Admin Guide to Microsoft 365 Copilot Skills

This is part of the Microsoft 365 Copilot Skills series.

There is no single “Copilot Skills admin switch.” The right control depends on what the user added and where it runs.

A personal SKILL.md in OneDrive is not governed through the same workflow as:

• a Cowork plugin from the Microsoft 365 App Store;
• an agent published to the Agent Store;
• a remote MCP server registered in Agent Tools.

Name the surface first. Then choose the control.

The five governance surfaces

Official UI reference: Microsoft Learn — manage agents in Microsoft 365 admin center. Capture a current tenant view with identifying data masked.

Start with prerequisites and roles

Cowork access

Microsoft says admins must enable usage-based billing to allow Cowork access. Discoverability is a separate setting.

If Cowork is discoverable but billing is not enabled, users can request access and the admin can review the request.

Cowork plugin management

Public prerequisites:

• Microsoft 365 admin center access;
• tenant administrator or Copilot administrator role;
• Microsoft 365 Copilot licences for users who use the plugins.

MCP tool approval

Approving a remote MCP server can include tenant-wide consent.

Microsoft names:

• AI Administrator
• Global Administrator

Use the least-privileged role that can complete the task. Global Administrator should not be the everyday answer.

Deploy and block Cowork plugins

Admins can deploy plugins to:

• the whole organisation;
• specific users or groups;
• the Microsoft 365 App Store for user acquisition.

Admin-deployed plugins show Managed by your organisation.

Users cannot remove them, but they can enable or disable them for their own Cowork conversations from Sources & Skills. Microsoft says that preference is saved per device.

Allow or block

In the Microsoft 365 admin center:

1. Open Agents > Tools.
2. Find the plugin.
3. Open the Users tab.
4. Choose availability for all users or specific users/groups.
5. Select Block when no user should access it.

Country or region-based scoping is not supported for plugin availability. Use security groups to represent those boundaries.

Shared Cowork Skills

Cowork lets a user share a Skill or plugin they created:

• Only you
• Specific users in your organisation

When the creator changes a shared item, they use Re-share to update the recipients.

This is not the same as an admin-deployed package:

Audit the real flow in your tenant before treating creator sharing as a formal organisation publishing process.

Personal PowerPoint and Excel Skills

PowerPoint and Excel publicly document personal, OneDrive-backed custom Skills.

The Skills pages explain:

• user creation;
• OneDrive storage;
• Manage skills;
• enable/disable;
• refresh;
• personal use in PowerPoint.

They do not name:

• the exact admin policy that enables or blocks personal Skill upload;
• a dedicated audit event schema for that upload;
• the DLP or eDiscovery treatment of the personal Office Skills folder;
• a tenant publishing workflow equivalent to Cowork plugins.

Admin note

Do not claim a personal Office Skills control until you can name and test the exact policy. “Available based on your organisation’s settings” proves a gate exists; it does not identify the admin surface.

Connector authentication

An authenticated connector requires each user to complete sign-in or consent.

The admin cannot sign in on behalf of the user.

After sign-in, Cowork remembers the user’s authorisation until the user or admin revokes it.

For the pilot, capture:

• requested permissions;
• consent screen;
• token revocation;
• sign-out;
• error behavior when access is removed;
• which environment the connector uses.

Dynamics 365 connectors use Microsoft Entra ID and can prompt a user to select an environment.

Sideloading is not Store validation

There are three practical paths:

Tenant-distributed packages do not go through Microsoft 365 App Store validation.

Control who can upload custom apps with Teams custom app policies.

For an internal package, your review should cover:

• manifest;
• Skill instructions;
• scripts and companion files;
• connector endpoints;
• auth configuration;
• requested permissions;
• destructive tool behavior;
• privacy and terms URLs;
• owner and support contact.

Agent Registry is for agents

Agents are broader than Skills.

Microsoft 365 users can find allowed agents in the Agent Store. Organisation publishing goes through submission and admin approval in the Agent Registry.

Admin-managed agent types include:

• published by your organisation;
• shared by a creator;
• Microsoft agents;
• partner agents;
• Frontier agents.

Researcher and Analyst are part of the core Copilot Chat experience and do not fall under the same agent-related settings.

Do not use an Agent Registry screenshot to imply it is the personal SKILL.md inventory.

Agent Tools and MCP governance

Agent Tools provides a registry of tools and MCP servers.

Open:

Microsoft 365 admin center
└── Agents
    └── Tools
        ├── Registry
        └── Requests

The registry supports:

• Block
• Unblock
• status filters;
• publisher filters;
• tool inventory.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Learn — Agent Tools registry.

BYO MCP is Preview

The Bring Your Own MCP flow is currently Preview.

The public flow:

1. Developer registers a remote MCP server through Agent 365 CLI.
2. Admin reviews the request.
3. Admin grants required permissions.
4. Supported clients can use the approved server.
5. Security teams monitor tool activity.

