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GitHub Copilot Train-the-Trainer
Overview

Session 08 — Copilot App, Plugins & Canvas Extensions

Module: Agentic Workflows Difficulty: Advanced Prerequisites: Sessions 01–07 Duration: 3 hours (1 hour trainer content + 2 hours lab)

Overview

Use a shared work surface when an agent needs more than another chat turn. This session covers the Copilot App Customize area, plugins, and canvases. Learners create and review a small canvas for a synthetic workflow.

Learning Outcomes

  • Explain the difference between instructions, skills, custom agents, MCP servers, canvases, and plugins.
  • Decide when a workflow needs a canvas.
  • Define shared state, user actions, agent capabilities, and validation evidence.
  • Create a bounded canvas in an approved Copilot App sandbox.
  • Review a canvas for data handling, ownership, and manual fallback.

Session Materials

Resource Location
Trainer guide trainer-content/README.md
Slides slides.md
Lab lab/README.md

Key Topics

  • Copilot App sessions and the Customize area
  • Plugins, skills, MCP servers, and canvases
  • Shared canvas state for people and agents
  • User actions and agent-callable capabilities
  • Project and personal canvas scope
  • Data boundaries, review, ownership, and removal