Power Platform Weekly - Issue #271
We’re back! A few things we spotted while we were away:
The GitHub Copilot (GHCP) harness for Copilot Studio was announced. Check out this breakdown by April Dunnam, and if you want to get hands-on, the Agent Academy has a new path: Recruit - GitHub Copilot Harness.
The Power CAT team published a technical deep dive covering the GHCP harness and workflows. For even more guidance and samples, check out Henry Jammes’ post.
Vivian Voss created Credential Quest, where you can browse Microsoft Learn certification exam content and test yourself in quiz mode.
Our fellow newsletter buddy Megan V. Walker announced that the D365 Marketing Weekly has come to an end. She also announced that the CX Newsletter, from Pauline Kolde and Björn Zahnow, will launch on September 8. Make sure to subscribe!
Have a great week and thanks for reading!
📰 Articles
Ditch the Power Apps maker portal!
🦸🏻♀️ Are you a maker, a low-code developer, a builder? Do you want to be ten times more productive when you build canvas apps, model-driven apps, Power Automate flows, and Power Pages? Nick Doelman shows you how you can leverage agents to do just that.
The GitHub Copilot Harness Copilot Studio
🦸🏻♀️ Microsoft migrated the backend and created a new frontend for Copilot Studio, and that’s what David Wyatt created a blog about. So is it any good? This is what Copilot Studio should have been from day one, it now feels and acts like other LLM agents. It no longer feels like the old legacy Power Virtual Agent, it is something new and modern.
Building a Secure Power Platform Architecture with Managed Identity & Virtual Network
🚀 When Dynamics 365 or Power Platform solutions need to talk to the outside world, two security questions immediately arise. Who is making the call? How does the traffic get there? Allan De Castro gives a very detailed solution to both questions.
Other articles
🦸🏻♀️ The 5 stages of an HR Agent powered by Copilot Studio by Ana Inés Urrutia
🦸🏻♀️ Meet Service Agent: Everything you need to know by Dian Taylor
🦸🏻♀️ New D365 Field Service Scheduling Enhancements You Need to Know by Dian Taylor
🦸🏻♀️ How to enable and configure Service Agent in D365 by Dian Taylor
🦸🏻♀️ Power Automate Cloud Flow Failing with 403 Forbidden on a Dataverse Action by Linn Zaw Win
🦸🏻♀️ Is your Power Pages site secure? by Nick Doelman
🦸🏻♀️ The New Copy Opportunity feature, a blessing of a curse? by Jeroen Scheper
🦸🏻♀️ Power Platform Admin V2 - Create Rule Set Explained by Matt Collins-Jones
🦸🏻♀️ How To Orchestrate Chat Without Topics In New Copilot Studio by Matthew Devaney
🛠️ Dynamics 365 Contact Center Conversation & Routing Diagnostics by Peter Ruiter
🦸🏻♀️ Let’s Get Started with the Copilot Agent Toolkit by Em D’Arcy
🦸🏻♀️ Copilot Agent Kit: Agent Inventory by Em D’Arcy
🦸🏻♀️ Advanced Connector Policies: Don’t Break Customer Insights - Journeys Publishing by Martin P. Lopez
🦸🏻♀️🚀 Custom API’s in Power Automate by David Wyatt
🦸🏻♀️ Using the New Copilot Studio Skills by David Wyatt
🦸🏻♀️ Implementing a Simple Honeypot in Dynamics 365 Customer Insights – Journeys Real-time Marketing Forms by Nishant Rana
🦸🏻♀️ Fix: Power Automate “Get File Thumbnail” Missing URL Bug by Ellis Karim
🛠️ PACX in 2026: Growing Alongside the Agent-First Era by Riccardo Gregori
🦸🏻♀️ Tracking Field Completion in Dynamics 365 with a Custom Progress Bar by Raghu Chalasani
Supplier Engagement Module by Ted Ohlsson
📺 Videos
🎙️ Podcasts
The Microsoft 365, Azure & AI Audio Podcast with Mirko Peters
🚀 In this episode of M365 FM, Mirko Peters talks with Michael Roth [MVP] about building Power Platform governance that protects the organization without killing innovation. They explore security, Data Loss Prevention policies, environment architecture, inventory, application lifecycle management, citizen development, and the responsibilities organizations take on when Power Platform becomes part of their business infrastructure.
Power Platform Boost Podcast
🧭 Yiiiihaa!! This time we spent a fair bit of time talking about the mental model around the new announcements for Copilot Studio, and that it’s now based on the GitHub Copilot Harness, and what that means.
Microsoft Mechanics Podcast
🦸🏻♀️ Build a fully working model-driven app from your existing Dataverse, SharePoint, or SQL data in under a minute — screens, navigation, and forms included. Generate new pages from a natural language prompt with Generative Pages, auto-populate records from any document in seconds with Automatic Form Fill, and embed Copilot to query your app data directly.
