SharePoint AI's context support lets you define what every agent session must know — not for one user, but for the whole site. Once set, it travels with every chat the team starts.
3 things to walk away with
Group, not personal
Context belongs to the site or team — every user in that group gets the same agent behavior.
Plain markdown
The context file is a markdown doc you can edit directly or have the agent edit on your behalf.
Loaded per session
Every new chat reloads context — so changes propagate without any redeploy or restart.
Group-Scope Context — memory for the team, not the user
SharePoint AI's context support defines what every agent run for this site must know. The key word is group: context is not your personal preference. It belongs to the site or team, and every user who starts a chat on that site inherits it.
Context in SharePoint AI is team memory, not user memory. Anything you save becomes a rule for every chat session anyone on the site starts.
That makes the context file a governance surface, not a settings menu. Use it for things the whole team needs the agent to know: who owns the site, how decisions are tracked, where reports are saved, what the fiscal year is. Personal preferences belong elsewhere.
Each user has their own context. The opposite — context is shared across the entire site, which is exactly why it can encode "how we work" rules instead of personal habits.
The Context File — plain markdown the agent reads on every run
The context file is a markdown document stored in the site's agent assets. You can edit it directly in the SharePoint markdown editor like any other document, and the changes apply to the next session that starts. No publishing pipeline, no deployment, no restart.
Inside the file you write whatever the team needs the agent to know — site owners, processes, naming conventions, file storage rules, decay handling, even prompts like "remember to always check the expert directory before assigning a task."
Markdown is the agent's lingua franca. The context file is just a document; that is what makes it editable by anyone and readable by the agent on every run.
The context file is a configuration JSON only admins can change. It is a normal SharePoint markdown document — anyone with edit access to the agent assets library can modify it.
Adding Context — edit the file or just tell the agent
You can update context two ways. First: open the markdown file in the editor and type. Second: in any agent chat, give an explicit instruction like "save this to your context" or a hint like "remember this" or "you should always do X." The agent recognizes the intent and writes the addition to the context file for you.
In the demo, the user adds "report outputs always save to the reports folder" by simply telling the agent. The next session reloads the file and that rule is in force.
You can manage context conversationally. Telling the agent to "remember" something is functionally identical to editing the markdown file — the agent writes the change for you.
You must use a special syntax to add context. Natural language works — words like "remember," "always," "save this" trigger the agent to update the context file.
Agent Sessions — context loads at the start of every chat
Each new chat (session) on a SharePoint AI-enabled site starts by loading the current context file. Whatever is in that file becomes the rules for that session. There is no global cache; if you change the context file at noon, the chat someone starts at noon-and-five-seconds sees the new rules.
This per-session loading is what makes context changes propagate instantly across the team. Nobody has to log out, refresh permissions, or wait for an update.
Context propagation is automatic and immediate. Editing the file changes behavior for every chat started afterward — no restart, no opt-in.
Agent sessions cache context for hours and stale rules persist. Each session reloads at start — once you save the file, the very next chat session sees the new rules.
Flashcards — Foundations
01 · Foundations
Group-Scope Context
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SharePoint AI's context belongs to the site or team, not the individual user. Every chat session anyone starts on that site loads the same rules — making context a governance surface, not a personal setting.
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01 · Foundations
Context File
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A plain markdown document in the site's agent assets, loaded at the start of every session. Editable like any other doc — no deploy step. Carries owners, processes, conventions, and decay rules.
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01 · Foundations
Adding Context Inline
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Updating context conversationally: telling the agent "save this," "remember," or "you should always" triggers it to edit the context file on your behalf. No special syntax needed.
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01 · Foundations
Agent Sessions
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Each new chat loads the current context file at startup. Changes propagate to the next session immediately — no restart, no caching, no opt-in for users.