Provide custom instructions for your Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebook

_{Last updated: February 2026}

When you start a notebook in Microsoft 365 Copilot Notebooks, intelligent suggestions from your work data recommend content based on your notebook’s topic, and you can set instructions for Copilot to follow when delivering prompts.

Note: A Microsoft 365 Copilot license is required to use Copilot Notebooks. Additionally, accounts must have a SharePoint or OneDrive license (service plan) in order to create notebooks. Copilot Notebooks is also available for Microsoft 365 Personal, Family, and Premium subscribers. Learn more about Microsoft 365 Copilot licensing and Microsoft 365 Copilot plans.

Note: Some features described in this article are rolling out gradually and may not yet be available in your experience.

Provide specific guidelines for Copilot

In the notebook you want to add custom instructions to, select the expand button next to your notebook name in the upper corner of the left pane.
Select Copilot instructions.

In the dialog, enter specific instructions for Copilot. You can ask Copilot to format responses how you want, focus on a topic, use a specific tone, and more. For example:

Icon depicting a document with sparkles Always respond in Spanish and bullet points. Make sure to account for branding colors, grey 500 and orange 280. The client prefers their name written in lower case. Write out numbers in words rather than numerals.