Copilot Cowork — Scheduled Briefings & Guardrails
Set-and-forget recurring workflows plus the foundational guardrail prompt every Cowork user should run first.
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Requirements
REQUIRES: Microsoft 365 Copilot licence + Frontier program enrolment + Anthropic sub-processor enabled. See README.md for full setup details.
Guardrails
1. What Cowork Should Never Do Without Your Approval
Use Case: Understand Cowork's approval model before delegating any action that affects others. Run this prompt first — it sets the expectation for every workflow that follows.
Target Personas: All M365 Copilot users with Frontier access
Tags: cowork, frontier, guardrails, governance, agentic
Prompt:
Before you take any of the following actions, stop and show me exactly what you are about to do, with full details, and wait for my explicit approval:
- Send any email
- Post any message to Teams
- Create or modify any calendar event
- Share or edit any SharePoint or OneDrive file
- Schedule any meeting or invite any attendee
For everything else — searching, reading, drafting, summarising — proceed without asking.
When you show me something for approval, include:
- The exact content (full email text, full Teams message, full event details)
- Who it is going to
- What action you will take after I approve
Do not use "Approve All" for multi-action sequences unless I explicitly ask you to.
Schedulable: No Skills used: All Approval required: Foundational prompt — set this expectation before any action-taking workflow
Scheduled Briefings
Use these for recurring work. Run once, verify the output, then schedule via the clock icon. Maximum 5 scheduled prompts per user — treat each slot as a high-value decision.
2. Monday Week-Start Briefing
Use Case: Start every week with a clear picture of what needs your attention — open threads, commitments, calendar priorities.
Target Personas: Manager, Project Manager, Executive, Individual Contributor
Tags: cowork, frontier, weekly, briefing, schedulable, outlook, teams, calendar
Prompt:
Every Monday at 7:00 AM, prepare my week-start briefing. Search my emails and Teams messages from the last 7 days and my calendar for this week. Produce:
- Unresolved email threads I have not replied to — list each with sender, subject, and age, sorted oldest first
- Commitments I made to others in the last 7 days that I have not followed up on — list each with the date I made it and who I made it to
- Meetings this week that need preparation — for each one, include key context from my past exchanges with those attendees
- One thing I should proactively reach out about this week based on what you found
Format as a briefing I can read in under 3 minutes. Do not send or post anything — deliver this as a message to me only.
Schedulable: Yes — Monday 7:00 AM Skills used: Email, Meetings, Calendar Management, Daily Briefing Approval required: No (read-only output)
3. Friday End-of-Week Digest
Use Case: Close the week with a record of what was done, what's open, and what carries into next week.
Target Personas: Manager, Project Manager, Individual Contributor
Tags: cowork, frontier, weekly, digest, schedulable, outlook, teams
Prompt:
Every Friday at 4:30 PM, prepare my end-of-week digest. Search my emails, Teams messages, and calendar from the past 5 days. Produce:
- Decisions made this week — who owns each one
- Commitments others made to me that have not been delivered — list each with the date and who made it
- Items I committed to that are still open — list each with the due date if mentioned
- What I should address first thing Monday morning
Keep this under 150 words. Do not send or post anything — deliver as a message to me only.
Schedulable: Yes — Friday 4:30 PM Skills used: Email, Teams, Calendar Management Approval required: No (read-only output)
4. Daily Inbox Priority Scan
Use Case: Surface the 3–5 emails that actually need your attention today without reading everything.
Target Personas: Manager, Executive, Anyone with a high-volume inbox
Tags: cowork, frontier, daily, inbox, schedulable, outlook
Prompt:
Every weekday at 8:30 AM, scan my Outlook inbox for emails received in the last 24 hours. Identify the 3–5 that most need my attention today based on:
- Explicit requests directed at me that have not been answered
- Deadlines or time-sensitive items mentioned
- Senior stakeholders or external contacts waiting on a response
- Threads where I was the last to speak more than 48 hours ago
For each one, give me: sender, subject, one-sentence summary of what they need, and suggested action (reply, delegate, defer). Do not send anything — deliver as a list to me only.
Schedulable: Yes — weekdays 8:30 AM Skills used: Email Approval required: No (read-only output)
5. Weekly Commitment Tracker
Use Case: Automatically surface every promise you made across email and Teams before it becomes a missed deadline.
Target Personas: Project Manager, Account Manager, Consultant, Anyone managing multiple stakeholders
Tags: cowork, frontier, weekly, commitments, schedulable, outlook, teams
Prompt:
Every Wednesday at 9:00 AM, search my emails and Teams messages from the last 14 days. Find every instance where I committed to doing something — including phrases like "I will", "I'll send", "I'll follow up", "I'll check", "let me get back to you", "I'll have this to you by". For each commitment found:
- Who I made it to
- What I committed to
- When I committed to it
- Whether there is any evidence I followed through
Sort by age — oldest first. Flag any that are more than 5 days old with no follow-up. Do not send or post anything — deliver as a list to me only.
Schedulable: Yes — Wednesday 9:00 AM Skills used: Email, Teams Approval required: No (read-only output)
Scheduling Your 5 Slots — Priority Order
| Slot | Prompt | Schedule | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Monday Week-Start Briefing | Mon 7:00 AM | Highest — sets the week |
| 2 | Weekly Commitment Tracker | Wed 9:00 AM | Catches missed promises mid-week |
| 3 | Weekly Calendar Triage | Sun evening or Mon 6:30 AM | Prevents the week from filling before you plan it |
| 4 | Project Status Digest | Mon 8:00 AM | Portfolio-level visibility |
| 5 | Daily Inbox Priority Scan | Weekdays 8:30 AM | Only add if inbox volume justifies it |
The Friday Digest is valuable but if you are already running the Monday Briefing, the two overlap — don't use both unless you have a genuine end-of-week reporting need.
Part of the Copilot Cowork collection