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ADR 0001: Copilot and Work IQ, read-only first

  • Status: accepted (2026-10-26)
  • Scope: exposure of ProjectIQ data to Microsoft Copilot and Copilot Cowork through Business Applications in Work IQ (preview)

Context

Copilot Cowork reaches Dataverse through the Business apps (preview) plugin, that is the Work IQ MCP server with the identity of the user. Work IQ uses:

  • the Dataverse semantic model of the app (in Dev M365_Primary_model_op365_OpenProject365; Microsoft documents M365_Secondary_model_<app>), created by Dataverse when Microsoft Copilot is on in the model-driven app. It cannot be created from scratch; it is tuned. Its signals are the table and column descriptions, the relationships, the public views, the form names and optionally sample rows. It is regenerated every 12 hours and has no ALM support;
  • the glossary of the semantic model (business terms and synonyms), entered by makers, also without ALM;
  • business skills (skill table): natural-language instructions, solution-aware;
  • the Dataverse MCP tools: search, describe, read_query, search_data, create_record, update_record, delete_record, table and skill management. Write operations through Work IQ are blocked by default by tenant policy.

In ProjectIQ every status change (time entries, purchase requests, RFQs, purchase orders, goods receipts, supplier invoices, baselines) runs only through the 17 op365_* Custom APIs and their plugins. Dataverse MCP cannot call Custom APIs; exposing them needs a custom MCP server built with the MCP management server, published with a365 develop-mcp publish and approved in the Microsoft 365 admin center.

flowchart LR
    A[Read and analyse] -->|Dataverse MCP| R[Available now]
    B[Create drafts] -->|create_record| L[Later]
    C[Submit, approve, award, receive] -->|Custom APIs| M[Needs a custom MCP server: later]

Decision

Start read-only, with business skills:

  1. Metadata: a description on every custom column and lookup (tools/dataverse/workiq.py).
  2. Microsoft Copilot on the ProjectIQ app (app setting in the solution).
  3. Six read-only business skills in the solution (copilot/skills/).
  4. Glossary and table exclusions of the semantic model kept in the repository and applied by hand per environment (copilot/glossary.md, Copilot and Cowork).
  5. No write tools, no custom MCP server.

Semantic model scope

Area In scope Excluded
Master data account, contact, Item, Item Supplier, Supplier Document –
Resources Resource, Absence Resource Cost (sensitive)
Projects Project, Project Member, WBS Node, WBS Allocation, Baseline Baseline Node, WBS Dependency (noise)
Execution Time Entry, Material Usage –
Purchasing Purchase Request (+ Line), RFQ, RFQ Invitation, RFQ Quote, Purchase Order (+ Line), Goods Receipt (+ Line), Supplier Invoice (+ Line) –
System – Settings

Consequences

  • Copilot answers with the permissions of the user, including column security (OP365 Cost Visibility). To be verified in Test that indexed search respects column security.
  • Every new column must get a description, or the semantic model loses quality.
  • Glossary and table exclusions must be repeated in every environment, and after an environment copy Work IQ must be turned off and on.
  • Next steps, each to be decided separately: draft creation (create_record on time entries and purchase requests with tenant policy), then a custom MCP server exposing the Custom APIs as tools; check whether the Cowork Business apps plugin can use published custom MCP servers.
  • Dataverse MCP usage is billed (from 15 December 2025; search_data at the premium rate).