Agent Not Responding in User to User Chat or Group Chat.

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Posted on by MB-17020650-0

I have create a Copilot Agent with Sharepoint as its Knowledge Base. The intention is for this agent to be called upon within one to one user chats and group chats as well as channels to answer questions when posted.
When i ask a question in a chat it has been added to i get this error "couldn’t find a specific article in the knowledge base ..........."

However when i ask the same question directly it and if the other user does the same it works and surfaces the correct information

Is their a config or permission i need to configure?

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Building Copilot Studio chatbots in Microsoft Teams

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Prasad-MSFT Microsoft Employee on at

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This issue is usually caused by permissions on the SharePoint knowledge base or how the Copilot Agent is added to chats and channels.

Possible Causes & Solutions:
SharePoint Permissions

The agent can only access SharePoint content that the signed-in user (or the agent’s service account) has permission to view.
In group chats or channels, if some users (or the agent itself) do not have access to the SharePoint site or documents, the agent cannot retrieve the information.
Solution:
Ensure all users (and the agent, if it uses a service account) have at least read access to the SharePoint knowledge base.
Agent Permissions in Teams

The agent must be properly installed and have permission to access messages and respond in group chats and channels.
Solution:
Make sure the agent is added as an app to the group chat or channel, not just as a 1:1 chat participant.
Authentication Mode

If the agent is configured to use user authentication, it will only access SharePoint content the current user can see.
If using a shared/service account, ensure that account has access to all needed SharePoint content.
Knowledge Source Scope

Double-check that the knowledge base is set up to include all relevant folders and files, and that indexing is complete.

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MB-17020650-0 4 on at

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So the sharepoint site is a public site and the users tested with have access to the site directly.
The Authentication of the Agent is using Authenticate with Microsoft.

Teams settings are set below

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Beyond The Platforms 53 on at

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Hi,

This is a known limitation when deploying Copilot Studio agents in group chats or channels - the issue is typically related to how the agent authenticates and accesses SharePoint on behalf of the user.

Here are the most common causes and things to check:

1. Authentication configuration
In group chats/channels, the agent may not be able to perform the SharePoint search in the context of the individual user. Make sure you've configured authentication properly in Copilot Studio. If you're using "Authenticate with Microsoft" (SSO), verify that the token is being passed correctly when the bot is invoked from a group context.

2. SharePoint Search permissions
The account or service principal the agent uses to query SharePoint must have at least read access to the SharePoint site. In 1:1 chats it may be resolving the user's own permissions, while in group/channel contexts it might fall back to the bot's identity — which may not have access.

3. Generative answers / knowledge base fallback
If you're using the "Generative Answers" node with SharePoint as the source, try checking whether the content moderation settings or the "classic data" search scope is limiting results in non-personal contexts.

4. Teams app permissions
In the Azure App Registration tied to your Copilot, double-check that the following API permissions are granted (and admin-consented): Sites.Read.All or Sites.ReadWrite.All under Microsoft Graph.

As a quick test, try switching the agent authentication to "No authentication" temporarily (if the SharePoint content is not sensitive) to isolate whether the issue is permission/auth related.

Hope this helps!

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MB-17020650-0 4 on at

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@Beyond The Platforms - for point 4 would this be delegated or application permissions for the graph api?
We now the same errror but it is pulling some information back. any logs i can look at to see where its pulling information so i can compare permissions?

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