The SharePoint Online Agent Assets Library

1. What Is the Agent Assets Library?

The Agent Assets Library is a specialized, system-managed document library in SharePoint Online designed specifically to store, govern, and execute Copilot Agent skills and workflow instructions.

While personal Copilot skills reside in a user's OneDrive, Site Skills (shared team-level skills) are stored directly within the SharePoint site where they operate.

• Storage Architecture: Site skills are saved as structured Markdown files under /Agent Assets/Skills/{SkillName}/SKILL.md.

• Automatic Provisioning: You do not need to manually create this library. SharePoint automatically creates and activates the Agent Assets Library the first time a site skill is created using Copilot on that site.

• Permanent Library: Once generated, the library cannot be deleted, ensuring team-wide agent automations and custom skills do not break.

2. Why We Need It

Prior to agent-aware libraries, organizations faced challenges managing repetitive AI workflows and custom team-specific logic:

• Eliminating Repetitive Prompt Engineering: Instead of requiring individual users to write complex, multi-paragraph prompts to review contracts or format summaries, team prompts are standardized once as executable skills.

• Separation of Concerns: Human collaboration files (Word, Excel, presentations) belong in standard document libraries. The Agent Assets Library isolates machine-executable logic and agent instructions in their own dedicated repository.

• Enterprise Governance & Transparency: Because instructions are saved as plain SKILL.md files, definitions are transparent, human-readable, auditable, and version-controlled.

3. How to Use the Agent Assets Library

A. Creating a Site Skill

You can create a skill conversationally or by direct upload:

1. Via Copilot Chat Panel:

   • Open the Copilot in SharePoint panel on any page or document library on your site.

   • Prompt Copilot: "Create a site skill that reviews legal contracts to verify if a Lawyer ID in xxx-xxx format is present. If missing, log the document name to an Invalid Contracts list."

   • Review the drafted steps, parameters, and outputs generated by Copilot.

   • Confirm and save. Copilot will automatically provision the library (if not already present) and save /Agent Assets/Skills/{SkillName}/SKILL.md.

2. Via Direct Upload:

   • If you have a pre-configured SKILL.md folder structure, navigate to Site Contents > Agent Assets> Skills.

   • Upload the skill folder or file directly. Newly uploaded skills are enabled by default.

B. Running a Skill

• Automatic Detection: In Copilot chat, ask a question or give an instruction matching the skill's purpose (e.g., "Audit the selected proposals"); Copilot automatically identifies and loads the relevant skill.

• Explicit Invocation: You can call it by name: "Run [Skill Name] on the selected documents."

• Verification: The Copilot chat UI displays a Skill Indicator Card confirming that the skill has been loaded and executed.

C. Permissions and Governance

• Default Access: Inherits site permissions. Users with Edit access can create and manage site skills, while users with View (Read) access can execute them.

• Granular Restraints: If skill creation needs to be restricted to site owners, break permission inheritance on the Agent Assets Library and set members to Read-Only.

• Execution Security: A skill runs under the security context of the invoking user. If a user does not have permission to view a specific document or list, the agent cannot access it on their behalf.

4. Key Rules and Best Practices