Your AI, Your Rules: How to Teach Copilot to Stay in Its SharePoint Lane Pt.1

Your AI, Your Rules: How to Teach Copilot to Stay in Its SharePoint Lane Pt.1

Teaching Copilot Boundaries in SharePoint

Beatrisu fromhelu's photo
Beatrisu fromhelu
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2 min read

Microsoft 365’s Copilot is like that overenthusiastic new hire: brimming with potential, eager to help, but occasionally prone to poking its nose where it doesn’t belong. That’s why Restricted SharePoint Search exists—to make sure Copilot sticks to what you want it to know and doesn’t start unearthing your digital skeletons

How It Keeps Copilot in Check

  • 100 Curated Sites Only
    Admins decide which SharePoint sites make it into Copilot’s treasure map.

  • User-Specific Content
    Even within those curated sites, Copilot only serves up content that a user already has access to. No permission? No peeking.

How to Get It Up and Running

Setting this up is as easy as telling your office intern, “Hands off my snacks!” Here’s the play-by-play:

  • Head to the Sharepoint Admin Center » Advanced management.

  • Choose which SharePoint sites Copilot gets to rummage through.

  • Rinse and repeat—review those settings regularly to keep things fresh and secure.

Or take the almighty Microsoft.Online.SharePoint.PowerShell route ...

#Get the current mode that is set for Restricted Search
Get-SPOTenantRestrictedSearchMode
#nable (or disable) the Restricted Search setting
Set-SPOTenantRestrictedSearchMode -Mode Enabled 
# Add sites to the allowed list ( up to 100 )
Add-SPOTenantRestrictedSearchAllowedList  -SitesListFileUrl C:\Users\admin\SiteUrlList.csv
#Get the existing list of URLs in the allowed list
Get-SPOTenantRestrictedSearchAllowedList

Now here’s the kicker: a 100-site limit sounds fine… until it isn’t.

With the explosion of Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams—each spawning its own SharePoint site, plus extras for shared and private channels—this cap feels woefully low for most organization.

But ! There’s the twist: Enable a Hub site, and all its buddies (a.k.a. associated sites) join the party on the allowed list, giving you more bang for your 100-sites buck. Just don’t forget to double-check that those tagalong sites have the right permissions—no freeloaders allowed!

In short, while Restricted SharePoint Search offers a strong layer of control, many admins might find themselves craving a bit more flexibility to manage their data—and their sanity!

Stay Tuned for Pt.2 …

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