Power Platform Community Forum Thread Details

Copilot Chat error when invoking skill (works in other channels)

Hello!

I created a Copilot agent via Copilot Agent Studio and added a skill that points to a simple echo bot. The skill is hosted as a Google Cloud Function. The skill behaves as expected in two contexts:

Copilot Studio test environment – Works
Microsoft Teams (as a bot/skill) – Works

However, the same agent/skill does not work in Copilot Chat. From my server logs, I can see that Copilot Chat requests reach the skill and are processed successfully (no exceptions). The screenshots also show correct behavior in Studio Test and Teams, but Copilot Chat surfaces an error to the user: "Sorry, I wasn't able to respond to that. Is there something else I can help with?"
This suggests a discrepancy in how Copilot Chat handles (or expects) skill responses vs. Copilot Studio Test/Teams—even when the skill completes successfully.

Documentation & sample used.
I followed Microsoft’s documentation step-by-step and used the official sample. It’s surprising that the documented flow and sample work in Studio Test and Teams but not in Copilot Chat.

• Official guide I followed:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/bot-service/skill-implement-skill?view=azure-bot-service-4.0&tabs=javascript
• Official sample I adapted and deployed as a Google Cloud Function:
https://github.com/microsoft/BotBuilder-Samples/blob/main/samples/javascript_nodejs/80.skills-simple-bot-to-bot

Environment

Agent: Created in Copilot Agent Studio; skill added to this agent.
Skill hosting: Google Cloud Functions (Node.js).
Skill code artifacts (attached as copilot-skill-google-function.zip): index.js, bot.js, package.json, manifest.js

Evidence (log insert IDs and context)
The following entries are from copilot-skill-logs.json. They correspond to the attached screenshots and the same deployed skill in copilot-skill-google-function.zip.

68f7a8cb0006a75fc8851245 – first call from Teams web app
68f7a8d2000c3c1f97b80246 – second call from Teams web app
68f7a8f90009424329c06820 – first call from Copilot Studio Test
68f7a8ff000c9a3f850cfc10 – second call from Copilot Studio Test
68f7a91c000b46758396c07f – call from Copilot Chat (processed successfully by skill, but Copilot Chat shows an error)

All Copilot Chat requests appear to hit the skill and complete without server-side errors.

Request

Could you please help identify why Copilot Chat shows an error even though the skill executes successfully and works in other channels?
If Copilot Chat requires channel-specific response formats, headers, or manifest settings not covered in the documentation, kindly provide the exact requirements.
If there are known differences or limitations when invoking skills from Copilot Chat (compared to Copilot Studio Test or Teams), please direct me to the correct guidance

Categories:

Extensibility

HI @DR-21101617-0

Hmm based on what I am looking at, the only logical (yet may not seem probable) is that your not returned a structured JSON, or properly formated JSON which would be required to make it work for sure.

Make sure what version of any SDK is up to date, as well as validate the output you are getting now, just to make sure if you plop that into a JSON verifier it verifies it ok.

Other channels may not show you an issue, but this specific one is very "specific" in how it receives responses and if its not absolutely correct, it will do what it does to you now.

If these suggestions help resolve your issue, Please consider Marking the answer as such and also maybe a like.

Thank you!
Sincerely, Michael Gernaey

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