Connectors Overview

Overview

Your Copilot Studio agent can answer questions and guide users through conversations. But the real value comes when that agent can reach into the systems your agency actually depends on—checking a case status in Dynamics 365, pulling a record from SharePoint, or kicking off an approval workflow in Power Automate.

Connectors make that possible. They are the bridge between your agent and hundreds of data sources and services, and understanding how they work is essential before you start building integrations in government cloud environments.

What You’ll Learn

• What connectors are: How they fit into the Copilot Studio architecture
• Connector categories: First-party, third-party, and custom connectors
• Standard vs. premium: Licensing differences and practical implications
• Security and compliance: DLP policies, data boundaries, and auditing in GCC, GCC High, and DoD

Script

Hook: Why connectors matter

Your agent can answer questions—but can it check a case status, pull a record, or kick off a workflow?

If you are building agents in Copilot Studio for a government environment, the answer to that question depends entirely on connectors. Connectors are the bridge between your agent and the systems your agency relies on every day.

In the next eight minutes, you will understand the connector landscape in Copilot Studio—what types are available, how licensing works, and what security guardrails apply in GCC, GCC High, and DoD environments.

What connectors are

A connector is a pre-built integration that lets your agent call an external service. Think of it as an adapter that translates between your agent’s conversation logic and another system’s API. Your agent does not need to know how SharePoint’s REST API works—the SharePoint connector handles that translation.

Here is how connectors fit into the Copilot Studio architecture. A user sends a message to your agent. The agent processes the message through a topic. That topic includes an action node that calls a connector. The connector reaches out to the external service, retrieves or writes data, and returns the result to the topic. The topic then uses that result to compose a response back to the user.

In government cloud environments, connectors must operate within your cloud boundary. A connector in GCC High calls endpoints within the GCC High boundary. Data does not leave your authorized environment during a connector call. This is fundamental to maintaining compliance.

Categories of available connectors

Connectors fall into three broad categories.

First, there are Microsoft first-party connectors. These connect to Microsoft services—SharePoint, Outlook, Teams, Dataverse, Dynamics 365, and many more. They are built and maintained by Microsoft and generally have the strongest support across government clouds.

Second, there are third-party connectors. Companies like ServiceNow, Salesforce, and SAP publish connectors to the Power Platform ecosystem. However, availability varies by cloud environment. A connector that works in commercial may not yet be certified for GCC High or DoD. Always verify before building a dependency on a third-party connector.

Third, there are custom connectors. When no pre-built connector exists for a system you need to reach—an internal agency API, a legacy database behind a web service, or a specialized tool—you build a custom connector. You define the API surface, authentication method, and operations yourself.

You can browse all available connectors in the Power Platform connector gallery. Filter by your cloud environment to see what is actually available to you. This is especially important in GCC High and DoD, where the connector catalog is smaller than in commercial or GCC.

Standard vs. premium connectors

Not all connectors are created equal from a licensing perspective.

Standard connectors are included with most Power Platform and Copilot Studio licenses. Examples include SharePoint, Outlook, Office 365 Users, and Microsoft Teams. These are your starting point for most agent integrations—they cover the most common Microsoft 365 services.

Premium connectors require additional licensing. Examples include Dataverse, HTTP with Azure AD, SQL Server, and many third-party connectors. If you are using Copilot Studio with a Copilot Studio license, you generally have access to premium connectors within your agent’s actions. However, if you are working with standalone Power Platform licensing, the rules differ—check with your licensing administrator.

Each connector’s reference page in the Microsoft documentation clearly labels it as standard or premium. Before you design an integration, check this label so you do not build against a connector your team cannot use.

A practical tip: start with standard connectors for quick wins. SharePoint and Outlook connectors alone can power a wide range of useful agent scenarios—looking up documents, retrieving list items, sending notifications. Plan premium connectors for deeper integrations where you need Dataverse, SQL, or external APIs.

Connector security and data handling

Security is where government developers need to pay the most attention.

Every connector requires a connection—a set of credentials that authenticates the agent to the target service. These credentials are stored securely in the Power Platform connection infrastructure. Connections can be per-user, meaning each user authenticates with their own identity, or shared using a service account. Per-user connections are preferred in government environments because they enforce least-privilege access—the agent can only see what the authenticated user is authorized to see.

Data boundary enforcement is built in. When you use a connector in GCC, GCC High, or DoD, the data stays within your cloud boundary. Connector calls route through the government-specific Power Platform infrastructure, not through commercial endpoints.

Data Loss Prevention policies add another layer of control. Your Power Platform administrator classifies connectors into groups—typically Business, Non-Business, and Blocked. DLP policies prevent agents from combining connectors across groups in the same flow or action. For example, a DLP policy might block an agent from reading records from Dataverse and sending them to a third-party social media connector. This prevents accidental data exfiltration.

Connectors are also subject to throttling and rate limits. Each connector has call limits per connection over a 24-hour period. Design your agents to handle throttled responses—HTTP 429 status codes—gracefully, with retry logic or user-friendly messages.

All connector activity is logged in the Power Platform admin center. These activity logs support compliance audits for FedRAMP, FISMA, and other government frameworks. You can track which connectors are being called, by whom, and how often.

For IL4 and IL5 workloads, additional restrictions may apply. Some connectors may be unavailable at higher impact levels. Custom connectors must target endpoints inside the government boundary. Coordinate with your security team before enabling any new connector in your environment.

Close: Choosing the right connectors

Here is a simple decision framework for choosing connectors. Identify the system you need to reach. Check if a first-party or third-party connector already exists for it. Verify that the connector is available in your specific government cloud. Confirm whether it is standard or premium and that you have the right licensing. Validate that your DLP policies allow the connector in combination with your other integrations.

Three things to do next. Browse the Power Platform connector gallery filtered for your cloud environment. Review your tenant’s DLP policies with your Power Platform administrator. Pick one connector and build a simple proof-of-concept agent action to prove the pattern before scaling.

Connectors turn your agent from a chatbot into a real tool. Pick the right ones, and your agent can do real work for your agency.

Sources & References

• Use connectors in Copilot Studio — Official Copilot Studio documentation on using connectors and connector actions within agents
• Microsoft connector reference — Browse all available connectors with filtering by environment and licensing tier
• Copilot Studio documentation — Main documentation hub for Copilot Studio agent building and platform capabilities
• Power Platform government feature availability — Verify connector and feature support in GCC, GCC High, and DoD