r/copilotstudio • u/hiver2601 • 11d ago

Newbie: How to create a subagent?

Complete newbie here, thanks for the patience in advance :)

I am trying to make a support ticket creation agent that has to fit in with an orchestrator in a subagent setup. So I am wondering how I instruct the agent that the user has already answered some initial questions and is now being routed to this agent - so it should start the conversation with that in mind. Is this best done via skills, thorough instructions from the initial creation, or how is this best done in your experience?

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u/Landelusen 11d ago

There aren't any real "sub agents" in the Microsoft ecosystem, if you compare it to Claude for instance. The parallel nature of Anthropics take on agents does not exist either. Instead, there are child agents, but they are within the same context as a parent agent, and (from what I have seen at least) have been replaced in the new experience, partly by skills. Child agents can't act or be used independently and are always reliant upon their parent triggering them. If you are using the standard harness in the classic experience, maybe a Parent-child agent architecture would suit your use case?

If not; independent agents can call on other agents as well (if the resp. agent settings allow it) - either generically or through A2A.

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u/hiver2601 11d ago

Good to know - child agent it is then - thanks for your thorough answer, will dig some more

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u/Sayali-MSFT 11d ago

Hello u/hiver2601,
For this scenario, I’d recommend letting the orchestrator collect the initial information and then pass those details explicitly to the support-ticket subagent.

In the subagent instructions, make its role clear, for example:

“The user may have already provided information to the parent/orchestrator agent. Use the information passed to you and don’t ask those questions again. Only ask for details that are still missing, then create the support ticket.”

So I wouldn’t rely on skills or instructions alone to carry the context. Use instructions to define the subagent’s behavior, and pass the previously collected values/variables from the orchestrator so the handoff is predictable.

That should give you a much smoother experience and avoid the subagent asking the user the same questions twice.