Copilot Studio + Teams: Inline-pasted screenshots not available in System.Activity.Attachments (OCR flow never receives image)

Haley Scott 20 Reputation points
2026-07-01T18:10:00.8733333+00:00

I have a Copilot Studio agent published to Microsoft Teams that is designed to read error screenshots and return approved troubleshooting guidance.

The architecture is:

  • Teams user pastes an error screenshot.
  • Topic triggers.
  • Power Automate Agent Flow runs OCR using AI Builder "Recognize text in image or document".
  • OCR text is passed into a Generative Answers node scoped to an approved error-guidance document.

The OCR flow itself works correctly when tested directly and successfully extracts text from images.

The issue only occurs in the published Teams experience.

My question

Are inline-pasted screenshots in Microsoft Teams expected to populate: System.Activity.Attachments inside a Copilot Studio topic?

If not:

  1. Is there another supported activity property that contains inline-pasted image content?
  2. Is there a supported Power Fx formula for accessing inline-pasted screenshots?
  3. Is OCR processing of inline-pasted screenshots currently supported in published Teams Copilot Studio agents?
  4. Is the expected/supported approach to require users to upload the image as a file attachment rather than pasting it inline?

Any guidance on how to inspect the actual Teams activity payload that reaches Copilot Studio would also be appreciated.

Current behavior

When a user pastes a screenshot directly into the Teams conversation:

  • The topic triggers.
  • The image appears in Teams as "Image (Unspecified)".
  • The OCR flow does not execute.
  • No new flow run appears in run history.
  • First(System.Activity.Attachments) appears to be empty.

The bot either:

  • asks the user to provide an image, or
  • returns a generic summary of the entire error document instead of the specific matched response.

Flow input

I am passing:

{

    contentBytes: First(System.Activity.Attachments).Content,

    name: First(System.Activity.Attachments).Name

}

to the agent flow.

This follows the Copilot Studio documentation for passing files to flows.

What I have already verified

  • OCR flow works when manually given an image.
  • Topic routing works.
  • Topic runs in Teams.
  • Flow output variable mapping is correct.
  • Flow run history shows successful manual tests.
  • Flow run history does NOT show executions from real Teams conversations containing inline-pasted screenshots.
Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Development
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Answer accepted by question author
stephen daniel 165 Reputation points
2026-07-01T18:26:21.1266667+00:00

Great technical question — you’ve hit a subtle limitation in how Teams messages are surfaced to Copilot Studio.

Key Point: -

Inline‑pasted screenshots in Microsoft Teams are not exposed as System.Activity.Attachments in Copilot Studio topics. That’s why your Power Automate flow never sees the image content — the payload doesn’t include it. Instead, Teams treats pasted images as ephemeral “inline media,” which currently isn’t passed through to Copilot Studio agents.

What's Supported: -

  1. File uploads (attachments): If the user uploads an image as a file (via the paperclip icon), it will appear in System.Activity.Attachments and can be passed to your OCR flow.
  2. Inline‑pasted images: These show up visually in Teams but do not populate System.Activity.Attachments. No Power Fx formula can retrieve them because they aren’t in the activity payload.
  3. OCR flows: Supported only when the image is a proper file attachment. Inline paste is not supported in published Teams agents today. Recommended Approach: -
    1. Require file upload: Guide users to upload error screenshots as files instead of pasting inline.
    2. Inspect payloads: Use the Bot Framework Emulator or enable logging in Copilot Studio to inspect the raw activity JSON. You’ll see that inline images are missing from attachments.
    3. Fallback logic: If System.Activity.Attachments is empty, prompt the user: “Please upload the screenshot as a file so I can process it.” Current Limitation: - This is not a bug in your OCR flow — it’s a limitation of Teams → Copilot Studio integration. Inline‑pasted screenshots are not yet supported for downstream processing. Microsoft’s guidance is to use file attachments for scenarios like OCR.

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