Create Workflow Skill

This skill guides the user through creating a new Power Automate cloud flow for their Copilot Studio agent.

This skill is local-only. Finish by saying the local workflow is ready and DA-GA deployment is not yet available. Do not offer workflow testing because it requires remote run-history inspection.

IMPORTANT: When NOT to Create a New Workflow

Do NOT create a standalone workflow for ServiceNow, Workday, or SAP scenarios. These integrations ship with a shared flow pre-installed via their extension pack. The shared flow reads template configs from Dataverse and handles all CRUD operations. Customers never create or modify these flows — they only create template configs and topics. See src/reference/ess-docs/customization/customize.md.

Only create a new standalone workflow when:

• The scenario requires an integration that does NOT have an ESS extension pack (e.g., ADP, Jira, custom HTTP APIs, or other 3P tools)
• The customer needs a custom connector for an internal API
• The user explicitly requests a standalone workflow after being informed about the template config pattern

If the user asks to create a workflow for ServiceNow, Workday, or SAP, explain that the corresponding DA-GA product extension is required and its setup guidance is not yet available in this release. Do not create a standalone flow or enter the retired Dataverse template-config path.

Rules

• Do NOT run terminal commands or scripts. Use built-in file reading and writing tools only.
• ALWAYS read existing workflow files in the user's agent folder ({agent.folder}/workflows/) as schema examples before generating any workflow JSON.
• ALWAYS read the agent's connectionreferences.mcs.yml to understand connector wiring.
• ALWAYS read .local/config.json to get the agent folder name.
• Create the workflow in a new folder: {agent.folder}/workflows/{WorkflowName}-{GUID}/
• Write both metadata.yml and workflow.json into that folder.
• After writing, check for errors using the diagnostics tool.
• TRACK PROGRESS: Use the todo list tool to track your progress through this skill's steps. Create a todo list at the start with all the steps, mark each in-progress as you start it, and mark completed when done.

Step 1: Understand the Request

Ask the user: "What should this workflow do? What external system does it call, and what data should it return?"

From their response, determine:

• What connector it uses (ServiceNow, Workday, Dataverse, HTTP, etc.)
• What operation it performs (query records, create record, update, delete, custom API call)
• What inputs it needs from the topic (IDs, search terms, parameters)
• What outputs it returns to the topic (data, success flag, error message)

Step 2: Check Existing Workflows

Read workspace/agents/{agent.slug}/workflows.md to see if a suitable workflow already exists. If the agent already has a workflow that does something similar, tell the user:

• "Your agent already has a workflow called '{name}' that {does X}. Would you like to use that one, or create a new one?"

Also check workspace/agents/{agent.slug}/connections.md to see which connectors are already configured. If the needed connector isn't available, tell the user they'll need to add it through the Copilot Studio portal first.

Step 3: Generate the Workflow

Read the template from an existing workflow in the agent folder (e.g., {agent.folder}/workflows/*/workflow.json).

Generate a new GUID for the workflow ID. You can use any valid GUID format (8-4-4-4-12 hex characters).

Create two files:

metadata.yml

jsonFileName: workflows/{WorkflowName}-{GUID}/workflow.json
workflowId: {GUID}
name: {WorkflowDisplayName}
type: 1
description: "{Description}"
subprocess: false
category: 5
mode: 0
scope: 4
stateCode: 1
statusCode: 2
isTransacted: true

workflow.json

Customize the template by:

1. Setting the correct connectionReferences — match the connectionReferenceLogicalName to a value from workspace/agents/{agent.slug}/connections.md
2. Defining trigger inputs — what the topic will pass to the workflow
3. Adding the correct connector action — use the right operationId for the task
4. Defining the response outputs — what data goes back to the topic

For connector-specific action parameters:

• ServiceNow: Read src/reference/ess-docs/integrations/servicenow-hrsd-itsm.md for table names, query syntax, and field names
• Workday: Read src/reference/ess-docs/integrations/workday.md for SOAP operations and scenario names

Show the user the generated workflow and explain:

• What inputs it expects
• What connector operation it calls
• What outputs it returns
• How it handles errors

Step 4: Write the Files

After the user approves:

1. Create the workflow folder: {agent.folder}/workflows/{WorkflowName}-{GUID}/
2. Write metadata.yml
3. Write workflow.json
4. Check for errors using the diagnostics tool
5. If errors exist, show them and propose fixes
6. If clean, show the user:
   • Links to the created files so they can review them
   • The Copilot Studio web link: https://copilotstudio.microsoft.com/
   • Example: "Your workflow is ready! Review it here: {agent.folder}/workflows/{WorkflowName}-{GUID}/workflow.json and test it in Copilot Studio."

After the files are written, record anonymous usage telemetry (best-effort, non-blocking — no user-facing message, and it never fails the step):

python scripts/emit_capability.py workflow_create

Step 5: Connect to a Topic

After the workflow is created, the user needs a topic to call it. Tell them:

• "Your workflow is ready with ID {GUID}. To use it from a topic, add an InvokeFlowAction with flowId: {GUID}."
• "Would you like me to create a topic that calls this workflow?"
• Unless the workspace uses AgentBuilder, ask: "Want to check it works? I can exercise {WorkflowName} now and read its run history."
  • On yes: read src/skills/workflows/test/SKILL.md and run its debug-and-validate loop scoped to {WorkflowName} — you already know the component (you just created this workflow), so skip the "topic or workflow?" question. Exercise the flow's failure inputs (missing record, unauthorized, malformed) alongside the valid request, then inspect the run.
• For AgentBuilder, say workflow testing is not yet available because it requires remote run-history inspection.

If they say yes, hand off to the existing topic creation skill (src/skills/topics/create/SKILL.md).