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Updated: 20 October 2026

Connect HelpSite to Microsoft Copilot Studio (MCP)

You can connect a Microsoft Copilot Studio agent to HelpSite so it can search and read your knowledge base articles when it answers questions. Publish the agent to Microsoft 365 Copilot or Microsoft Teams and your team gets answers from your HelpSite content without leaving Microsoft 365. It works with public and private knowledge bases.

Supported plans

MCP is included on the Pro and Max plans. If you see "MCP access is not available on your current plan", upgrade to one of those plans.

Before you begin

  • You can create or edit agents in Microsoft Copilot Studio, and your agent uses generative orchestration. Copilot Studio only offers MCP tools to agents that do.
  • You can sign in to HelpSite as a user who can view every knowledge base you want the agent to use, for example both your public client site and your private employee site.

Step 1: Add HelpSite to your agent

  1. In Copilot Studio, open your agent and go to Tools.
  2. Select Add a tool, then New tool, then Model Context Protocol.
  3. Fill in the details:
    • Server name: HelpSite
    • Server description: describe what your knowledge bases cover, for example "Searches our HelpSite help centers for client and employee questions". The agent uses this to decide when to search HelpSite.
    • Server URL: https://mcp.helpsite.com/mcp

Step 2: Choose how the agent signs in to HelpSite

  1. Under Authentication, choose OAuth 2.0 and set Type to Dynamic discovery.
  2. Select Create.
  3. Select Create a new connection. A HelpSite sign-in window opens.
  4. Sign in to HelpSite as the user described above and approve access.
  5. Back in Copilot Studio, select Add to agent.

There's no key to copy or store. The agent reads what the HelpSite user who approved it can view.

Option B: Use an MCP API key

Use this if your organization blocks sign-in windows, or if you'd rather manage a key.

  1. Sign in to HelpSite as the user described above.
  2. Open any of your sites. The address in your browser looks like https://app.helpsite.com/sites/1234/....
  3. Change the address so it ends in /api_mcp, for example https://app.helpsite.com/sites/1234/api_mcp, and press Enter. This opens Manage MCP API Keys.
  4. Click Generate MCP API Key and copy the key.
  5. In Copilot Studio, under Authentication, choose API key. Set Type to Header and enter Authorization as the header name.
  6. Select Create.
  7. Select Create a new connection, paste your MCP API key, and create the connection.
  8. Select Add to agent.

The key can read every site that the person who created it can view, including private ones. Keep it somewhere safe, like a password.

Step 3: Choose which HelpSite tools the agent can use

Open the HelpSite tool in your agent to see its tools, each with its own switch. For an agent that answers questions, keep these on:

  • list_sites and get_site
  • search_articles, get_article and list_articles
  • list_categories and get_category

Turn the rest off so the agent can't change your content: create_site, create_article, update_article, create_category, update_category, list_my_assignments, get_assignment and complete_assignment.

Step 4: Decide whose access the agent uses

In the HelpSite tool's authentication settings, Copilot Studio asks whose credentials to use:

  • Maker-provided credentials: everyone using the agent searches with your HelpSite sign-in or your key, so they don't need a HelpSite login. Only share the agent with people who may read everything you can reach. If you can read a private employee knowledge base, publish the agent to employees only.
  • End user credentials (Copilot Studio's default): each person signs in to HelpSite (Option A) or enters their own MCP API key (Option B) the first time they use the agent.

If you don't see the maker-provided option, your Microsoft admin may have turned it off in the Power Platform admin center.

Step 5: Tell the agent how to search HelpSite

Add instructions like these to your agent's Instructions, using the names of your own sites:

Answer questions from our HelpSite knowledge bases. Use list_sites to find the site IDs. Questions from clients use the "Client Help Center" site, and questions about company policies use the "Employee Handbook" site. Search with search_articles and status "published", then read the best match with get_article before you answer. Mention the article's title in your answer.

Searching only published articles keeps drafts out of the agent's answers.

Step 6: Test and publish

  1. In the agent's test chat, ask a question that one of your articles answers. The agent should search HelpSite and answer from that article.
  2. When you're happy with the answers, publish the agent and add it to Microsoft 365 Copilot or Teams from Channels.

Troubleshooting

  • "MCP access is not available on your current plan": your plan doesn't include MCP. Upgrade to Pro or Max.
  • Copilot Studio can't connect at all: check that the Server URL is exactly https://mcp.helpsite.com/mcp, with /mcp at the end.
  • The HelpSite sign-in window doesn't open, or closes straight away: allow pop-ups for Copilot Studio in your browser and don't block its third-party cookies. If it still fails, sign out of HelpSite in your browser and create the connection again, or use Option B.
  • The agent asks you to connect, or can't reach HelpSite: open the HelpSite connection in Copilot Studio and sign in again, or paste your key again. If you use a key, check that it's still listed under Manage MCP API Keys, because a revoked key stops working straight away.
  • A knowledge base is missing: the agent can only read sites that the signed-in HelpSite user, or the person who created the key, can view. Sign in, or create the key, as a user who can view that site.
  • Answers include drafts: add "published" to the agent's instructions, as in Step 5.
  • Adding your help center as a website in Copilot only finds the home page: Copilot's website option only reads public pages and may not reach every article. Use the HelpSite connection in this guide instead. It reaches every article you're allowed to see, public and private.

Security note

The agent can read everything the HelpSite user it signed in as, or your MCP API key, can reach. To stop its access, delete the HelpSite connection in Copilot Studio, and if you used a key, revoke it under Manage MCP API Keys. With the content tools turned off in Step 3, the agent can't change anything in HelpSite, and HelpSite never publishes content through MCP without an explicit confirmation.

Learn next: What you can ask AI tools to do with HelpSite MCP

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