Copilot ALM Starter

A lightweight ALM toolkit for Copilot Studio agents – CI/CD pipelines, best practices, and deployment guidance for both GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps Pipelines.

Overview

This repository provides everything you need to implement Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) for your Power Platform solutions, with a focus on Copilot Studio agents. It includes:

• 🚀 CI/CD pipelines for export, build, and deployment (GitHub Actions and Azure DevOps)
• 📁 Recommended folder structure for organizing solutions
• 📖 Step-by-step guides for common scenarios
• 🔧 Reusable scripts for automation (work across both platforms)

Quick Start

1. Use this template – Click "Use this template" (GitHub) or import to your Azure DevOps project
2. Pick your CI/CD platform – Use the workflows in .github/workflows/ or .pipelines/
3. Configure authentication – Set up credentials for your Power Platform environments (see Authentication Setup)
4. Export your solution – Run the export pipeline to pull your agent from the dev environment
5. Deploy – Push to main to trigger deployment to downstream environments

💡 New to ALM for Power Platform? Start with the Getting Started Guide.

Repository Structure

Folder	Description
.github/workflows/	GitHub Actions workflows (export, build & deploy, PR validation)
.pipelines/	Azure DevOps pipeline definitions and shared variables
docs/	Documentation and step-by-step guides
scripts/	Reusable PowerShell scripts (work across both CI/CD platforms)
solutions/	Your Power Platform solutions (unpacked source)
settings/	Environment-specific deployment settings (per solution, per environment)

Pipelines

GitHub Actions

Workflow	Trigger	Description
export-solution.yml	Manual	Exports solution from dev environment and creates a PR
build-and-deploy.yml	Push to main	Builds and deploys solution to target environments
validate-pr.yml	Pull Request	Validates solution structure and runs checks

Azure DevOps Pipelines

Pipeline	Trigger	Description
export-solution.yml	Manual	Exports solution from dev environment and creates a PR
build-and-deploy.yml	Push to main	Builds and deploys solution to target environments
validate-pr.yml	Pull Request	Validates solution structure and runs checks

See Azure DevOps Setup for detailed configuration instructions.

Prerequisites

• Power Platform environment(s) with Copilot Studio
• Service Principal / App Registration with appropriate permissions
• GitHub repository (this template) or Azure DevOps project with Repos + Pipelines

Documentation

Guide	Description
Getting Started	End-to-end setup for first-time users
Authentication Setup	Federated credentials (GitHub) and Workload Identity Federation (Azure DevOps)
Azure DevOps Setup	Azure DevOps-specific pipeline and environment configuration
Building Copilot Studio Agents	Best practices for agent development
Environment Configuration	Deployment settings, connection references, environment variables
Local Development	Running commands locally and testing
Troubleshooting	Common issues and solutions

Environment Setup

Option A: GitHub Actions (Workload Identity Federation)

We recommend using federated credentials (no secrets to manage):

1. Create an App Registration
2. Add federated credentials for GitHub Actions
3. Configure as Application User in Power Platform
4. Add variables to GitHub

See Authentication Setup for detailed instructions.

Required GitHub Variables

Variable	Description
AZURE_CLIENT_ID	Application (client) ID from App Registration
AZURE_TENANT_ID	Your tenant ID

Environment Variables (per GitHub environment)

Variable	Example	Description
POWERPLATFORM_ENVIRONMENT_URL	https://yourorg-test.crm.dynamics.com	Target environment URL

Option B: Azure DevOps (Workload Identity Federation)

Use Workload Identity Federation (WIF) service connections in Azure DevOps (recommended) – no secrets to manage:

1. Create an App Registration
2. Create WIF Service Connections in your Azure DevOps project
3. Configure as Application User in Power Platform
4. Update .pipelines/environment-variables.yml

See Azure DevOps Setup for detailed instructions.

Pipeline Variables (.pipelines/environment-variables.yml)

Variable	Description
authorEnvironmentUrl	Development environment URL
authorServiceConnection	Service connection name for dev

Target Environments (.pipelines/build-and-deploy.yml)

Configure directly in the targetEnvironments parameter:

Property	Description
environmentUrl	Target environment URL
serviceConnectionName	Service connection for that environment

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please read our Contributing Guide before submitting a PR.

License

This project is licensed under the MIT License – see the LICENSE file for details.