Managed App Handbook: The Full Guide to Copilot Managed Apps

8 chapters, 35,900 wordsAbout 2.5 hours in allParts 0–29Facts current as of 7 November 2026

Evidence tagsD DocumentedO ObservedC CommunityI Inference

Every claim in this handbook carries a tag, so you can tell documentation from observation from opinion.

DDocumented. Documented by Microsoft on Learn, Support, Message center, GitHub or an official blog, as of the dates in Appendix E
OObserved. Observed first-hand on 7 November 2026 in a live Copilot Code cloud session: its tools, its sandbox, an example tenant's policy verdicts, and the repository of a production partner-sales app
CCommunity. Reported by the community (MVP blogs, forums, videos, GitHub issues) and not confirmed by Microsoft
IInference. Inference or recommendation by the author; test it before you rely on it

Part 0

How to read this guide

What it isHow the guide is organized, who should read which parts, and what the four evidence tags mean.
What you doPick the row in the reading table that matches your role, and start with the parts it lists.
Watch outEverything here is a dated snapshot of preview products from 7 November 2026; check the sources in Appendix E before you rely on a detail.

This guide is for anyone who builds business apps by talking to Microsoft Copilot: makers who start in a chat, product owners who need those apps to survive real users, developers who inherit them, and admins who govern them. It covers the two chat tools most people start from, Copilot Code (the Code tab) and Copilot Cowork (its App skill), the platform underneath both, Copilot Managed Runtime, and everything around them: the ms command line, coding agents, SharePoint, Dataverse, Power BI, Power Automate, Copilot Studio, Teams and the admin centers.

Pick your role to light up your chapters

Or start anywhere: the eight chapters below cover Parts 2 to 29.

Every claim carries an evidence tag, so you can tell documentation from observation from opinion.

DDocumented. Documented by Microsoft on Learn, Support, Message center, GitHub or an official blog, as of the dates in Appendix E
OObserved. Observed first-hand on 7 November 2026 in a live Copilot Code cloud session: its tools, its sandbox, an example tenant's policy verdicts, and the repository of a production partner-sales app
CCommunity. Reported by the community (MVP blogs, forums, videos, GitHub issues) and not confirmed by Microsoft
IInference. Inference or recommendation by the author; test it before you rely on it

It runs from start to finish. Parts 1 to 3 orient you: what this is, its status today and where to find it. Parts 4 to 8 teach the platform and both tools screen by screen, with every command and shortcut we found. Parts 9 to 14 connect apps to data and services. Parts 15 and 16 cover access, security and governance. Parts 17 to 21 are the working method for building to a professional standard. Parts 22 and 23 go beyond the chat and into operations, and Parts 24 to 28 collect a case study, real builds, untapped patterns, troubleshooting and templates. Part 29 holds the appendices: the CLI reference, admin settings, where sources disagree, a glossary and the sources.

Edition 2, 7 November 2026

Status and availability: what is Frontier, preview or generally available, the licenses and admin switches involved, the key dates, and where each tool appears across the web, desktop, Teams, Outlook and mobile (Parts 2 and 3).
Hands-on tours: Cowork and Copilot Code screen by screen, and every command, shortcut and power move we could document (Parts 5 to 7, Appendix B).
Connecting to everything: deep dives on SharePoint, Dataverse, Excel and SQL, Power BI and Fabric, Power Automate, Copilot Studio and Power Apps, and Teams, Outlook and Work IQ (Parts 10 to 14).
Sharing done right: the four separate checks behind every share, step by step in each tool, with revocation and offboarding (Part 15).
Beyond the chat: the ms CLI end to end, coding-agent plugins, repository modes, GitHub Actions, environments and the app SDK (Part 22).
New first-hand evidence: an example tenant's policy verdicts for connectors and MCP servers, the actions Power BI and Copilot Studio expose to apps, and the binding rules for SharePoint sites.
More of everything else: new figures, ten more frontier patterns, new builds and costs from the community, more troubleshooting and three more templates.

Edition 2 replaces Edition 1, published earlier on 7 November 2026.

Part 1

The short version: 18 points

What it isThe eighteen points that matter most about building, sharing and running managed apps with Cowork, Code and Copilot Managed Runtime.
What you doRead these first, then follow the part numbers into the detail for anything that affects your app.
Watch outThese are summaries; each point has conditions and evidence tags that the later parts spell out.

