Tool Invocation Fails in Deployed Declarative Agent but Succeeds in Copilot Workbench

[Sandeep-FED]

Target SharePoint environment

SharePoint Online

What SharePoint development model, framework, SDK or API is this about?

💥 SharePoint Framework

Developer environment

Windows

What browser(s) / client(s) have you tested

• 💥 Internet Explorer
• 💥 Microsoft Edge
• 💥 Google Chrome
• 💥 FireFox
• 💥 Safari
• mobile (iOS/iPadOS)
• mobile (Android)
• not applicable
• other (enter in the "Additional environment details" area below)

Additional environment details

• SPFx: 1.24 Beta 2
• NodeJS: 22.23.1

Describe the bug / error

The Copilot component was built and deployed to the Tenant App Catalog. I used the "Add to Teams" option and installed the agent from Agent365. However, when I try to invoke the agent from a Declarative Agent, the tool is not being called.

I tested both the out-of-the-box (OOTB) sample tools and custom tools, but neither of them works. The tools are invoked successfully in Copilot Workbench, but they do not work when the Declarative Agent is deployed.

Steps to reproduce

1. Build and deploy the Copilot Component to the Tenant App Catalog.
2. Use Add to Teams and verify the app is available.
3. Install the agent from Agent365.
4. Test the tool in Copilot Workbench – tool invocation works as expected.
5. Open the deployed Declarative Agent in Teams/Microsoft 365 Copilot.
6. Submit a prompt that should trigger the tool.
7. Observe that the tool is not invoked.

Expected behavior

Tool should be invoked from the Declarative Agent.

[iclanton]

Do you see an "Allow" prompt in Copilot, or does it not appear to even attempt to invoke the agent? Are you seeing an error message?

[jansenbe]

@Sandeep-FED : we've noticed that it can sometimes take a while (24h plus) for the Declarative Agent platform in Copilot to pick up changed/new agents. Would be good to try again and see if it starts to work. If not, then turn developer mode on in Copilot (https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/extensibility/debugging-agents-copilot-studio#use-developer-mode-in-copilot) and verify if you see your MCP tool call listed in the Actions pane. When Copilot did not yet pick up your change you'd see something like below:

If Copilot sees the added MCP tool calls you'd see something like below. The tool call is coming from https://github.com/pnp/spfx-copilot-apps/blob/main/samples/time-off-absence/src/copilotComponents/timeOffOverview/TimeOffOverviewCopilotComponent.manifest.json in below sample

[siddharth-vaghasia]

hi @jansenbe - Experiencing the same with new agents, Since morning buidl two new solutions and deployed but the tool never gets trigerrs, if we ask specifically to call the tool also then also it does not triggers.

[jansenbe]

@siddharth-vaghasia : please share the conversationid you get from the agent debug info. I'll see if I can understand more, we've seen this before were Copilot takes (too much) time before it sees the agent's tools

[siddharth-vaghasia]

@siddharth-vaghasia : please share the conversationid you get from the agent debug info. I'll see if I can understand more, we've seen this before were Copilot takes (too much) time before it sees the agent's tools

here is conversation id - 93155e82-d854-4e5c-976a-8abbc8ea4188 (just tried a new fresh one)

Directly used message as "show FindPeopleTool"

[siddharth-vaghasia]

hi @jansenbe - just to add so that you have more information in understanding,

I have just created a fresh solution and did not make any change and just deploy the project as is...and it worked..
Then i went ahead and I tried an agent which I deployed 3,4 hours back seems to be responding now(which was not working before), atleast now the tool is getting call, the graph api are not getting called but I see there is an open item on that (so seperate issue)

But then show FindPeopleTool(conversationid i shared in above message) is still not working (not calling tool). - this solution I created couple of hours back and deployed.

[jansenbe]

@siddharth-vaghasia : thanks for sharing the details, this maps with what I've seen as well...sometimes Copilot picks up a new solution immediately, sometimes it takes a long time. I'll start an internal thread with the Copilot team to understand more