# What Are SharePoint Quick Steps? Saved Copilot Prompts as Library Buttons

> SharePoint quick steps turn a saved Copilot prompt or a file move into a button in your library, so anyone can run a compliance check on the files they select.

- URL: https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-quick-steps/
- Author: Daniel Anderson, Microsoft MVP (https://www.danielanderson.io/)
- Published: 2026-02-09
- Updated: 2026-10-25
- Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fMCjItin40I

## Key takeaways

- A SharePoint quick step is a saved action, such as a Copilot prompt, a file move or a flow, that runs on the items or files you select in a list or library.
- You add one as a Quick steps column, which puts a button on every row, or from Integrate, then Quick steps, which adds it to the Automate menu on the command bar.
- The column button runs on the file in that row. To run a quick step across several selected files, use it from the command bar.
- In my demo, one saved compliance prompt run across five subcontractor documents returned an executive summary with compliance status, gaps and risks, citing all five files.
- The Ask Copilot action needs Copilot in SharePoint, and anyone with Edit permission on the library can change a quick step for everyone who uses it.

A SharePoint quick step is a saved action that runs on whatever items or files you select in a list or library, and one of the actions is a Copilot prompt. Write the prompt once, save it as a quick step, and everyone who uses the library gets a button that runs it over the files in front of them, with nobody typing a prompt or uploading documents to a chatbot.

In the video above I built a subcontractor compliance check as a quick step and ran it across five documents for a demo company, Titan Steel Works Australia. When I recorded it in February the Copilot action was called **Ask Knowledge Agent**. Knowledge Agent has since become Copilot in SharePoint, and the action is now **Ask Copilot**.

## How do quick steps work?

You create a quick step in one of two places, and where you put it decides how people run it.

- **As a column.** Add a column to the library and choose **Quick steps** as the type, alongside Text, Choice and the rest. Every row gets a button, and clicking it runs the quick step on that row's file. You can change the button's pill colour, and I made my compliance button red so it stood out from my other one.
- **From the command bar.** Select the ellipsis near the top of the library, then **Integrate**, **Quick steps** and **Create a quick step**. Once created, quick steps sit at the top of the **Automate** menu and in the overflow menu when you select an item or file.

Inside the quick step you pick an action, give it a name and fill in its fields. For Ask Copilot that's the prompt. Mine was "Validate whether the subcontractor is compliant to operate today", followed by what to consider (expiry dates, coverage gaps, missing documents and conditions that would block site access) and a request for an executive summary report. Then you set the display, either **always show** this quick step or show it **conditionally** when a column meets a condition you set.

| Action | What it does | Permission needed to run it |
| --- | --- | --- |
| Ask Copilot | Runs your saved prompt on the selected files | Needs Copilot in SharePoint |
| Execute a flow | Runs a Power Automate flow by its flow ID | Read |
| Draft an email / Start a Teams chat | Opens a message to people in a People column | Read |
| Set value | Changes a column value on the selected items | Edit |
| Send an approval request | Starts an approval on the item | Edit |

My second quick step, **Process file**, was a move action I'd set up before recording. It moves files into a Processed folder, which is the kind of tidy-up you'd run after a check.

## Does a quick step run on one file or several?

The column button works on one file, the one in its row. In the demo I selected four files and clicked **Process file** in a row, and it moved one item. Running the same quick step from the command bar with all four selected moved all four.

The compliance check works the same way, and the multi-file run is the one I'd use. A single subcontractor has insurance certificates, licences and induction records spread across separate documents, and the check only means something when Copilot reasons over all of them together. I selected the five Titan Steel Works documents, chose the quick step from the command bar, and the Copilot pane opened with my prompt already run. The report came back with an overview, compliance status, and gaps and risks, and the sources listed all five files. In the video I described the Copilot action as working on a single file or up to five.

## How are quick steps different from a Copilot button on a page?

A [contextual Copilot button](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-copilot-button-web-part/) is a Button web part on a page that runs a prompt as whoever clicks it, with no files selected; a quick step lives in the library and runs on the files you've selected. Use the page button for "show me my work" reports and the quick step for "check these documents".

Quick steps also need a click. If something should happen by itself when a column changes, such as copying a policy to a publishing library when its status becomes Ready to publish, that's a library rule, which I cover in [what replaced SharePoint alerts](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-alerts-retirement-rules/).

## Write the prompt like a checklist and guard who can change it

Everyone who clicks the button gets the same instructions, so a vague prompt hands the whole team the same vague answer. I write quick step prompts like a checklist: what to check, what counts as a fail and the shape of the output. My compliance prompt names the four things to look for and asks for an executive summary, and the report came back organised around exactly those.

1. **Use it for checks people repeat on the same kind of document.** Subcontractor compliance, contract review against a standard set of clauses, an onboarding pack check. If people in the library keep typing a similar prompt, it belongs in a quick step.
2. **Lock down who can edit it.** Managing quick steps needs Edit permission on the library, so anyone who can edit the files can also rewrite the prompt that everyone else runs. On a compliance library I'd check who holds Edit before rolling the button out, and keep the approved prompt in a document the library owner controls so a change is easy to spot.
3. **Use conditional display to keep the row tidy.** A compliance button only makes sense on documents that haven't been checked. Show it conditionally on a status column and it disappears once the work is done, which only works if the library has that column. [Folders vs metadata](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-folders-vs-metadata/) covers why the column should be there anyway.
4. **Keep long processes out of it.** A quick step runs one action. A process with several steps, where the output needs saving somewhere or a decision made partway through, is a job for a [SharePoint skill](https://www.danielanderson.io/articles/sharepoint-skills/).
5. **Remember who can't see it.** Ask Copilot needs Copilot in SharePoint, which comes with a Microsoft 365 Copilot licence. Unlicensed people in the same library need another way to do the job.

The output stays in the Copilot pane. In my demo the report wasn't saved anywhere, so if the compliance result needs to be on record, someone has to save it or set a column.

## Frequently asked questions

**Do quick steps need an admin to turn them on?**
No. Quick steps rolled out to SharePoint lists and libraries from mid-2025 under message center post MC1025215, on by default with no admin action. The Ask Copilot action also needs Copilot in SharePoint to be enabled.

**Can other people use a quick step I create?**
Yes. Anyone with access to the list or library can see and use it. You manage them on the **Manage quick steps** page, where you can enable, disable, edit or delete each one.

**What happens if someone runs a flow quick step without access to the flow?**
They get an error. The fix is to add the list or library as a co-owner on the target flow, so anyone who can use the library can run it.

**Can quick steps be used in Microsoft Lists and Teams too?**
Yes. Quick steps work in Microsoft Lists, SharePoint and lists in Teams. Ask Copilot is the action I've used in a document library, where it reasons over the selected files.