📋 Shared Instructions: shared-instructions.md - Cross-cutting concerns.
Add Work IQ (M365 Copilot Search)
Work IQ is accessed through the dedicated Work IQ Copilot MCP connector (shared_a365copilotchatmcp; shown as "Work IQ Copilot MCP (Preview)" in the maker portal). It exposes an MCP (Model Context Protocol) endpoint whose CopilotChat tool performs AI-powered, knowledge-grounded search and conversation over Microsoft 365 content.
This is the purpose-built Work IQ connector and generates a
WorkIQCopilotMCPServicewith a singlemcp_m365copilotoperation. Every command and code reference in this skill is specific toshared_a365copilotchatmcp(connection commands, and the generatedWorkIQCopilotMCPService/WorkIQCopilotMCPModelfiles). Do not run this skill for a different connector. If you instead need the broadershared_a365mcpservers"Microsoft 365 MCP Servers" bundle (Mail/Teams/SharePoint MCP servers), add it via/add-connector— its generated service isMicrosoftMCPServersService, so you must adjust the Step 2 commands and the wrapper imports accordingly.
⚠️ Work IQ uses MCP. A JSON-RPC
initializehandshake runs before the firsttools/call. This connector's server (Microsoft.MCPPlatform.WebApi) is stateless-tolerant — do NOT send anMcp-Session-Idoninitialize(the server treats it as a session lookup and returns-32001 Session not found). Drive the connector through theMcpSessionwrapper below, which runs the handshake, sends no session id by default, sequences JSON-RPC ids, auto-retries onSession not found, and parses the nested response for you.
Workflow
- Check Memory Bank → 2. Add Connector → 3. Inspect Generated Service → 4. Create McpSession Wrapper → 5. Use Work IQ → 6. Build → 7. Update Memory Bank
Step 1: Check Memory Bank
Check for memory-bank.md per shared-instructions.md.
Step 2: Add Connector
The Power Apps code-app CLI (@microsoft/power-apps-cli, invoked as pa or power-apps — resolve via cli-binary.md) creates the connection and generates the typed service itself. Make sure the CLI is installed (npm install) and you are signed in (pa auth status, or power-apps auth-status on power-apps-only projects; it shares the same auth as the rest of the code-app skills).
Find or Create the Connection
Check for an existing connection first:
bashpa connection list
Look for a Work IQ Copilot MCP (Preview) connection (api id shared_a365copilotchatmcp) in the output. If one is listed, note its Connection ID and skip to "Add the Data Source" below.
Otherwise create one with the native create-connection verb:
bashpa connection create --connector shared_a365copilotchatmcp
- The environment is read automatically from the app's
power.config.json— you do not need to pass an environment id. - This connector requires OAuth, so the CLI opens a browser to complete sign-in/consent (SSO-only connectors complete silently with no browser).
- On success it prints the Connection ID — save it for the next step.
STOP HERE — interactive sign-in required:
- Tell the user the browser has opened (or share the URL the CLI prints).
- Ask them to sign in with their Microsoft 365 account and grant consent to the Work IQ Copilot MCP connector.
- Wait for the user to confirm the browser shows success before continuing.
If create-connection fails:
- "not signed in" / auth error → run
pa auth status(orpower-apps auth-statusonpower-apps-only projects), sign in if needed, and retry. - "Connection creation was cancelled." → the browser flow was closed early; re-run and complete it.
- Any other non-zero exit → report the exact error and STOP.
As a fallback, the user can create the connection manually in the maker portal: https://make.powerapps.com/environments/<environment-id>/connections → + New connection → search for "Work IQ Copilot MCP" → Create, then re-run list-connections.
Add the Data Source
Once the connection exists, add it to the code app (this is what generates the typed service + model):
bashpa app add data-source --connector shared_a365copilotchatmcp -c <connection-id>
This is a non-tabular connector — only --connector (api id) and -c (connection id) are needed.
Step 3: Inspect Generated Service
After adding the connector, confirm the generated service is present. This is a small, single-operation service, so you can read it directly or grep it:
Grep pattern="async \w+" path="src/generated/services/WorkIQCopilotMCPService.ts"
The WorkIQCopilotMCPService exposes exactly one operation — mcp_m365copilot ("Work IQ Copilot (Preview)"), plus a Getmcp_m365copilot GET variant used only for connection verification. Work IQ / CopilotChat is driven through mcp_m365copilot.
