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Export-Import agents, sub-agents and skills

Introduction

Copilot Studio allows you to export and import custom agents, sub-agents, and skills across different tenants and environments. This feature enables teams to move configurations between development, staging, and production environments without manual re-creation.

Important: Only custom agents, sub-agents and skills can be exported and imported. Pre-built agents, sub-agents and skills provided by the platform are not eligible for export.

What Gets Exported?

When you trigger an export, the following information is captured and stored in a JSON file on your local storage:

Custom Agents Custom Skills Custom Sub-Agents
Name Name Name
Instructions Description Description
Description Confirmation configuration Confirmation configuration
Enabled state Endpoint of the skill Used agent as sub-agent
Timeout settings Parameter configuration Timeout settings
Assigned skills and sub-agents Timeout settings Additional meta data
Clients and Predefined questions Additional meta data
Model Settings

Important: The export will not contain pre-built agents, sub-agents or skills. At no time will we export environment-specific configurations or credentials/secrets.

Use Cases

Understanding the why behind using export/import is crucial for applying this feature correctly. There are three main situations where it proves most useful:

Developer Tenant → Production Tenant

The most common use case. Developers build and test agents and skills in a developer or staging tenant and then promote them to a production tenant once validated.

[Developer Tenant]  ──export──▶  agents_skills.json  ──import──▶  [Production Tenant]

Typical workflow:

  1. Build and test your agents/skills in the developer tenant.
  2. Export all relevant agents and skills to a JSON file.
  3. Adapt the JSON file to your needs, like matching the skill endpoints to the production environment.
  4. You can also import the file and use the wizard to adapt the properties of agents/sub-agents or skills later.
  5. Import the (adapted) JSON file onto the production tenant.

Importing from External Sources (e.g., GitHub Samples)

Copilot Studio supports importing agents and skills from external sample repositories, such as GitHub. This allows teams to:

  • Quickly onboard community-provided templates.
  • Reuse standardized agent configurations across projects.
  • Accelerate development by starting from a working baseline.

Typical workflow:

  1. Download the sample JSON file from GitHub (or another source).
  2. Adapt the JSON file to your needs, like matching the skill endpoints to your environment/tenant.
  3. You can also import the file and use the wizard to adapt the properties of agents/sub-agents or skills later.
  4. Import the (adapted) JSON file and resolve any occurring conflicts.

Migration: Tenant with Insights Hub IAM → Tenant with Xcelerator IAM

For teams migrating from an Tenant with Insights Hub IAM to a new Tenant with Xcelerator IAM, the export/import feature provides a structured migration path.

Note: Endpoints are not migrated automatically. You must reconfigure skill endpoints after import (see Post-Import Configuration).

Typical workflow:

  1. In your IH tenant, export all custom agents.
  2. Adapt the JSON file to your needs, like matching the skill endpoints to your environment/tenant.
  3. You can also import the file and use the wizard to adapt the properties of agents/sub-agents or skills later.
  4. Import the (adapted) JSON file and resolve any occurring conflicts.

Exporting Agents and Skills

Export functionality is available on each management page (Manage Agents, Manage Sub-Agents, Manage Skills) and on each individual item. You can export a single agent, sub-agent, or skill from its detail panel.

💡 Tip: Use the "Export all custom agents" button on the Manage Agents page for a complete export. This will include all custom agents and their referenced custom sub-agents and skills in a single file — ensuring nothing is missed during migration or environment promotion.

Export options

Option Where What is exported
Export a single item Detail panel of any agent, sub-agent, or skill The selected item only
Export all custom agents Manage Agents page All custom agents including referenced sub-agents and skills
Export all custom sub-agents Manage Sub-Agents page All custom sub-agents
Export all custom skills Manage Skills page All custom skills (without endpoint URLs)

Pre-built agents and skills are not included in any export.

Remember: Endpoint URLs are environment-specific and will not be included in the export. You must reconfigure them after import (see Adapting Skill Endpoints).

Importing Agents and Skills

You can import a previously exported JSON file into any Copilot Studio tenant. The import process analyzes the file and provides a detailed result overview before finalizing the import.

Navigation: Copilot Studio → Manage Agents / Manage Sub-Agents / Manage Skills → Import

General Import Steps

  1. Navigate to the relevant management page.

  2. Click the Import button. Import: Import button on management page

  3. Select the JSON file from your local storage. Import: File selection dialog

  4. Review the Import Result dialog. Import: review the import

  5. Confirm the import.

Import Result Overview

After selecting the file, Copilot Studio displays an Import Result screen that categorizes each item in the JSON file into one of the following states:

Status Icon Description
Will be imported Check Item is new and will be created successfully.
Already exists — will be skipped Yellow warning Item already exists in the target tenant and will be skipped. The import can still proceed.
Error Red error Item has issues that must be resolved before the import can succeed.

Import: Example of failing import

Conflict & Error Handling

Conflicts or errors may occur when:

  • The JSON file is malformed or from an incompatible version.
  • A referenced model or dependency is not available in the target tenant.
  • Required parameters are missing or invalid.

Recommended actions:

  • Review the error details shown in the Import Result dialog.
  • Correct the JSON file if necessary, or resolve the dependency in the target tenant first.
  • Re-attempt the import after resolving the issues.

Skipped Items

Items that already exist in the target tenant will be automatically skipped and not overwritten. This prevents accidental data loss.

Tip: If you intentionally want to overwrite an existing agent or skill, manually delete it in the target tenant before importing.

Post-Import Configuration

Adapting Skill Endpoints

This step is mandatory after every skill import.

Because endpoints are environment-specific, they need to be updated after the import. You need to manually configure the correct endpoint for each skill in the target environment.

Steps to adapt skill endpoints:

  1. Navigate to Manage Skills in the target tenant.
  2. Open each imported skill.
  3. Locate the Endpoint configuration field.
  4. Enter the correct endpoint URL for the target environment or just select the related VFC skill in the list, in case the skill is a VFC skill.
  5. Save the skill configuration.

VFC Skills — Special Handling

If your agents use VFC (Visual Flow Creator) skills, additional steps are required because VFC skills themselves need to be present in the target tenant before they can be linked.

Recommended workflow for VFC skills:

Step 1: Export VFC skills from source tenant
           ↓
Step 2: Import VFC skills into target tenant
           ↓
Step 3: Open each agent/skill that references the VFC skill
           ↓
Step 4: Re-link the VFC skill to the correct imported version
           ↓
Step 5: Save and validate

Why is this necessary? When an agent references a VFC skill, the reference is tied to the skill's identity in the source tenant. After import into a new tenant, a new identity is created, and the link must be re-established manually.

Last update: August 6, 2026