Michael Gardon · CHIEF
The Chief Method · Microsoft Copilot

Build your Chief in Microsoft Copilot

Same idea as the full Chief: one place that holds who you are, your business, what's on your plate, how you work, and your voice, loaded into every chat. In Microsoft 365 Copilot, that place is an agent you build yourself. Here is how.

4 steps · ~15 min · describe it in plain words

Agent Builder lets you make your own Copilot agent by describing what you want in plain language, no code. You give it instructions and point it at your own files in SharePoint or OneDrive. Do this once and you have a Chief that answers from your world. Labels move around as Microsoft updates, so match the meaning, not the exact word.

Step 1 · Open Agent Builder

Start a new agent and name it Chief

This is the easy, no-code route. You describe your agent and Microsoft builds it for you.

  1. AppOpen the Microsoft 365 Copilot app (or m365.cloud.microsoft) and sign in with your work account.
  2. AppIn the left navigation, find the Agents section and click New agent (this opens Agent Builder).
  3. AppOn the Describe tab, tell it in plain words what you want, for example: "An agent that acts as my chief of staff and answers from my personal files." Then give it a name: Chief.
If you do not see New agent, your organization may have it switched off. That is Step 5, the honest limitation. Check with your IT admin.
Step 2 · Give it instructions

Tell it how to act

Instructions set the standing job and the ground rules. You can type them, or switch to the Configure tab to edit them directly.

  1. AppIn Agent Builder, open the Configure tab and find the Instructions box.
  2. AppPaste the block below, edit the bracketed parts, and save. Agent Builder may offer to clean up your wording, that is fine.
Paste this into instructions 
Act as my chief of staff. I am [name], [role] at [company]. I own [the 3-5 outcomes you are responsible for].

How to work with me:
- Lead with the answer. No preamble and no filler.
- Direct, plain, short sentences. Write at an 8th-grade level.
- One thing at a time. Do not stack questions.
- Draft, never send. Get my okay before anything goes out.
- Push back when I am vague or wrong. Ask before you assume.
- End with the single next step I should take.

My voice: [two or three words, e.g. plain, direct, warm]. Words I never use: [list].
Answer from the files in my knowledge sources. If something is not in them, say so.
Step 3 · Add your knowledge

Point it at your files

This is what your Chief reads from. Put your context files in SharePoint or OneDrive, then point the agent at them. Same five files as the full Chief, one for each part of your world.

  1. Your filesIn SharePoint or OneDrive, make a folder and drop in five short files: about-me (who you are, how you think, what is yours to decide, your voice), business (what you do, how you make money, best customer, main threat), current-state (top 3 priorities, live decisions, what is scarce), how-i-work (your rules and preferences), and voice (samples of how you sound).
  2. AppBack in Agent Builder, on the Configure tab find Knowledge (or Add knowledge). Add your files by pasting the SharePoint link, browsing to the folder, or uploading directly.
  3. AppUse the Try it panel on the side to test it. Ask "What do you know about me?" and confirm it is reading your files.
No files yet? Ask Copilot in a normal chat to interview you and draft the five files, then save them into SharePoint or OneDrive and point the agent at them.
Step 4 · Lean on memory, then work

Save it and use it

Copilot Memory quietly remembers your preferences and context over time, so your Chief gets more personal the more you use it. Finish the agent and put it to work.

  1. AppIn Agent Builder, click Create (or Save) to finish your agent. It now shows up in your Agents list.
  2. AppMake sure Copilot Memory is on in your Copilot settings so it can personalize to you over time.
  3. AppOpen your Chief agent whenever you work. Ask what is next, have it draft in your voice, talk through decisions. It answers from your files.
Keep it lean. Instructions load into every turn, so keep them to the essentials. The deep context lives in your knowledge files.
Read this before you rely on it

The honest limitation

What you can do yourself, and what needs IT

The basic agent above is user-buildable, but only if your admin has enabled it. In many tenants Agent Builder is on by default, but your IT department can switch off agent creation, publishing, or the connectors that reach your data. If you do not see New agent, that is why.

The powerful parts of the Chief framework, having the AI write back to your files, run scheduled automations, and connect live to your data, live in Copilot Studio and Power Automate. In a company Microsoft tenant those are governed by IT: an admin has to enable agent creation and connectors, premium licenses or capacity are required, and data-governance (DLP) policies apply. So the advanced build may need approvals you do not control.

The contrast worth knowing: in Claude, this whole system, files the AI writes and maintains, automations, connections, runs at the individual level, no admin gate. In Microsoft, the starter agent is yours, but the compounding parts run through IT.