Managed Agent Execution Framework Released in Foundry
In short: Microsoft is now offering a managed 'Copilot harness' within Foundry Agent Service for building multi-step agents, currently in public preview. Alongside this, long-running agent resilience has moved to general availability, allowing workflows to survive interruptions.
This summary was generated automatically by AI from Azure's publication. It is our own text, not a copy of the original — facts, figures and quotes belong to the source, linked above and below.
What changed?
- 1Copilot harness released in public preview to handle agent loops and sandboxing.
- 2Support for reusable skills, subagent delegation, and MCP tool integration.
- 3General availability for long-running task resilience with checkpointing capabilities.
- 4Consumption-based billing for harness resources begins December 1, 2026.
Why it matters
Developers can offload the complexities of agent orchestration—such as state management and tool coordination—to a managed service, focusing instead on agent behavior and specific domain skills.
What it means for AI agents and contact centers
When evaluating this, compare the overhead of managing your own custom agent execution logic versus the efficiency gains of this managed harness. Monitor how subagent delegation impacts total latency and investigate how checkpointing improves reliability for long-running document processing or complex CRM workflows.
🧪 Worth Testing
Testing this helps determine if it can replace custom-built orchestration layers for complex, multi-step customer support agent tasks.
Sources
- AzureOfficialPrimary sourceOriginal article →„Introducing the Microsoft Copilot harness in Foundry Agent Service“28 Oct 2026, 19:40
- Published by source
- 28 Oct 2026, 19:40
- Found by our system
- 29 Oct 2026, 08:52
- Summary generated
- 29 Oct 2026, 08:53
This article was written by AI from the original source. Facts, numbers and prices come from the source; missing values are marked “Not specified”. Legal notice, copyright and privacy