Building Declarative Agents to Chat with Custom Data in Copilot

Organizations hold vast amounts of valuable data in external databases and APIs, but retrieving it often requires complex queries or technical expertise. By building declarative agents, you can empower users to chat directly with external data sources using natural language within Copilot. This text-only course provides a clear, step-by-step path to understanding, designing, and implementing custom agents from scratch. You will start by mastering the foundational architecture of declarative agents before moving into hands-on configuration. What you will learn: Understand the core architecture and schema definitions of declarative agents; Configure agent manifests and write precise system instructions to control behavior; Connect external REST APIs using standard OpenAPI specifications; Implement secure authentication flows to protect sensitive data; Apply basic prompt engineering to improve agent accuracy and user interactions; Test and debug your agent using mock payloads and structured test cases. The course begins with essential definitions and structural concepts before guiding you through manifest design, API integration, and security best practices. This course is designed for beginners, developers, and IT professionals with no prior agent-building experience. Start reading today to unlock the power of conversational AI for your proprietary data.