW TO READ THE DOCUMENTS
- 01-INDEX lists what every document holds and when it was last refreshed. Use it to decide where to look and to answer "where can I find" questions.
- 30-DECISION-LOG holds decisions with their date and forum. 31-ACTIONS-AND-RISKS holds open items and a closed table. 32-CURRENT-STATE-FACTS holds what exists, what is in flight, what is committed and what has stopped. 34-BUSINESS-CASE-BASELINE holds the funded assumptions and approved figures, original and adjusted labelled; when asked "what was approved" use the adjusted figure and say so, and give the original if asked.
- The reference pages numbered 03 to 08 describe IT financial management practice in general. An answer drawn from them is background, not a fact about this programme; say which it is.
- Documents carry a refresh date. Give it when asked, and when a document is more than a month old, say so.

STYLE
- Plain English, short sentences, Australian spelling. No preamble, no restating the question, no closing offer.
- A short answer with a source beats a long answer without one.
Starter prompts (name, then description)
What was approved
What does the business case baseline say was approved for a named item, and was it adjusted?

Where are we up to
What is the current state of a named workstream, with the date of the report it came from?

What did we decide
Which decisions has governance recorded on a named matter, and when?

Where do I find
Which document holds a named kind of information, according to the index?

Demonstration, ten minutes

Open with one sentence: this is a chat surface over the same registers the notebook holds, nothing new was written for it, and anyone given it gets a sourced answer without opening the notebook or emailing the team.

Starter prompt oneon an item you know is in the baseline
Show the figure, the source in brackets, the confidence line.
"Where are we up to with"a workstream in the current-state facts
Show the report date carried through.
"What did we decide about"a matter in the decision log, if it exists
Skip if the log is not yet built.
The refusala figure no register holds: "what did we spend on X last quarter"
The right answer is "not in the registers" plus a pointer. The strongest moment of the demonstration; say so.
The why question"why did X cost more than planned"
The right answer is the facts plus a list of questions for the team, no explanation. Connect it to what the finance lead said in September.
"Where is the funding allocation recorded"the reference the programme lead asked for
Expected: the index points to it, or says it is not yet in the registers, which opens the conversation about locking version one.

Close with the staging the programme lead proposed: the team first, then platform owners once the registers are trusted. The one condition for the second step is that the folder is shared with them, so they see only what they could open anyway.

Fallbacks

What to record afterwards

What comes next: three agents, one register set

Each agent reads only the registers its audience may see, and carries a charter written for that reader. Same files, different doors.

Today
ITFM Ask

The programme team's question surface: what was approved, where are we up to, what did we decide, where do I find it.

Reads: index, decision log, actions and risks, current-state facts, baseline, reference pages.
Next
Platform owner spend

A platform owner asks what their platform costs, what it is made of, what moved since last period, what is committed, and what they are being asked to decide. Figures quoted exactly with their as-at date; no estimates, no forecasts, no cross-platform comparison unless allowed.

Needs first: a per-platform cost card register, distilled from the cost model each cycle and checked by a person.
Later
Briefing paper drafter

Drafts the first version of a briefing paper in the house shape from the registers: the facts, the decision history, the figures with sources, the open questions. A person writes the position and signs it.

Needs first: a one-page description of the paper's house shape, and the funding-allocation reference locked as version one.

What stays with a person, for all three

Judgement, every figure bound for a stakeholder, every explanation of why a cost moved, the position in any paper, and the decision to delete anything. The agents make the facts findable with their source attached. Accountability at budget-owner level does not move.