Microsoft 365 data and approvals

Choose the right action

Calendar, Email, OneDrive, and SharePoint Online are separate actions so an agent can receive the capabilities it needs without unrelated access. Personal, group-context single-user, shared personal, and shared group conversations can use them.

Direct chat uses the person asking. A workflow instead uses its explicitly authorized Run as account for both manual and scheduled execution.

To narrow a request, name the file or supply its canonical folder URL, for example: “Use SharePoint Online to find the current travel policy under https://tenant.sharepoint.com/sites/Team/Shared%20Documents/Policies.” The restriction belongs to that request, not the action’s configuration. Search uses the provider’s index rather than an SMB-style recursive folder walk; continuation and coverage results describe the available search window.

Understand the separate decisions

Decision	What it authorizes
Microsoft Entra consent/sign-in	The application may call the selected Microsoft 365 APIs as the user. Source permissions still apply.
Sharing acknowledgement	Retrieved answers and retained source evidence may be published to conversation participants.
Extended analysis	The selected files may receive additional staged processing beyond the fast windows.
Workflow Run as approval	A specific workflow revision may use the selected person’s connected account.
Outgoing action review	The data owner may send the exact prepared email or invitation in manual mode, or stop a configured delayed delivery.

One decision does not substitute for another. An administrator who owns an action cannot approve another person’s data disclosure.

Manage sharing in Profile

The Settings tab on Profile keeps independent sharing preferences for Calendar, Email, OneDrive, and SPO. They apply across personal, group, and global actions rather than being tied to one agent you might not be able to edit.

In shared conversations, choose Allow this request, Allow for today, Always allow, or No. Today expires at local midnight in the confirmed time zone. An action owner can permit a shorter maximum duration. An Always preference does not silently create a fresh daily approval when that action’s shorter approval has expired.

Declining a source lets the request continue without that source. Private single-user chats do not require a sharing acknowledgement merely because they use a group workspace.

Connect from a conversation

When a selected Microsoft 365 action needs fresh source access, Chat checks the current user’s delegated permissions before asking the model to answer. Missing access pauses the request and offers Connect Microsoft 365 with the relevant sources. Use that button to sign in and review Microsoft’s permission consent; there is no need to open Profile first.

After successful sign-in, SimpleChat returns to the original conversation and queues its saved request. The authorization code and token cache stay in the server-side login flow, not in browser storage or the conversation. Sign in as the same tenant account that started the request.

The workflow connection status in Profile applies to unattended workflow access. A disconnected workflow account does not mean interactive chat is disabled. Reloading already-published file evidence also does not require a fresh source sign-in.

Review an email or meeting before delivery

Chat shows a saved action card for manual or delayed Email and Calendar operations. You do not need to find an action hidden inside a citation or interpret the agent’s wording. If the final response is interrupted, reload the conversation or open Approvals to recover the same outgoing action.

Review the recipients, subject, and complete body; for a meeting, also check time, timezone, location, and Teams status. Only the data owner sees private recipient/body details and can select Send, Send now, or Cancel. Other authorized participants receive a read-only summary.

If the card needs sign-in, reconnect and return to that card. Sign-in and sharing approval alone do not send it or repeat the original agent request. Changed content, permissions, audience, or an older unbound record can require preparing a new action instead.

For email, SimpleChat checks the Outlook draft version and sends the immutable content reviewed on the card. The original draft remains after both Send and Cancel. Do not send it again. Successful email submission means Microsoft 365 accepted it for sending; it is not a recipient-delivery receipt.

Delayed chat uses a short in-process timer. A browser countdown is informational only. After a lost timer, review and send manually; after an uncertain remote send, check Outlook before preparing anything new. Immediate send mode and marking a message read do not gain a second confirmation.

Reconnect without a pending request

In Profile > Settings > Microsoft 365 chat connection, select the sources and choose Reconnect Microsoft 365 for chat. This starts a fresh sign-in even if a token is already saved and no conversation is currently paused. Sign in with the same account you use for SimpleChat.

The existing sign-in remains untouched until the new account, tenant, consent, and authorization-code flow are verified. After success, Profile shows the renewed sign-in; return to the conversation and retry your question explicitly. Profile reconnect does not run old requests, change sharing approvals, or renew workflow Run as authorizations. It does not require Key Vault.

The local status available means a matching sign-in is saved for the current session, not that every remote resource is accessible. A rejected Graph bearer token supplies a reconnect prompt through the existing paused-chat flow. An access-denied policy, service outage, throttling, or missing model context configuration is a different failure and must not be described as expired login.

Share evidence deliberately

A sharing acknowledgement covers retained source evidence, not only the final answer. Other participants can reuse the published snapshot without having access to its original Microsoft 365 file. New remote calls still use the requesting participant’s delegated identity.

The same rules apply when a private conversation is shared later. Published snapshots follow conversation retention and deletion. Disconnecting Microsoft 365 or removing source permissions does not recall copies already disclosed.

Choose fast or deeper file analysis

OneDrive and SharePoint have separate analysis preferences. Fast windows allow small relevant file reads without another prompt. Larger or more numerous files offer a choice: deeper analysis, a faster answer, or a standing preference for deeper work.

Deeper analysis processes content in batches and preserves extracted evidence, intermediate results, and checkpoints in the chat storage account. It can reload relevant ranges instead of putting everything into one prompt. Summaries are navigation aids, not replacements for captured evidence.

Progress reports identify covered files and page, slide, sheet, or row ranges. Unsupported content and hard service limits remain explicit limitations. No workspace document or Azure AI Search index is created.

Respond through chat or Approvals

The inline prompt and Approvals page refer to the same request. Notifications link to the request when you are no longer looking at the conversation. Conversation audit metadata records which decision was used.

Approval can queue a continuation or require Microsoft 365 sign-in; it does not necessarily mean the operation has finished. A waiting workflow resumes from its checkpoint rather than rerunning completed work.

Connect an account for workflows

Use the Profile Microsoft 365 connection controls for explicit background access. Saved workflow connections require configured Key Vault protection; normal interactive actions do not.

Choose the sources once; there is no second set of permission checkboxes. Calendar includes events, invitations, timezone, and recipient lookup. Email includes reading, drafts/read state, sending, and recipient lookup. OneDrive and SharePoint include file discovery and reading. Review these permissions on Microsoft’s consent page.

Granting a source bundle does not enable disabled agent capabilities or approve an outgoing message. Existing action limits, delivery review, and workflow Run as approval remain separate. Older read-only connections need an explicit reconnect before workflows can use newly requested write permissions.

Select the Microsoft 365 Run as account on the workflow. That person must approve the workflow’s sources, instructions, and destinations. Material edits require approval again. Disconnecting the account stops future credential use and pauses affected work; it does not remove conversation evidence.

Outgoing mail and calendar review is separate from permission to access a source. Manual outgoing actions notify the Run as user and appear in workflow activity; The same records are available in Approvals. Only that user can send or cancel them. Delayed workflow delivery rechecks the current account and approval when it sends, even after a server restart. Cancelling a workflow delivery stops the send but leaves an existing Outlook draft in the user’s mailbox. If an interrupted send has an unknown outcome, check Microsoft 365 before starting another action.

Retrieval availability

Copilot Retrieval is used only in a supported cloud for a verified Copilot-licensed user. Government and unlicensed or unverified users use delegated Microsoft Graph. Pay-as-you-go Retrieval is not enabled or used. Provider errors are not a reason to bypass access or protection restrictions.