Layer in an Agent Feed to proactively surface decisions, missing data, and action items, then connect to Outlook and Microsoft 365 through Work IQ to act on your app data without leaving your inbox.
Jed Brown, Power Platform Group Product Manager, shares how to turn existing business data into a modern, AI-powered app.
📅 Events & Webinars
HELish Summit
(📅 September 17, 2026)
HELish Summit is a Microsoft technology focused conference offering ideas, insights, cases and lessons learned for every IT enthusiast. Whether you’re a consultant or working in internal IT, communications or other technology role - there is something special for you!
Nordic Summit
(📅 September 21-22, 2026)
Nordic Summit 2026 takes place at LEGOLAND Hotel and Conference in Billund, Denmark, with a strong focus on connecting the Nordic Microsoft community around Power Platform and Dynamics 365. As the largest in-person event in the Nordics for these technologies, it offers focused sessions, community connection, and practical insights for makers, consultants, and architects.
Directions for Enterprise
(📅 September 23-25, 2026)
Directions for Enterprise 2026 is a focal point for the global Dynamics 365 Finance and Supply Chain Management partner ecosystem in Copenhagen, with focused strategic and technical content. Across three days, partners connect with Microsoft, SIs, ISVs, and industry leaders to explore Agentic ERP, real-world AI, and practical approaches for enterprise solution delivery.
Scottish Summit
(📅 October 2-3, 2026)
Scottish Summit 2026 heads to Murrayfield Stadium in Edinburgh for two days centered on AI, Copilot, and practical learning across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Azure. Attendees connect with experts, MVPs, and peers through sessions and workshops designed to share real-world approaches and community-driven innovation.
Community Summit North America
(📅 October 11-15, 2026)
Community Summit North America 2026 gives the Microsoft AI and Business Applications community five days in Nashville for learning, training, and connection. With hundreds of sessions, academy workshops, and a broad partner ecosystem, attendees gain practical guidance across Dynamics 365, Power Platform, Microsoft 365, and Copilot.
Directions EMEA
(📅 October 27-29, 2026)
Directions EMEA 2026 hosts the Dynamics 365 Business Central community in Paris for three days of technical sessions, strategy, and ecosystem networking. Resellers, ISVs, Microsoft representatives, MVPs, developers, and consultants explore the latest innovations and practical approaches shaping Business Central across EMEA.
Power Platform Community Conference
(📅 October 27-29, 2026)
Power Platform Community Conference 2026 welcomes the global maker and solution builder community to Las Vegas for three days of practical learning and collaboration around AI apps and agents. Attendees explore sessions, workshops, and certifications across Copilot, Copilot Studio, and the full Microsoft Power Platform to build end-to-end solutions they can apply right away.
💙 Out of the Blue
We took a short summer break, but the Power Platform did not. This catch-up edition brings together 31 releases, technical guides, and announcements published in the last months.
Start with the five developments most worth knowing about, then browse the remaining stories by topic. The persona emojis show who will get the most value from each article.
Start here: Five things to know
The new Copilot Studio agent sandbox
👩💻🚀 Chris Garty explains how the managed Copilot Studio sandbox lets agents run Python, inspect files, calculate results, and create artifacts. He contrasts generated code with reviewed Skill scripts and clarifies the sandbox’s temporary storage and no-network-egress boundaries.
Secure and govern AI agents with Microsoft Entra Agent ID for Dataverse
🚀👩💻🧭 Paul Liew explains how Microsoft Entra Agent ID and Dataverse agent users give each agent a dedicated identity. Organizations can assign appropriate security roles and retain visibility into agent activity when agents access Dataverse.
Power Pages Security Agent (Preview)
🚀🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Bipul Deora introduces a conversational assistant in the Power Pages Security workspace that reviews site configuration and recommends improvements. It can help configure authentication, authorization, permissions, CSP, and other protections, with explicit approval required before changes are applied.
TMDL View on the web: Edit semantic models as code in your browser (Preview)
👩💻🚀 Sara Lammini Rodriguez introduces browser-based TMDL editing for published Power BI semantic models. Developers can inspect advanced metadata, make bulk changes with IntelliSense, reuse model objects, preview updates, and recover through version history without switching to Desktop.
Bringing Power BI insights to every Copilot user
🧭🤵🏻🚀 Sara Vredevoogd describes how governed Power BI semantic models ground answers in Microsoft 365 Copilot Chat and support multi-step work in Copilot Cowork. She clarifies when to use conversational data answers versus delegated analysis and follow-up actions.
Copilot, agents, and AI
Is your data ready for AI?
🧭🚀👩💻 Tommy Graham shows how Dataverse capabilities for capacity, retention, security, auditing, and recovery help administrators prepare a governed data foundation for AI.