Its generated signature is:
typescriptpublic static async mcp_m365copilot( Mcp_Session_Id?: string, queryRequest?: QueryRequest ): Promise<IOperationResult<void>>
- First argument is the MCP session id (the connector's
Mcp-Session-Idparameter). Leave itundefined— this server assigns/needs no client session id, and sending one oninitializereturns-32001(see below). - Second argument is the JSON-RPC body, typed as
QueryRequest({ jsonrpc?, id?, method?, params?, result?, error? }) — exported fromsrc/generated/models/WorkIQCopilotMCPModel.ts. - Return type is
IOperationResult<void>; the actual JSON-RPC / SSE body arrives inresult.dataat runtime.
Facts you can rely on (do not try to discover them at runtime):
- The tool name is
CopilotChat(case-sensitive). Do not substitutequery,search, orfind. - The argument key is
message— notquery,prompt, orquestion. - Do NOT send an
Mcp-Session-Idon theinitializehandshake. This connector's server treats an incoming id as an existing-session lookup and returns-32001 Session not found. The server is stateless-tolerant:initializeandtools/callboth succeed with no session id, so theMcpSessionwrapper below tracks none by default.
Session-id handling (verified during testing). This connector's MCP server is stateless-tolerant.
initializewith noMcp-Session-Idreturns200with server capabilities, and a subsequenttools/callwith no id returns the Copilot reply — no session id needs to be tracked or echoed. Do not generate a client id and send it oninitialize: the server treats it as a lookup and returns404 / -32001 Session not found(this was a real bug in an earlier version of this wrapper). Note that the code-apps data layer'sIOperationResult<TResponse>exposes only{ success, data, error, skipToken, count, fileName }— it does not surface response headers — so if a future MCP server returns a session id only in theMcp-Session-Idresponse header, it would be unreadable here. The wrapper still defensively adopts a server id if one ever appears insideresult.data.
Step 4: Create McpSession Wrapper
⚠️ CRITICAL: MCP session handling and response parsing are intricate. Copy the production-ready McpSession class below exactly. It runs the initialize handshake (sending no session id), sequences JSON-RPC ids, auto-retries on "Session not found", persists the conversation id, and parses the deeply nested response.
Create src/connectors/mcpClient.ts:
typescript// src/connectors/mcpClient.ts import type { IOperationResult } from '@microsoft/power-apps/data' import { WorkIQCopilotMCPService } from '../generated/services/WorkIQCopilotMCPService' import type { QueryRequest } from '../generated/models/WorkIQCopilotMCPModel' export interface JsonRpcRequest { jsonrpc: '2.0' id?: string method: string params?: Record<string, unknown> } export interface JsonRpcResponse { jsonrpc?: string id?: string result?: Record<string, unknown> error?: { code?: number; message?: string; data?: unknown } } type CopilotConversationMessage = { text?: string attributions?: Array<{ attributionType?: string providerDisplayName?: string seeMoreWebUrl?: string }> } type CopilotConversation = { messages?: CopilotConversationMessage[] } function parseRpc(result: IOperationResult<unknown>): JsonRpcResponse { if (!result.success && result.error) { return { error: { message: result.error.message } } } const data: unknown = result.data if (data == null) return {} if (typeof data === 'object') return data as JsonRpcResponse if (typeof data === 'string') { // Handle SSE framing: "event: message\ndata: {JSON}" const dataLines = data .split(/\r?\n/) .filter((line) => line.startsWith('data:')) .map((line) => line.slice(5).trim()) // Per the SSE spec, multiple `data:` lines are joined with newlines — a single // JSON object can be split across lines, so joining with '' would corrupt it. const payload = dataLines.length ? dataLines.join('\n') : data try { return JSON.parse(payload) as JsonRpcResponse } catch { return { result: { raw: data } } } } return { result: { raw: data } } } export class McpSession { private nextId = 1 // MCP Streamable HTTP: the client must NOT send a session id on `initialize` — // the server assigns one. Sending a client-generated id makes this connector's // server return `404 / -32001 Session not found`. This server is stateless- // tolerant, so we send no id at all; `extractSessionId` still adopts a server // id if one ever surfaces in the response body. private sessionId: string | undefined = undefined private conversationId: string | undefined private initialized = false private extractSessionId(raw: IOperationResult<unknown>): string | undefined { const container = raw as unknown as Record<string, unknown> const dataObj = raw.data && typeof raw.data === 'object' ? (raw.data as Record<string, unknown>) : undefined const resultObj = dataObj?.result && typeof dataObj.result === 'object' ? (dataObj.result as Record<string, unknown>) : undefined const candidates: Array<unknown> = [ dataObj?.['Mcp-Session-Id'], dataObj?.mcpSessionId, dataObj?.sessionId, resultObj?.