Using D365Forge with Microsoft Copilot Cowork

Copilot Cowork supports the open Agent Skills format, which is the format every D365Forge skill is written in. You can add whole departments to Cowork as plugins, add a single skill on its own, set custom instructions so Cowork works the way your project does, and build a tailored project pack whose Word and Excel documents land in your own OneDrive.

This guide covers what you do in Cowork. It is based on Microsoft's published guidance for customising Cowork and building Cowork plugins (links at the end). Cowork changes regularly, so if a menu has moved, follow Microsoft's current guidance.

Before you start

• Access. You need Copilot Cowork in your Microsoft 365 tenant, and your organisation must allow you to add your own plugins and skills. If Upload plugin or Upload skill is missing, ask your Microsoft 365 administrator.
• Desktop or web. Custom plugins are not supported in Cowork on mobile.
• Information barriers. Microsoft notes that tenants using Microsoft Purview Information Barriers cannot currently upload or share custom plugins and skills.
• Trust. A skill runs as instructions to the AI. Read what you upload; every skill in this repository is plain text.
• Where to download. The plugin archives and skills are on the project website (the Downloads page and each skill's page) and in the repository. The repository is private for now, so downloading from GitHub needs an invitation until it becomes public.
• Status. Every skill is marked reviewed. Check the status line at the top of each skill.

Option 1: Add departments as plugins (recommended)

Each department is packaged as a ready-to-upload plugin archive in cowork/plugins/. Each archive holds the department's skills and their reference files, for example the sources list, or the role catalogue and templates for project-tailoring.

1. Choose the departments for your project (see the table below).
2. Download its archive: from the Downloads page on the project website, or on GitHub by opening cowork/plugins/<department>.zip and selecting Download raw file.
3. Open Copilot Cowork, select Customize in the left navigation, then the Plugins tab.
4. Select Upload plugin and choose the archive. Cowork recognises it as a Claude-format plugin and converts it into a Cowork plugin, including its skills.
5. In the Share dialog, choose Only you to try it yourself, or Specific users in your organisation to share it with your project team.
6. The department appears under Installed on the Plugins tab, and its skills appear under Your skills.
7. Start a new conversation to use it.

Install only what your project needs. Cowork reads the name and description of every installed skill when it decides which one to use, so a focused set gives sharper results.

In a conversation, use the Sources picker to turn plugins on or off, so only the departments relevant to the request are in play.

Option 2: Add a single skill

To try one skill before installing its department:

1. Download the skill's SKILL.md: on the project website, open the skill's page and select Download SKILL.md; on GitHub, open the file, for example plugins/customer-service/skills/queues-and-routing/SKILL.md, and download it.
2. In Cowork, select Customize > Skills, select the arrow next to Add, then Upload skill, and choose the file.
3. Cowork validates it and saves it to your OneDrive. It appears under Your skills once it has synced.

A single SKILL.md does not include the skill's references/ folder. That is fine for most skills, but use Option 1 for project-tailoring, whose skills depend on their bundled role catalogue, rules and templates. If you upload a skill whose name you already have, Cowork keeps both and adds a number to the new one, so remove the old version first.

Set your custom instructions

Custom instructions tell Cowork how you work in every task. Copy the suggested text from cowork/custom-instructions.md into Customize > Preferences, then fill in your project's modules, scale and go-live date. In the instructions editor you can type / to reference a specific skill.

Ask questions

Ask in plain language, as you would ask a colleague. The right skill loads when the request matches its description:

To use a specific lens, name the skill: "Use the scheduling optimisation skill to review this plan." Most skills will ask two or three questions before they advise; answering them is what makes the advice fit your project.

Build a tailored project pack

Cowork can create Word and Excel files in your OneDrive, which makes it a good place to run the tailoring department.

1. Upload the project-tailoring and programme-management plugins.
2. Create your organisation profile: use the profile builder on the project website, or start from a fictional sample in profiles/samples/. Use aliases ("Analyst A") instead of names if you prefer.
3. Save the profile in your own OneDrive, for example in a private project folder. Do not put it anywhere shared or public.
4. In a new conversation, attach the profile and ask: "Build our project pack from this profile."
5. Cowork validates the profile and asks for anything missing, recommends the SMB or Enterprise edition, and proposes who holds each project role, with a reason for each. Confirm or correct the role mapping before it continues.
6. It then writes the twelve documents (charter, RACI, skills-gap plan, delivery plan, RAID log, blueprint outline and the rest) as Word and Excel files in your Cowork output folder in OneDrive.
7. When the profile changes, ask: "Refresh our project pack." The refresh writes to a new dated folder and keeps your edited versions.

Role mapping uses only the skills and availability people declare. It never ranks people or comments on performance, and its output is a proposal for the project lead to confirm.

Roll out to your project team or organisation

• To specific people. Open the plugin's detail page, select Share, and add people by name or email. After you upload a newer version, select Re-share so everyone gets it.

• To everyone, through your administrator. Organisation-wide listing in Cowork's Discover section uses a Microsoft 365 app package. An administrator can convert a department with the Microsoft 365 Agents Toolkit, following Microsoft's "Build plugins for Copilot Cowork" guidance:

  atk import openplugin --path ./customer-service --output ./customer-service-cowork \
    --privacy-url https://d365forge.ai/privacy.html \
    --terms-url https://github.com/SimonFoote-greensparx/D365Forge/blob/main/NOTICE.md

  Here ./customer-service is the unzipped plugin archive (or plugins/customer-service in a clone). Package the result with atk package, then upload it in the Microsoft 365 admin center under Manage apps > Upload custom app. The conversion generates placeholder icons; replace the colour icon with the 192 x 192 D365Forge icon, docs/assets/brand/d365forge-icon-192.png, before packaging. The maintainers have not yet tested organisation-wide deployment, so try it in a test tenant first.

The plugins are free to share inside or outside your organisation. They are licensed under CC BY 4.0, so when you share or adapt them, keep the credit to the authors, Simon Foote and Robert Peledie: it is in each department README, in each skill's license and authors fields, and in NOTICE.md. Project documents you produce with them need no credit.

Keep up to date

The plugin archives are regenerated every time the skills change. To update a department:

1. Download the new archive from the website's Downloads page or cowork/plugins/.
2. Remove the old version from Customize > Plugins, then upload the new one.
3. Re-share it if you shared it with others, and start a new conversation.

Watch the repository, or check the roadmap, to see when departments move from reviewed to stable.

What works differently from Claude Code

Troubleshooting

Sources

• Microsoft Learn, "Customize Copilot Cowork": https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/cowork/cowork-customize
• Microsoft Learn, "Build plugins for Copilot Cowork": https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/copilot/cowork/cowork-plugin-development