Adopting the GitHub Copilot harness: Cost control and governance in Copilot Studio
🚀🧭👩💻 Lewis Baybutt presents a repeatable process for governing Copilot Credit consumption through environment classification, capacity controls, agent limits, inventory, and APIs.
The next measure of AI momentum is work transformed
🧭🚀 Jared Spataro argues that AI progress should be measured by redesigned work and business outcomes rather than seat counts alone.
Prompt columns are generally available
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🧭 Vaishanavi Mirapurkar shows how prompt columns persist AI-generated classifications, summaries, recommendations, and other insights directly in business data without code.
Turn your daily digest into a podcast
👩💻🦸🏻♀️ Remi Dyon builds a Copilot Studio Skill that turns documents, email reviews, and newsletters into a two-host podcast using multi-voice SSML, Azure Text to Speech, and Teams mobile.
Extending agentic Dynamics 365 Sales with MCP
👩💻🧭 Mike Morton explains how Model Context Protocol connects Dynamics 365 Sales agents to external data, tools, and actions across business systems.
Redlining documents with the new Copilot Studio experience
👩💻🦸🏻♀️ Andrew Hess and Remi Dyon demonstrate a Copilot Studio Skill that compares Word or PDF submissions with a template and returns genuine tracked changes while preserving formatting.
Video demo: Upgrading a classic agent to modern orchestration
👩💻🦸🏻♀️ Giorgio Ughini demonstrates GitHub Copilot CLI and the Copilot Studio plugin redesigning a classic agent’s capabilities as modern Skills and tools.
Rest of Power Platform
Extend Liquid with server logic in Power Pages
👩💻🦸🏻♀️ Nagesh Bhat demonstrates how Liquid can invoke secure, reusable server logic that stays close to the Power Pages experience and remains manageable at scale.
A deep dive into Power Pages enhanced authorization
👩💻🚀 Gokul Narayanan explains how mapped identities, security roles, and record filters enforce external-user authorization natively in Dataverse.
Link to Fabric gets a refreshed experience
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Anirudha Bakore presents a streamlined experience for connecting Microsoft Dataverse operational data to the Fabric analytics stack.
Dataverse plugin expands to OpenAI and Codex marketplaces
👩💻 Kent Weare announces that developers can bring the Dataverse plugin into the OpenAI and Codex coding environments where they already work.
Dataverse plugin for coding agents arrives in Cursor Marketplace
👩💻 Kent Weare introduces a direct way to work with Dataverse from Cursor while building data-backed Power Platform solutions.
Native Dataverse authorization for stronger Power Pages security (Public Preview)
👩💻🚀 Nagesh Bhat introduces a centralized model that enforces external-user access for Power Pages directly in Dataverse.
What’s new in Power Platform: July/August 2026 feature update
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Tiffany Treacy writes about recent releases across apps, agents, automation, governance, and development, including the generally available modern data grid for canvas apps.
Power BI and Fabric
Conditional formatting for lines and legends
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas shows how rules, gradients, and field-driven colors can highlight changing values and keep categories consistent across Power BI visuals.
Power BI July 2026 feature summary
🦸🏻♀️👩💻🚀 Katie Murray covers report-wide visual defaults, conditional formatting, org app APIs and audiences, service model options, and TMDL View on the web.
Modern visual defaults and report-wide formatting (Preview)
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas explains how authors can centrally manage palettes, typography, visual styling, page settings, and filter pane formatting while preserving visual-specific customizations.
Power BI reporting with the date picker slicer (Preview)
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas demonstrates dynamic default date ranges alongside manual dates, ranges, and rolling periods that remain useful as data refreshes.
Shape Map in Power BI is generally available
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas demonstrates built-in geographies, custom TopoJSON or GeoJSON boundaries, URL-based maps, and data-driven colors in Shape Map.
Tooltip options in Power BI visuals are generally available
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas explores tooltip options ranging from curated fields and sentence-style explanations to fully customized report pages.
Add calculations directly to Power BI visuals
🦸🏻♀️👩💻 Zoe Douglas explains how visual calculations let authors add DAX calculations directly in the visual where they are used.
Power BI reports and Fabric Apps
👩💻🧭 Zoe Douglas compares governed Power BI reports with custom Fabric Apps built on the same semantic model data and business logic.
Power BI Desktop Bridge (Preview)
👩💻 Sara Lammini Rodriguez introduces a secure local server and CLI that let agents inspect Power BI Desktop state, reload edited files, and capture screenshots for validation.
💡 Suggest content
Do you have a blog, YouTube channel or podcast that you want us to track, or do you know someone creating great content or community tools you think we should be aware of? Let us know about it!
We usually include links to content or tools updates announcements from the past week. If you see a great blog post or video, let us know one way or another!
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🕺 About the “Persona icons”
🤵🏻 Business User
🦸🏻♀️ Maker
🧭 Decision Maker
👩💻 Developer / Architect
🚀 Admin / Center of Excellence
🛠️ Tools
📅 Events & Webinars