Difference between Copilot Studio Flow and O365

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Posted on by Sam70

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Hi,

Being new to Copilot Studio, my query is what is the difference between the Flow in Studio and Flow in O365. Can a flow available in O365 environment be called in the Studio.

I tried connecting Agent with Flow in O365 and after using the Save option, buffering starts which goes to infinite loop.

Kindly help.

Regards

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rezarizvii 331 on at

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Hi @Sam70, hope you are doing well.

Assuming by O365 flows you mean Power Automate flows, they are basically the same. You have a slightly different UX when creating Agent Flows, but it's more or less the same in my experience.

You can also add Automate flows to your agents as tools. To do that, you must navigate to the Tools tab in your agent details, click on " Add a new tool, and in the dialog that appears, go to Agent Flows, and you should see your Power Automate flows listed there. You can choose whichever you wish to add to the agent and then either click "Add" or "Add and configure." It doesn't really matter which option you choose, as you can always configure your tools later.

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Prasad-MSFT Microsoft Employee on at

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Difference Between “Flow” in Copilot Studio and “Flow” in O365 (Power Automate)
Flow in Copilot Studio:
These are Power Automate flows created or linked directly within the Copilot Studio interface, often scoped to the same environment as your agent. They’re used to extend agent capabilities (e.g., call APIs, update data, integrate with other services).

Flow in O365 (Power Automate):
These are general-purpose flows created in the Power Automate portal (flow.microsoft.com) and can be used for a wide range of automation tasks across Microsoft 365.

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Valantis 3,235 on at

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Hi @Sam70,

There are actually three types of flows here, not two.

Power Automate cloud flows (what you call O365 flows): created in flow.microsoft.com, billed via Power Automate licensing, used for general automation.
Agent flows: created inside Copilot Studio, billed in Copilot Credits per action executed, managed from the Flows section inside Copilot Studio. These are the native flow experience for agents.

Cloud flows added as tools: you can take an existing Power Automate cloud flow and add it to an agent as a tool, but it must have the "When an agent calls the flow" trigger and a "Respond to the agent" action to work. Regular cloud flows without these triggers cannot be directly called from an agent.

This is most likely why you are hitting the infinite buffering loop. If the Power Automate flow you are trying to connect does not have the "When an agent calls the flow" trigger, Copilot Studio cannot properly link it and the save hangs.

To fix this: open the flow in Power Automate, check that it uses the Copilot Studio trigger and response action. If not, you need to add those or create a new agent flow from inside Copilot Studio instead.

Ref: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot-studio/flows-overview

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Valantis

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Power Platform Guy 50 on at

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@Sam70,

☑️Accept as Solution to help others 💙 A Like is appreciated ❓Tag @PowerPlatform Guy for any queries

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11manish 1,254 on at

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Flows in Copilot Studio are special Power Automate flows designed for conversational use and must use the “When an agent calls the flow” trigger and return a response.

Regular O365 flows cannot be used directly unless modified to meet these requirements, which is why your flow is stuck in an infinite loading state.

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