· 3 min
This Month In Declarative Agents: Agents Stopped Just Talking
June was when declarative agents got interactive UI. MCP Apps put real widgets in Copilot chat, and one MCP server now lights up every Copilot surface.
>_ The Manifest
Real code, real patterns, real opinions on building agents for Microsoft 365 Copilot. From declarative agents to API plugins, this is the stuff you wish existed when you started.
~/blog $ ls -lt | head -12
Latest
· 2 min
Using Coding Agents to Build Declarative Agents
A video walkthrough of using Agents Toolkit skills and a coding agent to scaffold, wire MCP, generate instructions, validate, and deploy a declarative agent.
· 2 min
Publishing and Governing Declarative Agents at Scale
A video walkthrough of moving a declarative agent from local development to org-wide publishing, admin approval, distribution, and CI/CD automation.
· 2 min
Testing and Debugging Your Declarative Agent
A video walkthrough of developer mode, debug cards, capability tracing, and versioning to test and troubleshoot a Copilot Chat declarative agent.
· 8 min
Conditional Conversation Starters for Declarative Agents
Manifest schema v1.7 adds depends_on to conversation starters, so prompts only show up when the capabilities they need are configured.
· 2 min
Connecting Declarative Agents into an Ecosystem
A video walkthrough of composing an agent ecosystem: worker agents that split broad scenarios into focused specialists you can reuse across teams.
· 4 min
This Month In Declarative Agents: The Runtime Grew Up
May traded splashy demos for real declarative agent infrastructure: evals landed, MCP got operational, and government cloud support started catching up.
· 7 min
Editorial Answers Make Declarative Agents Predictable
Editorial answers in declarative agent manifest v1.7 let you reserve exact responses for known questions, with semantic matching catching natural language variations.
· 2 min
Advanced Manifest Capabilities for Declarative Agents
A video walkthrough of advanced manifest options: disclaimers, behavior overrides, and environment configuration for more polished, governed declarative agents.
· 2 min
Extending Declarative Agents with API Plugins and MCP
A video walkthrough of adding actions to a declarative agent with API plugins and MCP, moving beyond read-only answers to create, update, and retrieve data.
· 2 min
Grounding Declarative Agents with Microsoft 365 Data
A video walkthrough of grounding a declarative agent in real Microsoft 365 data: SharePoint, Teams conversations, email, and people knowledge.
· 8 min
Your M365 Developer Tenant and Licenses for Copilot Agents
Set up your first Microsoft 365 developer tenant and the minimum licenses you need to start building declarative agents for M365 Copilot today.
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