Can the copilot studio bot and its orchestrator understand or read the values from the global variables where the run time values are getting stored ?

Question

Can the copilot studio bot and its orchestrator understand or read the values from the global variables where the run time values are getting stored ?

Sheeba, Ravi (Cognizant) 0

I want copilot studio bot to understand the run time values stored in global variables and if i specify the agent instruction to fetch the values of the global variable and based on the values , call the MCP tool to query the data from the dataverse . Is this possible ?

Ashlesha Pawar (Tata Consultancy Services Limited) 395 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2026-09-08T13:53:26.3233333+00:00
Sheeba, Ravi (Cognizant)

Yes, runtime values stored in Copilot Studio global variables can be used during the same conversation session, including in topics and Tool nodes. However, an MCP server cannot automatically read Copilot Studio global variables, and mentioning Global.VariableName only in the agent instructions is not a reliable data-binding method.

For deterministic behavior:

Create a topic with inputs or conditions that reference the required Global.* variables.

Call the MCP tool from that topic.

Map each MCP input explicitly to the corresponding global variable using the variable picker or a Power Fx expression.

Use the topic description or agent instructions to tell generative orchestration when to select that topic.

Global variables are scoped to the current agent and conversation session. They are reset when the session or conversation is reset. They also aren't automatically shared with another connected agent or transmitted to an MCP server unless passed as tool inputs.

References:

Work with global variables

Add tools to custom agents

Add MCP tools and resources

Your answer

Ashlesha Pawar (Tata Consultancy Services Limited) 395 Reputation points Microsoft External Staff

2026-09-08T13:53:26.3233333+00:00

Sheeba, Ravi (Cognizant)

Yes, runtime values stored in Copilot Studio global variables can be used during the same conversation session, including in topics and Tool nodes. However, an MCP server cannot automatically read Copilot Studio global variables, and mentioning Global.VariableName only in the agent instructions is not a reliable data-binding method.

For deterministic behavior:

Create a topic with inputs or conditions that reference the required Global.* variables.

Call the MCP tool from that topic.

Map each MCP input explicitly to the corresponding global variable using the variable picker or a Power Fx expression.

Use the topic description or agent instructions to tell generative orchestration when to select that topic.

Global variables are scoped to the current agent and conversation session. They are reset when the session or conversation is reset. They also aren't automatically shared with another connected agent or transmitted to an MCP server unless passed as tool inputs.

References:

Work with global variables

Add tools to custom agents

Add MCP tools and resources