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Portal Walkthrough: Control 1.28 - Policy-Based Agent Publishing Restrictions

Last Updated: February 2026 Portal: Power Platform Admin Center + Copilot Studio Estimated Time: 30-45 minutes

Prerequisites

  • Power Platform Admin or Entra Global Admin role
  • Access to Power Platform Admin Center
  • Access to Copilot Studio environment
  • Knowledge of agent governance zone classifications
  • Approved DLP policy design (Zone 2+ environments)

Step-by-Step Configuration

Step 1: Configure Tenant-Level DLP Policies

  1. Open Power Platform Admin Center
  2. Click Policies in the left navigation
  3. Click Data policies to view existing DLP policies
  4. Click + New Policy to create a zone-specific DLP policy
  5. Enter policy details:
  6. Policy Name: Zone 3 Enterprise - Restricted DLP Policy
  7. Description: Enforces connector restrictions for Zone 3 customer-facing agents
  8. Scope: Select specific environments (or environment groups)
  9. Click Next to configure connector classification

Note: DLP policies are the primary enforcement mechanism for publishing restrictions. Agents with DLP violations cannot be published, and published agents are blocked from updates until violations are resolved (enforced since February 2025).

Step 2: Classify Connectors by Zone

  1. On the Assign Connectors page, review the three connector categories:
  2. Business: Connectors allowed for business data (e.g., SharePoint, Dataverse)
  3. Non-Business: Connectors allowed for non-business data (e.g., Twitter, RSS)
  4. Blocked: Connectors prohibited in this environment
  5. Configure connector classification by zone:

Zone 1 (Personal) Policy: - Business: SharePoint, Dataverse, Office 365, Microsoft Teams - Non-Business: Twitter, RSS, HTTP, Weather - Blocked: Public websites connector, Telegram, Facebook

Zone 2 (Team) Policy: - Business: SharePoint, Dataverse, Office 365, Microsoft Teams, SQL Server - Non-Business: (empty) - Blocked: Twitter, HTTP, Public websites, Telegram, Facebook, RSS

Zone 3 (Enterprise) Policy: - Business: SharePoint (read-only), Dataverse (approved tables only), Microsoft 365 Groups (read-only) - Non-Business: (empty) - Blocked: All external connectors, HTTP, premium connectors without approval

  1. Search for specific connectors using the search bar
  2. Drag connectors between categories to reclassify
  3. Click Next to configure custom connector patterns

Zone 3 Critical Restriction: Block public channels (public websites, Telegram, Facebook) in Zone 3 DLP policies to prevent customer-facing agents from being published to insecure channels.

Step 3: Configure Custom Connector Restrictions (Optional)

  1. On the Custom connector patterns page, configure URL patterns for HTTP connector restrictions
  2. Define allowed domains for Zone 2+ environments:
  3. Allowed domain pattern: *.yourcompany.com, *.microsoft.com
  4. Blocked domain pattern: * (block all others)
  5. Click Next to review policy scope

Optional: Custom connector patterns provide granular control over HTTP and custom connector usage. Use this feature in Zone 3 to whitelist only approved external APIs.

Step 4: Assign DLP Policy to Environments

  1. On the Define scope page, select how to apply the policy:
  2. Add multiple environments: Select specific environments by name
  3. Add all environments: Apply policy tenant-wide (not recommended for Zone 1)
  4. Exclude certain environments: Apply policy to all except selected environments
  5. For zone-based deployment, select Add multiple environments
  6. Check the boxes for environments classified as Zone 3 (e.g., "Production", "Customer-Facing")
  7. Click Next to review policy summary
  8. Review all settings on the Review and create policy page
  9. Click Create policy to enforce the DLP policy

Environment Assignment Strategy: Create separate DLP policies for each zone (Zone 1, Zone 2, Zone 3) with escalating restrictions. Assign each policy to the appropriate environments based on zone classification.

Step 5: Enable Security Scans for Agent Publishing

  1. Open Copilot Studio
  2. Select the target agent from the agent list
  3. Click Publish in the top-right corner
  4. Observe the Security scan indicator before publishing:
  5. Green checkmark: No security issues detected
  6. Yellow warning: Warnings detected (Zone 1 can proceed)
  7. Red error: Blocking issues detected (Zone 2+ cannot proceed)
  8. Click View details to see security scan findings

Note: Security scans are triggered automatically before publishing. Scans check for blocked channels, insecure connectors, DLP violations, and configuration vulnerabilities.

Step 6: Review and Resolve Security Scan Findings

  1. In the Security scan results panel, review detected issues:
  2. DLP violations: Agent uses connectors not allowed by DLP policy
  3. Blocked channels: Agent is configured to publish to prohibited channels (e.g., public website)
  4. Insecure configuration: Agent has settings that pose security risks
  5. For each finding, click Details to view remediation guidance
  6. Resolve DLP violations:
  7. Remove or replace blocked connectors from agent topics
  8. Request DLP policy exemption (Zone 1 only)
  9. Reconfigure agent to use approved connectors
  10. Resolve blocked channel violations:
  11. Navigate to agent Settings → Channels
  12. Disable or remove prohibited channels (e.g., uncheck "Facebook", "Telegram")
  13. Save changes
  14. Return to the Publish screen and re-run the security scan
  15. Verify all issues are resolved before proceeding

Zone 2+ Requirement: Security scans must pass before publishing is allowed. Yellow warnings are acceptable in Zone 1 but require resolution in Zone 2+.

