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How can i leverage the System.Activity.Attachments Variable

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Posted on by FJ-12021647-0

Hi !

We are testing the in chat attachment feature and i have a hard time dealing with the System.Activity. Attachments variable. I tried to use it many different way and i get consistent errors. I sent i to a "create prompt" action inside a topic, tried to use the one drive connector and also HTTP request to powerautomate but i never was able to get it properly working.

Could you tell me how this variable was intended to use and also if there is a better way to leverage the in chat attachment feature to be able to answer users based on the attachments provided by them in real time.

Thank you !

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FJ-12021647-0 6 on at

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How can i leverage the System.Activity.Attachments Variable

Thank you guys !
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CU26051310-2 28 on at

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How can i leverage the System.Activity.Attachments Variable

Now there are more easy way :)

Attachments is a table. Everything is about knowing how to write formula for a table. if not you could use "first()" function to get the first attachment (often there is only one)

in preview we have the "loop" componnent to make "loop" on all the attachment : the real way to work with a table of attachment :)

a preview feature about "reading image" is possible to be activated in you r agent now :)

if you cannot wait for all the preview you have to the hard way and use AI like Azure Vision or AI Builder.

BUT : just look closer at the home page of you agent creation :) you have the "document processing agent" in coming soon preview; ) what is the idea behind that ?
Soon you will have the "multi agent" option : so you will use multi agent with a prompt to catch the attachment, analyse it and send back info to you without code :)

sorry to not give an easy immediat answer, just a wait :)

if it help, please check the answer is the good one, it's important :)
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Inogic 1,023 Super User 2025 Season 1 on at

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How can i leverage the System.Activity.Attachments Variable

Hi,

System.Activity.Attachments is a read-only variable in PVA that stores the attachments a user sends during a conversation. This variable holds an array of objects, where each object contains metadata about an attachment (like the content URL, content type, name, etc.). However, you cannot directly access the file content in PVA itself — you typically need to send it to Power Automate or some other service to process it.

What Doesn't Work

Sending System.Activity.Attachments directly to Power Automate
Doesn't work well because it's an array and the values inside may not serialize cleanly.

Using it in a "Create Prompt" node
Not effective, because prompts expect simple types (text, number, etc.), not file metadata.

Trying to process the attachment directly in PVA
Not possible — PVA cannot fetch or parse the actual file; it only captures the metadata.

Recommended Approach
1. Send System.Activity.Attachments to Power Automate

Trigger: Use the "Call an action" step in PVA and connect to a Power Automate flow.

Input: Pass the attachment object(s) as JSON text.

2. Power Automate - Flow Design
In the Power Automate flow:

Trigger: PVA → "When a Power Virtual Agents flow is called"

Parse JSON: Add a Parse JSON step to parse the attachments input.

Use HTTP Action (if needed): If you want to read the file, you’ll likely need to:

Add HTTP with Azure AD to fetch the file (if authenticated)

Or directly call the contentUrl (if anonymous/short-lived token is okay)

Store or Process File:

Use OneDrive/SharePoint/Blob to store it

Or use AI Builder / Cognitive Services to extract data

Respond back to PVA with results (like extracted data, confirmation, etc.)

Hope this helps.

Thanks!

Inogic