Public Preview caveats include:

• supported client list is limited;
• Azure AI Foundry and Microsoft 365 Declarative Agents are not supported in the documented flow;
• republishing a new server version is not supported;
• deleting a BYO MCP server is not currently supported.

Recheck every Preview limitation before relying on this list. Preview capabilities can change quickly.

Purview support for Cowork

Cowork has its own public Purview support matrix because long-running, multi-step work does not map perfectly to every Microsoft 365 Copilot control.

Supported for Cowork AI interactions

Not supported in the current matrix

This is the line to keep precise:

Do not shorten that to “Cowork inherits DLP.”

Sensitivity labels and encryption

Cowork honors existing access controls.

When a sensitivity label applies encryption, the user needs:

• VIEW
• EXTRACT

Cowork displays the highest-priority sensitivity label from the data used for a response.

Label inheritance is supported for newly created content in:

• Word;
• PowerPoint;
• Outlook.

If several labelled sources are used, the highest-priority label is applied.

Users can override an inherited label unless mandatory labelling prevents it.

Auditing

Purview audit events can include:

• starting a Cowork conversation;
• adding, removing, or sharing a Skill or plugin;
• running a scheduled prompt;
• starting a browser task;
• uploading a file;
• creating an artifact in OneDrive.

Audit Standard provides Copilot activity records without an extra Audit Premium requirement for the basic log.

eDiscovery and retention

eDiscovery can include:

• Cowork conversation transcripts;
• files Cowork created;
• scheduled prompts;
• uploaded files retained in OneDrive or the conversation.

Prompts and responses are stored in the user’s mailbox and can be queried as Copilot activity.

For retention policies, select Microsoft Copilot Experiences.

Retention labels can also cover referenced cloud attachments and links shared through Copilot.

Official UI reference: Microsoft Learn — Purview for Copilot Cowork.

DSPM, Insider Risk, and Communication Compliance

DSPM

Cowork interactions appear in Activity Explorer under AI activities.

The current docs say they do not appear in:

• the Apps and agents dashboard;
• the AI observability page.

Insider Risk Management

The Risky AI usage template can detect signals such as:

• prompt-injection behavior;
• access to protected material.

Communication Compliance

Communication Compliance can evaluate prompts and responses while preserving role-based access and pseudonymisation.

The DLP nuance

The Purview Cowork matrix marks DLP unsupported for Cowork AI interactions.

Cowork browser tasks are different. They run through Edge on the user’s device and inherit the organisation’s Conditional Access, DLP, and tenant browsing policies for Edge and browser use.

That does not change the AI-interaction matrix.

Information Barriers

Microsoft says Information Barriers are not currently supported for Cowork plugin or Skill management and sharing.

In an IB-enabled tenant:

• embedded knowledge-file uploads are blocked at tenant level;
• affected plugins and Skills cannot be uploaded or published.

This is a time-bound limitation. Recheck it before the pilot.

Pilot checklist

Access and scope

• Enable usage-based billing for the pilot
• Decide whether Cowork is discoverable
• Assign required licences
• Use a small security group
• Name a business owner and technical owner

Roles

• Use Copilot administrator for plugin management where appropriate
• Use AI Administrator for MCP approval where possible
• Avoid routine Global Administrator use

Package review

• Review every Skill instruction
• Review scripts and companion files
• Review connector endpoints and permissions
• Check MCP safety annotations
• Test destructive-action confirmation
• Verify privacy and terms links

Purview

• Confirm sensitivity-label behavior
• Confirm audit events
• Test eDiscovery query
• Configure retention for Microsoft Copilot Experiences
• Review Insider Risk and Communication Compliance
• Record DLP, data-classification, and Compliance Manager gaps
• Check Information Barriers status

User test

• Test connector sign-in and revocation
• Test admin block
• Test per-conversation disable
• Test plugin removal from a new session
• Record expected and unexpected data access

Continue the Copilot Skills series

• Microsoft 365 Copilot Skills, explained — the hub.
• Skills in PowerPoint — personal picker, upload, and management.
• Skills in Excel — end-user Skills and Office.js Preview.
• Skills in Word — the honest current state.
• Cowork Skill packaging and distribution — package, connect, test, publish.
• Write your first SKILL.md — the authoring walkthrough.

Official public sources

• Microsoft Learn — manage Cowork plugins
• Microsoft Learn — manage Copilot Cowork for your organisation
• Microsoft Learn — Purview support for Copilot Cowork
• Microsoft Learn — manage agents in Microsoft 365 admin center
• Microsoft Learn — manage Agent Tools and MCP servers
• Microsoft Learn — build Cowork plugins
• Microsoft Learn — Customize Copilot Cowork
• Microsoft Support — PowerPoint Skills
• Microsoft Support — Excel Skills