Step 7: Configure Approval Workflow for Agent Publishing (Zone 2+ Only)

  1. Open Power Platform Admin Center
  2. Navigate to Environments
  3. Select the target environment (Zone 2 or Zone 3)
  4. Click Settings at the top
  5. Expand Product section
  6. Click Features
  7. Scroll to Copilot and Power Apps section
  8. Enable Require approval for new chatbots
  9. Optionally enable Require approval for chatbot updates
  10. Click Save

Approval Workflow Enablement: This setting requires agent authors to submit a publishing request that must be approved by a Power Platform Admin before the agent is published or updated.

Step 8: Submit Agent for Approval (Agent Author Perspective)

  1. In Copilot Studio, open the agent to be published
  2. Click Publish in the top-right corner
  3. Verify security scan passes (or warnings are acknowledged in Zone 1)
  4. On the Publish agent screen, provide:
  5. Publishing justification: Brief description of why the agent is being published
  6. Expected impact: Who will use the agent and for what purpose
  7. Testing evidence: Reference to test results or validation documentation
  8. Click Submit for approval (if approval is required) or Publish (if no approval required)
  9. Wait for approval notification from Power Platform Admin

Documentation Requirement: Zone 3 environments require formal publishing documentation including test results, security review sign-off, and business justification before approval.

Step 9: Approve or Reject Publishing Request (Admin Perspective)

  1. Open Power Platform Admin Center
  2. Navigate to Pending approvals or check email for approval notification
  3. Click the pending agent publishing request
  4. Review submission details:
  5. Agent name and environment
  6. Publishing justification from agent author
  7. Security scan results
  8. DLP compliance status
  9. Verify the agent meets zone-specific requirements:
  10. Zone 2: Documented approval, passing security scan, DLP compliance
  11. Zone 3: Multi-level approval, security review sign-off, formal documentation
  12. Click Approve to allow publishing, or Reject with feedback
  13. Provide approval comments for audit trail

Multi-Level Approval (Zone 3): For Zone 3 customer-facing agents, require approval from both Power Platform Admin and Compliance Officer before publishing. Configure multi-stage approval workflows using Power Automate.

Step 10: Verify Environment Promotion Pipeline (Zone 3 Only)

  1. Open Power Platform Admin Center
  2. Navigate to Environments
  3. Verify separate environments exist:
  4. Development environment: For agent authoring and initial testing
  5. Test environment: For pre-production validation and UAT
  6. Production environment: For live customer-facing deployments
  7. Configure environment groups to link dev/test/prod environments:
  8. Navigate to Environment groups
  9. Click + New group
  10. Add development, test, and production environments to the group
  11. Enforce promotion pipeline:
  12. Agents published in development environment must be promoted to test
  13. Agents published in test environment must be promoted to production
  14. Each promotion requires re-approval at the destination environment level

Zone 3 Requirement: Environment promotion pipelines prevent agents from being published directly to production without undergoing testing and validation in lower environments.

Configuration by Governance Level

Setting Baseline (Zone 1) Recommended (Zone 2) Regulated (Zone 3)
DLP policy assignment Basic restrictions Moderate restrictions Strict whitelist only
Security scan enforcement Warning only Must pass Must pass + review
Approval workflow Not required Single approver Multi-level approval
Channel restrictions Recommended Enforced (block public) Whitelist only
Environment separation Single environment Dev + Prod recommended Dev + Test + Prod required
Publishing documentation Recommended Required Required with sign-off
Approval SLA N/A 48 hours 24 hours

Validation

After completing these steps, verify:

  • DLP policies are configured and assigned to environments by zone
  • Connector classification aligns with zone requirements (Business/Non-Business/Blocked)
  • Security scans are enabled and triggered automatically before publishing
  • Approval workflows are configured for Zone 2+ environments
  • Channel restrictions are enforced (public channels blocked in Zone 2+)
  • Environment separation is implemented for Zone 3 (dev/test/prod)
  • Test publishing an agent to verify DLP enforcement and approval workflow
  • Publishing audit logs are captured in Microsoft Purview

Visual Reference

Expected portal locations: - DLP policies: Power Platform Admin Center → Policies → Data policies - Environment settings: Power Platform Admin Center → Environments → [Environment] → Settings - Approval enablement: Power Platform Admin Center → Environments → [Environment] → Settings → Features → Require approval for new chatbots - Security scan results: Copilot Studio → [Agent] → Publish → Security scan details - Channel configuration: Copilot Studio → [Agent] → Settings → Channels

UI Note: The DLP enforcement change (removal of "Soft-Enabled" exemption) became effective in February 2025. All published agents now require DLP compliance—agents with violations are blocked from updates until violations are resolved.

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