Connect to Foundry IQ from an agent

Foundry IQ connects your agent to a knowledge base built in Azure AI Foundry. A Foundry IQ knowledge base bundles one or more enterprise data sources together with retrieval and relevance settings into a single, reusable asset. When you connect to a knowledge base that someone in your organization already built and tuned, your agent can answer questions over that content without you re-creating the setup in Copilot Studio.

Foundry IQ is added to your agent as a tool from the components panel's Tools button.

Note

Features in this article are powered by the GitHub Copilot harness, which uses Copilot Credits for usage-based billing. Learn more about Copilot Credits in Overview of billing for agents powered by the GitHub Copilot harness.

Usage-based billing applies to using, building, testing, and evaluating agents. These actions might consume Copilot Credits.

You connect to Foundry IQ when:

  • A team in your organization already built and tuned a knowledge base in Azure AI Foundry that fits your agent's domain.
  • You want your agent to use that team's retrieval configuration instead of modeling knowledge yourself in Copilot Studio.

Prerequisites

  • An agent created with the GitHub Copilot harness. Learn more in Create an agent.
  • Access to at least one Foundry IQ knowledge base, granted in Azure AI Foundry. Only the knowledge bases you have access to appear in the picker.

Note

Your agent can only have one Foundry IQ connection per agent.

Create a new Foundry IQ connection

  1. Open your agent in Copilot Studio.
  2. Select the Build tab.
  3. In the components panel, select Tools to open the Add a tool dialog.
  4. Select Foundry IQ.
  5. Select Create new connection.
  6. Select the Authentication type: API key, Client Certificate Auth, Service principal (Microsoft Entra ID application), or Microsoft Entra ID Integrated.
    1. For API Key, enter the Foundry IQ Search Service endpoint and API key.
    2. For Client Certificate Auth, enter the Foundry IQ Search Service endpoint, tenant ID, client ID, client certificate secret, and certificate password.
    3. For Service principal, enter the Foundry IQ Search Service endpoint, tenant ID, client ID, and client secret.
    4. For Microsoft Entra ID Integrated, enter the Foundry IQ Search Service endpoint.
  7. Select Create.
  8. The connection is created, then select Next.
  9. Select a knowledge base from the list, and then select Add to agent.
  10. Select Save.
  11. After you save, the Tools section of the Build tab shows the Foundry IQ connection as a connected tool.
  12. Select the newly added Foundry IQ connection and update the name and description. The description should be as detailed as possible, as the description aids orchestration.
  13. Select Save.

Test your Foundry IQ knowledge source

  1. Select the Preview tab.
  2. Send a test question that the knowledge base should be able to answer.
  3. Open the activity trace for the response.

The activity trace shows that Foundry IQ handled the retrieval step and lists the items it returned to your agent. Your agent uses those items to compose its answer. If the trace doesn't show a Foundry IQ retrieval step, confirm that the knowledge base is selected on the Build tab and that the question is in scope for the data the knowledge base covers.

Tip

If results aren't what you expect, tune the knowledge base itself in Azure AI Foundry, not in Copilot Studio. Work with the knowledge base owner to adjust sources, retrieval instructions, or ranking.

Remove a Foundry IQ connection

  1. On the Build tab, select Tools.
  2. In the components panel, select the connected Foundry IQ knowledge base and select the x to remove the connection.

Note

Removing a connection in Copilot Studio doesn't delete or change the knowledge base in Azure AI Foundry.

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