Copilot studio_AI Agent Publish

Hyeji (Claire) Park 20 Reputation points
2026-07-21T00:57:47.37+00:00

Hi,

I would like to ask about an issue related to a Main Agent and Child Agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Environment

  • Main Agent: Published
  • Main Agent: Approved by Teams Admin and available to all internal users
  • Child Agent: At the time of testing, it had NOT been published and had NOT been approved for sharing.
  • The Main Agent calls the Child Agent for specific topics.

Issue When another internal user tested the Main Agent:

  1. Questions that were answered directly by the Main Agent worked correctly.
  2. As soon as the user asked a question that triggered the Child Agent, the following message appeared:

"You don't have access to talk to this bot, contact the owner."

  1. After receiving this message once, every subsequent question—even questions that should have been answered only by the Main Agent—returned the same error.
  2. Even starting a new chat with the Main Agent did not resolve the issue. The user continued to receive the same access error for every question.

Current Status I have now published the Child Agent. It is currently available to people in my organization, although it has not yet been approved for sharing to all internal users through Teams Admin.

Questions

  1. Could this issue have been caused simply because the Child Agent was not published when the user first accessed it?
  2. If so, after publishing the Child Agent, is there anything the affected users need to do (for example, remove the app, clear cache, sign out/in, or wait for propagation) before they can use the Main Agent normally again?
  3. If publishing is not the cause, what else could trigger this behavior?
  4. Why does the access error continue for the Main Agent even after the Child Agent call has failed? Is this expected behavior?
  5. Is there any way to reset or refresh the conversation/session so that users can use the Main Agent again without waiting?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.Hi,

I would like to ask about an issue related to a Main Agent and Child Agent in Microsoft Copilot Studio.

Environment

  • Main Agent: Published
  • Main Agent: Approved by Teams Admin and available to all internal users
  • Child Agent: At the time of testing, it had NOT been published and had NOT been approved for sharing.
  • The Main Agent calls the Child Agent for specific topics.

Issue
When another internal user tested the Main Agent:

  1. Questions that were answered directly by the Main Agent worked correctly.
  2. As soon as the user asked a question that triggered the Child Agent, the following message appeared:

"You don't have access to talk to this bot, contact the owner."

  1. After receiving this message once, every subsequent question—even questions that should have been answered only by the Main Agent—returned the same error.
  2. Even starting a new chat with the Main Agent did not resolve the issue. The user continued to receive the same access error for every question.

Current Status
I have now published the Child Agent.
It is currently available to people in my organization, although it has not yet been approved for sharing to all internal users through Teams Admin.

Questions

  1. Could this issue have been caused simply because the Child Agent was not published when the user first accessed it?
  2. If so, after publishing the Child Agent, is there anything the affected users need to do (for example, remove the app, clear cache, sign out/in, or wait for propagation) before they can use the Main Agent normally again?
  3. If publishing is not the cause, what else could trigger this behavior?
  4. Why does the access error continue for the Main Agent even after the Child Agent call has failed? Is this expected behavior?
  5. Is there any way to reset or refresh the conversation/session so that users can use the Main Agent again without waiting?

Any guidance would be greatly appreciated.

Microsoft Copilot | Microsoft 365 Copilot | Development
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  1. AI answer

    2026-07-21T00:58:23.1666667+00:00

    Yes. A likely cause is that the main agent delegated to a child agent that the user could not access. The context confirms that child agents are separate agents with their own orchestration and behavior, and published-agent conversations can enter a failed state where later messages keep failing until the conversation is reset.

    For the stuck behavior, this is consistent with a broken conversation/session state. When a published agent stops responding or returns an error, later messages can keep failing. The supported recovery is:

    1. In Microsoft 365 Copilot, start a new chat with the agent.
    2. In Microsoft Teams, send the message /foundry_new_preview to reset the conversation.

    After reset, the previous conversation cannot be restored.

    For visibility after publishing, there can also be propagation delay:

    • An agent might not appear immediately after publishing because the store cache refreshes only when the store is opened, on about a one-hour cycle.
    • For organization-wide availability, admin approval can still be pending.
    • If the agent was published with personal/shared scope, clearing the store cache or signing out and back in can help refresh visibility.

    Applied to this scenario:

    • If the child agent was not published or not available to the user when the main agent tried to call it, that can explain the initial access failure.
    • If the conversation then entered a bad state, that explains why later prompts to the main agent also failed.
    • After publishing the child agent, affected users should first reset the conversation. In Teams, use /foundry_new_preview. In Microsoft 365 Copilot, start a new chat.
    • If the child agent still does not appear usable after publishing, allow time for propagation and confirm any required admin approval is complete.

    Other causes supported by the context that can also make a published agent fail or appear unresponsive include:

    • Conditional Access blocking token acquisition, which can make agents unresponsive or unavailable on channels such as Teams.
    • Authentication timeout.
    • Missing required license.
    • MCP approval required.

    What is not supported in the context is a documented statement that uninstalling the app, clearing the Teams client cache, or removing and re-adding the app is required for this exact child-agent access case.

    AI-generated content may be incorrect. Read our transparency notes for more information.

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