What it does

Covers moving agents across the maker surfaces — starting one in Agent Builder and continuing in full Copilot Studio, or taking a Copilot Studio agent and publishing it into Microsoft 365 Copilot. The shared declarative-agent runtime is what makes this possible.

Key facts

• Agent Builder and Copilot Studio produce the same declarative-agent artefact, so a simple agent can graduate to Copilot Studio for more control.
• Copilot Studio agents can be published to Microsoft 365 Copilot as a channel.
• Copilot Studio uses Power Platform solutions for export/import between environments (dev to test to prod).
• Custom engine agents don't "copy" the same way — they carry their own model and code.
• Some settings, connections, and knowledge sources don't travel cleanly and need reconnecting after a move.

When to use / skip

Move up to Copilot Studio when a no-code agent hits its limits. Use solution export/import for proper ALM across environments. Don't treat portability as one-click parity — it's a migration, not a copy.

Configuration decisions

• Where the agent should live long-term (Agent Builder vs Copilot Studio) before you invest in it.
• Solution vs manual recreation for cross-environment moves.
• Which connections and knowledge sources need re-authing at the destination.

Gotchas

• Connections, environment variables, and secrets frequently break on import — expect to reconnect them.
• Graduating from Agent Builder can be one-way in practice; you won't cleanly drop back to the simple builder.
• "Published to M365 Copilot" still needs the usual admin approval to reach users.

Consultant notes

• Decide the target surface early — reworking an agent because it outgrew Agent Builder is avoidable rework.
• Use Power Platform solutions and proper ALM from the start if the agent matters; ad-hoc copying doesn't scale.
• Publishing/approval friction reappears at every environment boundary, so map the promotion path with the admins up front.

---

*Review if Microsoft ships a first-class agent export/portability f