Copilot Studio and VS Code - Start using the Copilot Studio Extension

Getting started with Copilot Studio is fast and approachable. Whether you begin by using the Describe interface to chat with the Studio Agent or dive straight into Configure, you can spin up your first agent framework in just minutes. The user experience in Copilot Studio is designed to be intuitive, but sometimes you may want more visibility into the agent’s structure—or the flexibility to design faster with AI-powered assistance. That’s where Visual Studio Code, the Copilot Studio extension, and GitHub Copilot come together to supercharge your workflow. 

With Copilot Studio’s ease of use paired with the added flexibility of VS Code and GitHub Copilot, you don’t need to be a pro coder to take your agents further—these tools can help you refine, customize, and build with confidence. Let’s explore how you can get started step by step.

To begin, in Copilot Studio create a basic agent out of the box—simple and ungrounded, with no knowledge sources, topics, or defined scope yet. This clean starting point gives you the flexibility to shape the agent exactly how you need it.

Ready to see it in action? Start by adding the Copilot Studio Extension to VS Code.

You may be working in multiple tenants or environments, quick tip to define your default identity to ensure access to the desired Copilot Studio environment.

Next - lets connect to the tenant and clone the agent locally to VS Code. (this process is very similar to Github development)

The command palate in VS code presents environment selected based on the default account identity we defined earlier

Now we can select the Agent initially started in Copilot Studio

Pick a local folder to clone the agent configuration. Additional tip - be aware if selecting a cloud storage location, you may not want agent configuration details to by synced to OneDrive or other cloud storage.

Now from the explorer tab we can see the agent structure, settings, topics and knowledge sources ... and we have access to Github Copilot within VS Code's IDE.

When changes are made in the Copilot Studio interface - similar to Github, source control allows for synchronization of remote changes.

Now we see the remote addition of a knowledge source. I recommend adding one knowledge source as a reference, in order to provide Github Copilot a refence format for naming and file structure.

From Studio to Code: Unlocking More with GitHub Copilot

The real magic happens when you bring the Copilot Studio extension into VS Code and pair it with GitHub Copilot’s agentic support. Together, they make enhancing your agent simple and approachable. For example, here’s a straightforward prompt that adds three new knowledge sources with ease.

(Notice I added the file reference in the prompt using the #file.name format).

The result:

What would have taken 5-10 minutes in Copilot Studio, now complete within seconds using Github Copilot Agent mode (in my example using Claude Sonnet 4 from Anthropic)

From here we can review the knowledge source format and select "Keep" from the chat window.

Lastly we go back to source control, to push our knowledge source additions from VS Code back to Copilot Studio.

Back in Copilot Studio

The new knowledge sources are available and ready to test in the Test Pane.

Give it a try

Adding knowledge sources is just the beginning—and as you’ve seen, it’s quick and straightforward in Copilot Studio. Once you’re comfortable, you can build on this foundation to tackle more complex scenarios like managing topics, handling multi-turn conversations, enabling agent-to-agent interactions, and triggering actions.

I hope this walkthrough was helpful—especially if you’re already familiar with working in VS Code. Now it’s your turn to explore the possibilities and see how far you can take your agents.