['Mcp-Session-Id'], resultObj?.mcpSessionId, resultObj?.sessionId, container['Mcp-Session-Id'], container.mcpSessionId, container.sessionId, ] const found = candidates.find((value) => typeof value === 'string' && value.length > 0) return typeof found === 'string' ? found : undefined } private isSessionNotFound(res: JsonRpcResponse): boolean { const message = (res.error?.message ?? '').toLowerCase() return message.includes('session not found') || res.error?.code === -32001 } private resetSession(): void { // Drop any session id and re-handshake from scratch (no id on `initialize`). this.sessionId = undefined this.initialized = false } private async send( method: string, params?: Record<string, unknown>, allowRetry = true ): Promise<JsonRpcResponse> { const req: JsonRpcRequest = { jsonrpc: '2.0', id: String(this.nextId++), method, params } // Send no session id on `initialize` (server treats any id as existing-session lookup). const sessionId = method === 'initialize' ? undefined : this.sessionId const raw = (await WorkIQCopilotMCPService.mcp_m365copilot( sessionId, req as unknown as QueryRequest )) as unknown as IOperationResult<unknown> const negotiatedSessionId = this.extractSessionId(raw) if (negotiatedSessionId) { this.sessionId = negotiatedSessionId } const parsed = parseRpc(raw) if (allowRetry && method !== 'initialize' && this.isSessionNotFound(parsed)) { this.resetSession() await this.initialize() return this.send(method, params, false) } return parsed } async initialize(): Promise<JsonRpcResponse> { const res = await this.send('initialize', { protocolVersion: '2025-06-18', capabilities: {}, clientInfo: { name: 'Power Apps Code App', version: '1.0.0' }, }) // Fail fast: surface a failed handshake instead of continuing to `tools/call`. if (res.error) { throw new Error(`MCP initialize failed: ${res.error.message ?? JSON.stringify(res.error)}`) } this.initialized = true return res } /** Discover the available MCP tools (optional; the tool name is fixed as `CopilotChat`). */ async listTools(): Promise<JsonRpcResponse> { if (!this.initialized) await this.initialize() return this.send('tools/list', {}) } async callCopilotChat(message: string): Promise<{ text: string; conversationId?: string }> { if (!this.initialized) await this.initialize() const raw = await this.send('tools/call', { name: 'CopilotChat', arguments: { message, ...(this.conversationId ? { conversationId: this.conversationId } : {}), }, }) // Surface MCP/connector errors as thrown exceptions so callers can `try/catch` // instead of string-matching the returned text. if (raw.error) { throw new Error(raw.error.message ?? JSON.stringify(raw.error)) } const parsed = extractCopilotText(raw) if (parsed.conversationId) { this.conversationId = parsed.conversationId } return { text: parsed.text, conversationId: parsed.conversationId } } } function extractContentText(res: JsonRpcResponse): string | undefined { const content = res.result?.content as Array<{ type?: string; text?: string }> | undefined if (!Array.isArray(content)) { return undefined } const textBlocks = content .filter((c) => c.type === 'text' && typeof c.text === 'string') .map((c) => c.text!.trim()) .filter((value) => value.length > 0) if (textBlocks.length === 0) { return undefined } // Prefer the JSON payload block. Some responses append metadata text blocks // such as "CorrelationId: ..." that should not be concatenated. const jsonBlock = textBlocks.find( (block) => block.startsWith('{') && /"conversationId"|"rawResponse"|"reply"/.test(block) ) if (jsonBlock) { return jsonBlock } const nonMetadata = textBlocks.find((block) => !/^CorrelationId\s*:/i.test(block)) return nonMetadata ?? textBlocks[0] } export function extractCopilotText(res: JsonRpcResponse): { text: string conversationId?: string } { const rawText = extractContentText(res) if (!rawText) { return { text: res.result ? JSON.stringify(res.result, null, 2) : '(no content returned)' } } try { const inner = JSON.parse(rawText) as { conversationId?: string reply?: string message?: string rawResponse?: string } if (typeof inner.rawResponse === 'string') { try { const convo = JSON.parse(inner.rawResponse) as CopilotConversation const messages = Array.isArray(convo.messages) ? convo.messages : [] // messages[0] echoes the user query; the AI reply is the one carrying // attributions (citations). Fall back to index 1, then the last message. const attributed = messages.find( (m) => Array.isArray(m.attributions) && m.attributions.length > 0 ) const selected = attributed ?? messages[1] ?? messages[messages.length - 1] const replyText = selected?.text?.trim() if (replyText) { return { text: replyText, conversationId: inner.conversationId } } } catch { // Fall through to simple reply extraction. } } const fallbackText = inner.reply?.trim() || inner.message?.trim() || rawText return { text: fallbackText, conversationId: inner.conversationId } } catch { return { text: rawText } } }
Session-id note (verified during testing).