One runtime, four front doors. Cowork's App skill, Copilot Code, Copilot Studio Apps and the ms CLI all produce the same artifact: a Git-backed web app in the maker's personal developer environment, hosted by Copilot Managed Runtime, opened from managedapps.cloud.microsoft and listed in the Microsoft 365 admin center. D
The URL belongs to the app, not to the tool. Each app has one play link (play.managedapps.cloud.microsoft/apps/{id}). Code and Cowork drive the same app service against the same app record and repository, so whoever deploys last decides what users see. DO
Nothing locks an app. Every session clones the repository, commits and pushes to main. A push does not build; the preview shows the latest good build of main; the live app changes only when someone deploys. Parallel editing works if you treat it as Git work: fetch first, rebase before you push, deploy a named commit, log every release. DO
Plan mode is documented. Copilot Code has three working modes, Interactive (the default), Plan and Automatic, and Automatic is available only when Always allow is on. Cowork has no plan switch, but it will plan before building when you ask. DC
Code can see its own work, within limits. In the cloud session tested, the interactive browser tool was switched off, yet the sandbox carries a headless Chromium with Playwright, so Code can render a page, click through it, resize it to phone width and inspect the screenshots. It cannot sign in to your live app. Cowork on the web, in Edge, can: it drives a hidden Edge tab with your own sign-in. OD
Choose by job, not habit. Cowork is strongest when the work around the app is Microsoft 365 work: finding the data, people and process, writing the announcement, checking the live app as a real user. Code is strongest when the work is engineering: multi-file changes, tests, Git, model choice, plan mode and specialist reviewers. Serious apps use both. I
There are two layers of connectivity. What the agent can reach while it builds (your mail, files, the web, plugins, connectors called in-session) never travels into the app. The published app reaches only the sources bound into it, and it reaches them as each user. OD
The default runtime policy is narrow on purpose. It allows 18 Microsoft first-party connectors and 12 Microsoft MCP servers including Work IQ, blocks open-ended HTTP and script actions, limits browser calls to the app's own origin, and keeps guests out for now. Everything else is a conversation with your admins. D
Unbound means sample data. If a source can't be bound, the app is built on realistic sample data, and that fact is mentioned only in the chat. Before every publish, ask which screens still run on sample data. O
Sharing an app shares neither its data nor a license. Viewers see only what their own permissions allow, and each needs Power Apps Premium or Copilot credits to run it (0.1 credit per API call, plus a per-launch charge whose rate is not published). Edit sharing grants write access to the source repository, which is a much bigger grant than play. D
Code lives in one app. It is a tab in Microsoft Copilot on the web and, once an admin opts the tenant in to the unified desktop app and its Beta channel, on Windows. It is not in Teams, Outlook or the mobile app, which is why many Frontier users only find it at copilot.cloud.microsoft/code. D
Access is four separate checks. Play access, edit access, the person's own data permissions and runtime coverage (Power Apps Premium or credits) are granted separately. Line all four up on one Entra group. DI
In SharePoint, the list is the security model. Apps reach lists as each user, SharePoint connections can't be shared, and anyone who can write through the app can write in SharePoint directly. Choose the permission level deliberately and move to Dataverse when the rules outgrow it. D
Apps don't call flows; they trigger them. There is no documented way for a managed app to call Power Automate. Write a record with a status and a correlation id, and let a service-account flow react. DI
Copilot can read your Power BI models while it builds. The published app can't run freeform DAX by default, so chart in the app, link out to the report with filters, or ask for one narrow exception. OD
A well-run app is set up before the first prompt. It needs an owner and backup owner, a named system of record, a numbered spec in the repository, a release rubric with hard gates, a release log and feature switches for unfinished work. A production partner-sales app studied for this guide shipped 53 commits in four days from parallel sessions on exactly those habits. O
Every app starts with more capability than most makers use. Apps created from the chats start from a template that already includes camera capture, barcode and QR scanning, pen input for signatures, PDF export and viewing, 3D model viewing, keyboard shortcuts and a map control. O
Expect churn. The App Builder agent and vibe.powerapps.com retire on 30 November 2026, the SDK repository was archived on 5 November and its packages are moving to @microsoft/cmr-* names, and Microsoft Ignite (17 to 20 November) brings a hands-on Copilot Managed Runtime lab (LAB668) and Copilot sessions that will change some details. Pin versions and re-check the sources. DC

The Managed App Handbook

How to read this guide

Pick your role to light up your chapters

Every claim carries an evidence tag, so you can tell documentation from observation from opinion.

Edition 2, 7 November 2026

The short version: 18 points

One runtime, four front doors

The URL belongs to the app, not to the tool

Nothing locks an app

Plan mode is documented

Code can see its own work, within limits

Choose by job, not habit

There are two layers of connectivity

The default runtime policy is narrow on purpose

Unbound means sample data

Sharing an app shares neither its data nor a license

Code lives in one app

Access is four separate checks

In SharePoint, the list is the security model

Apps don't call flows; they trigger them

Copilot can read your Power BI models while it builds

A well-run app is set up before the first prompt

Every app starts with more capability than most makers use

Expect churn