Build an agent inventory before setting policy
IT first uses the Agent 365 registry to discover the agents already present across the tenant, then records each agent's owner, publisher, purpose, status, usage, data sources and governance state before deciding what to restrict or retire.
Where the action happens
Agent 365 / Microsoft 365 admin centre
Product or feature needed
Agent registry and discovery
AI required
No - governance task
Extra credits
No - inventory and registry review do not themselves consume Copilot Credits
Technical skill
High
Risk level
High - unmanaged or poorly understood agents can create data, access and lifecycle risk
Licence dependency
Agent 365 provides the central control-plane and registry capabilities; licensing is per user, not per agent. Confirm current tenant prerequisites and entitlements before rollout.
Credit dependency
No Copilot Credits are consumed simply by carrying out inventory/governance review; individual agents may have separate licence or consumption dependencies.
UK availability
available
What it can do
- Provides a central inventory of agents visible to the organisation across Microsoft and supported external sources.
- Helps admins filter the estate by status, publisher and governance state, including unmanaged agents and agents without owners.
- Creates the evidence base for deciding which agents should be approved, reviewed, blocked, reassigned or retired.
- Supports exporting or recording agent details into a wider governance register where needed.
Limitations
- The registry only helps govern what is discoverable or integrated; external agents may need to be synchronised or onboarded into Agent 365.
- An inventory does not by itself prove that an agent's permissions, source content or business purpose are appropriate.
- Usage and risk signals should be interpreted alongside business-owner context rather than used as the sole basis for deletion.
Prerequisites
- Suitable Microsoft 365 administrative access to view the Agent 365 registry.
- A named governance owner or team responsible for reviewing the discovered estate.
- For non-Microsoft agents, appropriate registry synchronisation or Agent 365 integration may be required.
Workarounds
If Agent 365 is not available, maintain a controlled agent register containing owner, purpose, platform, data sources, permissions, users, review date and retirement status.
No premium licensing needed. External dependency: Governance process.
Notes
Recommended sequence: discover first, then classify and govern. Avoid writing restrictive policy before you understand the current agent estate; otherwise existing unmanaged agents and orphaned ownership can be missed.
Watch-outs for Advanced: govern & scale
- Keep detailed governance here rather than repeating it on every beginner capability.
- Track ownership, access, cost, lifecycle and exceptions once services are shared or business-critical.
- AI Redlines remain separate from normal governance and should be treated as hard boundaries.
Sources
- https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/entra/agent-id/publish-agents-to-registry
- Manage agent registry in Microsoft 365 admin center checked 2026-09-15
- Microsoft Agent 365 overview checked 2026-09-15
- Connect existing agents to Microsoft Agent 365 checked 2026-09-15
Last checked: 2026-09-15
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