McpSessionstarts with no session id and sends none on theinitializehandshake. Testing againstshared_a365copilotchatmcp(serverMicrosoft.MCPPlatform.WebApi) confirmed it is stateless-tolerant:initializewith no id returns200+ capabilities, andtools/callwith no id returns the Copilot reply. Sending a client-generated id oninitializeinstead makes the server return404 / -32001 Session not found— that was the original bug.IOperationResultexposes only{ success, data, error, skipToken, count, fileName }(no response headers), so a header-only session id would be unreadable here;extractSessionIdstill adopts a server id if one ever appears insideresult.data, and the handshake auto-retries onSession not foundfor resilience.If you ever bind a different MCP connector that is genuinely stateful and returns its session id only in the
Mcp-Session-Idresponse header, this SDK cannot read it — capture one rawmcp_m365copilotresult in the debugger to confirm where the id surfaces, and if it appears insideresult.data, add that path toextractSessionId.
Step 5: Use Work IQ
Initialize once per app (e.g., in a React useEffect on boot or a module singleton) and reuse for all Work IQ calls:
typescriptimport { McpSession } from './connectors/mcpClient' // Initialize once per app session and reuse across calls. const workIqSession = new McpSession() export async function queryWorkIQ(userPrompt: string): Promise<string> { try { const { text } = await workIqSession.callCopilotChat(userPrompt) return text } catch (error) { const msg = error instanceof Error ? error.message : 'Work IQ query failed' console.error('Work IQ Error:', msg) throw error } }
Key patterns:
- ✅ Initialize once, reuse across multiple calls (never
new McpSession()per request) - ✅ Pass context-specific prompts to
callCopilotChat() - ✅ The session auto-reinitializes if a "Session not found" error occurs
- ✅
conversationIdis automatically persisted across calls for multi-turn chats
Prompt Structure
Work IQ responds well to context-rich, structured prompts. Adapt this pattern for your scenario:
typescriptconst prompt = ` You are [role/expert description]. **Context:** - [Relevant data or background information] - [Additional context as needed] **Task:** [Clear, specific instruction] **Format:** - Use markdown with clear section headings (## Summary, ## Action Items, etc.) - Specify limits (word count, number of items, etc.) `.trim() const { text } = await workIqSession.callCopilotChat(prompt)
Adaptable scenarios: meeting summaries with action items, prioritized daily action items from email, project risk analysis from documents, team performance insights, or any knowledge-grounded analysis over M365 data.
Response Parsing
callCopilotChat() already unwraps the nested JSON-RPC / SSE response and returns clean text. Parse that text according to the format you requested.
For structured markdown output (when you asked for ## sections):
typescriptfunction extractSection(text: string, sectionName: string): string[] { const regex = new RegExp(`##\\s*${sectionName}\\s*([\\s\\S]*?)(?=##|$)`) const match = text.match(regex) if (!match) return [] return match[1] .split('\n') .filter((line) => line.trim().startsWith('-')) .map((line) => line.replace(/^-\s*/, '').trim()) .filter(Boolean) } const { text } = await workIqSession.callCopilotChat(prompt) const summary = extractSection(text, 'Summary') const actionItems = extractSection(text, 'Action Items')
For unstructured output — use text directly (display as-is or format for your UI).
Why the McpSession Pattern Is Required
Work IQ uses MCP (Model Context Protocol). Driving it correctly requires:
- Session initialization before the first call (handshake to exchange capabilities)
- Session handling — this connector is stateless-tolerant, so the wrapper sends no session id (sending one on
initializetriggers-32001 Session not found); it defensively adopts a server id only if one ever surfaces in the response body (see the session-id note above) - JSON-RPC id sequencing (each request needs a unique incrementing id)
- Multi-turn conversation support via conversation-id persistence
- Nested response parsing (JSON-RPC → text content → inner JSON → Graph conversation)
- Automatic recovery on session timeouts (
-32001/ "Session not found")
McpSession handles all of this. Bypassing it (ad-hoc per-call ids or direct calls without the handshake) leads to "Session not found" errors and failed integrations.
Step 6: Build
bashnpm run build
Fix TypeScript errors before proceeding. Do NOT deploy yet.
Step 7: Update Memory Bank
Update memory-bank.md with: connector added (shared_a365copilotchatmcp), McpSession wrapper created at src/connectors/mcpClient.ts, Work IQ usage wired up, build status.
IMPORTANT — Do NOT save sensitive information:
- ❌ OAuth URLs or consent links
- ❌ Connection IDs
- ❌ Session IDs or tokens
- ❌ Environment IDs
- ❌ Any authentication credentials
Only save high-level progress like "Work IQ Copilot MCP connector configured" or "Work IQ CopilotChat integration implemented via McpSession".

