# Contextual Copilot Buttons in SharePoint: One Button, a Different Report for Everyone

> A SharePoint Button web part set to Open Copilot in SharePoint runs your prompt or skill as whoever clicks it, so one button gives each person their own report.

- URL: https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-copilot-button-web-part/
- Author: Daniel Anderson, Microsoft MVP (https://www.danielanderson.io/)
- Published: 2026-08-11
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaT3m8PuTkk

## Key takeaways

- The SharePoint Button web part has an Open Copilot in SharePoint action that opens the Copilot pane and runs a prompt set in the button's properties when someone clicks it.
- The prompt runs as whoever clicks, so a first-person prompt such as "items assigned to me" gives each person a report scoped to their own work.
- In my demo the same button on a work tracker site produced a report of 50 items for one user and 43 for another, matching the list grouped by Assigned To.
- The button can run a skill instead of a full prompt, and SHAREPOINT.md sets site rules such as where every generated report is saved.
- People without a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence don't see a Copilot button, so place it on pages licensed users work from.

A contextual Copilot button is a SharePoint Button web part set to the **Open Copilot in SharePoint** action, which runs a prompt you've saved in the button as the person who clicks it. Because Copilot knows who that person is, one button on a page can give every user a report on their own items, limited to what they already have permission to open.

On my work tracker site, one button produced a personal HTML report of 50 assigned items for my colleague Frankie and 43 for me. I've covered building the live dashboard and the button basics in [building a live dashboard from a Microsoft List](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/copilot-sharepoint-live-dashboard-microsoft-list/). This article is about the personal part, and how to design for it.

## How does one button give each person a different report?

The prompt says "me", and Copilot in SharePoint fills in who "me" is from the signed-in user. Before I built the button I proved it by running the same prompt, asking for a dashboard of the work tracker items assigned to me, in two windows: one signed in as Frankie, one as me. Each report was headed with the person it was filtered for, and the counts were 50 and 43. Grouping the list by **Assigned To** showed exactly 50 for Frankie and 43 for me.

Then I put that prompt behind a button on the site's home page. Clicked as Frankie and then as me, it generated a fresh report for each of us in about a minute. By then a few of Frankie's items had been removed from the list, and her report came back with 47 while mine stayed at 43, so it was reading the list as it stood at the moment of the click.

The personalisation goes past filtering. With both reports open, I asked Copilot to add a hero section with a welcome message and the user's profile picture. It pulled each person's photo from their profile, so Frankie's report showed her picture and mine showed mine, from the same prompt. I hadn't given any design direction, so the layout was Copilot's choice. That follow-up could go straight into the button's prompt so every report starts with it.

## What can sit behind the button?

A button on its own only holds a prompt. In my build it's one of four layers.

| Layer | Its job | Where it lives | In my demo |
| --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Button | Puts the request on the page, one click away | Button web part on any page | "Generate my report" on the home page |
| Prompt or skill | Says what to do | The button's properties, or a skill in the site's Agent Assets library | A dashboard of my assigned work tracker items |
| SHAREPOINT.md | Sets the site rules every conversation follows | Root of the Agent Assets library | Every generated report saves to the Reports library |
| Permissions | Decide what each person's report can include | The list, library and site | Copilot only reads what the person clicking can already open |

A raw prompt is fine for a single request. Once the job has several steps, put it in a skill and have the button ask Copilot to run that skill by name, so one click runs the whole process for whoever clicked. [What SharePoint skills are](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-skills/) covers writing one, and [SHAREPOINT.md](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-md/) explains the site file.

## How do you set up a Copilot button?

Add a Button web part to the page, open its properties, choose **Open Copilot in SharePoint** as the action and paste your prompt into the field. Give it a label that describes the result, such as "Generate my report", then publish.

The styling is in the same panel. I used the **Pill** border shape with a **Darken** hover effect and added an icon.

## Design every button for the person clicking it

A contextual button is easy to build and easy to get wrong at scale, because every click creates something. This is how I'd set one up on a real site.

1. **Write the prompt in the first person.** "Items assigned to me" scopes itself to whoever clicks. A name in the prompt gives everyone the same person's report, and a prompt with no scope gives everyone everything they can see.
2. **Decide where the output goes before you publish the button.** My SHAREPOINT.md sends every generated report to a Reports library. Each click adds a file, so pick that library on purpose and check who can open it, because a report of Frankie's work saved where the whole site can browse it is a permissions problem you created with a button.
3. **Put the design in the prompt.** My first reports were plain because I gave no design direction. If the report should carry a header, a welcome line or your brand colours, write that into the prompt or the skill so every click starts from the same layout.
4. **Move anything multi-step into a skill.** The button keeps its label and the work behind it can improve without anyone editing the page.
5. **Check who'll actually see it.** The button only shows for people with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. If half the team isn't licensed, give them a link or a flow button for the same job, or put the Copilot button on a page only licensed users work from.

Fix the list before you add the button, too. A personal report is only as good as the **Assigned To** column it filters on, so if ownership lives in a notes field nobody keeps current, the report will be wrong for everyone who clicks.

## Frequently asked questions

**Can people without a Copilot licence use the button?**
No. The Copilot in SharePoint action needs a Copilot licence for page viewers as well as the author, and people without one don't see the button at all. An unlicensed page author only gets the **Open link** and **Run Power Automate flow** actions when they add a Button web part.

**Does an admin need to turn the Copilot button on?**
No. Microsoft rolled the Copilot prompt and Power Automate options out to the Button web part from late July 2026 (message center post MC1419800), on by default with no admin action. Access follows your existing Copilot licence assignments.

**What styling options does the Button web part have?**
Border shape (Rounded, Rectangular, Pill or Circular), a Lighten or Darken hover effect, border weight from 1px to 8px, border style (Solid, Dashed, Dotted or Double), and fill and border colours from your theme or custom colours. **Clear all formatting** puts it back to the default.

**If I use the Run Power Automate flow action, does everyone get access to the flow?**
No. You enter the flow's Flow ID, and clicking the button opens a side panel to confirm connections and run it, but adding the button doesn't share the flow or give anyone permission to run it. Share the flow separately with the people who need it.