lab-06-clone-agent.md

title	Lab 06 — Clone the agent into your workspace
description	Use @copilot-studio:copilot-studio-manage clone to download the HelloWorldAgent YAML into your local workspace, then inspect the canonical folder shape on disk.
nav_order	8
permalink	/labs/lab-06-clone-agent

🇫🇷 Version française

Duration	Level	Prerequisites
10 min	Beginner	Lab 03 complete (agent exists in the portal); Lab 05 complete (plugin installed)

Overview

@copilot-studio:copilot-studio-manage clone walks an interactive sign-in to your tenant, lists your Power Platform environments, and lets you pick an agent to download as YAML. The clone places the agent at <current-folder>/HelloWorldAgent/ and produces the canonical folder layout the rest of the workshop edits.

Learning objectives

• Run the clone sub-agent from the active copilot session.
• Complete the interactive Entra ID sign-in for clone (no Azure App Registration is required for clone or push).
• Pick the environment and agent.
• Inspect the cloned folder shape on disk and identify each canonical file.

Exercise 6.1 — Trigger the clone

1. With your copilot session still open in C:\src\copilot-studio-work, run:

   @copilot-studio:copilot-studio-manage clone
   

2. The sub-agent opens a browser tab for Entra ID sign-in. Complete the sign-in.

Exercise 6.2 — Pick the environment and agent

1. After sign-in, the sub-agent lists your Power Platform environments. Pick the one you used in Lab 03 (for example, Contoso).
2. The sub-agent then lists the agents in that environment. Pick HelloWorldAgent.
3. The plugin downloads the agent YAML into your workspace.

Exercise 6.3 — Inspect the cloned folder shape

1. In VS Code's Explorer panel, expand the newly-created HelloWorldAgent folder. You should see:

   HelloWorldAgent/
   ├── agent.mcs.yml                # Top-level agent definition
   ├── settings.mcs.yml             # Display name, model, generative settings
   └── topics/
       ├── Conversation Start.topic.mcs.yml    # Default system topic
       ├── ...                                 # Other default system topics
   

2. Open agent.mcs.yml to confirm it parses as YAML and references the agent you created in Lab 03.

Note

Naming convention: every entity uses the .<kind>.mcs.yml suffix. Topics live under topics/, actions under actions/, knowledge under knowledge/, and global variables under variables/. Each subfolder is created on demand by the author sub-agent.

Verification Checkpoint

Before proceeding, verify:

• A HelloWorldAgent/ folder now exists under C:\src\copilot-studio-work\.
• HelloWorldAgent/agent.mcs.yml and HelloWorldAgent/settings.mcs.yml exist and parse as YAML.
• A HelloWorldAgent/topics/ subfolder exists with at least one default system topic (for example, Conversation Start.topic.mcs.yml).

Next Steps

Proceed to Lab 07 — Author the Hello World topic.