Understanding Copilot Studio Agent Flows
Introduction
Copilot Studio creates different types of flows based on whether they are created as a trigger (autonomous agent) or as part of action within Topics or elsewhere. These flows leverage Power Automate in the background. This post explores the distinctions between trigger flows and agent flows, their advantages, and how they integrate with Copilot Studio.
Types of Flows in Copilot Studio
Trigger Flows
Trigger flows created within Copilot Studio Agents are assigned the Power Automate plan. These flows run on the owner’s plan and help the agents to be autonomous responding to a trigger like when an email is received or SharePoint list item is created.
Agent Flows
Agent flows are created within a topic using Copilot Studio capacity. These flows are automatically assigned to the Copilot Studio plan and cannot be switched to use Power Automate plan.
Benefits using Agent Flows
Share load
Daniel Christian highlights the benefits of transferring standard flows to agent flows in his video. One key advantage is overcoming the limitations of Power Automate Premium, which caps at 40,000 runs per day. By transferring the load to agent flows, organizations can utilize agent packs with up to 25,000 spare messages.
Visible within Agents in Copilot Studio
Flows using the Copilot Studio plan consume Copilot Studio capacity for each action when executed. It made sense to make them consistent if the trigger flow will be used within the agent to make it part of the agent and will be shown within the agent flows.
Human in the loop : Advanced Approval
The advanced approval action “Human in the loop” is available only in agent flows.
Converting Flows to Copilot Studio
The option to convert flows to the Copilot Studio plan is only available for flows within a solution. Flows outside a solution will display a warning, and the option to use the Copilot Studio plan will be greyed out.
After converting a flow to Copilot Studio, it will be updated to use the Copilot Studio plan.
For flows not within a solution, the following warning is displayed:
Some options are not available because this flow is not in a solution. Add this flow to a solution to enable them. Learn more about Flow Licensing
Notes on Flow Designers
- Classic Editor: Agent flows can be edited using the classic editor within Power Automate.
- However, this option is not available when working within Copilot Studio.
- New Designer: The new designer can be turned off in Power Automate, but Copilot Studio does not offer an option to switch back to the classic designer.
References
For more details on flow licensing, visit Flow Licensing.