Microsoft AI-first Development Weekly: Copilot Managed Runtime app creation policy gap confirmed

Microsoft AI-first Development Weekly covers Power Apps Code Apps, Microsoft Copilot Managed Runtime and Power Platform skills and plugins for AI-first development. These tools help people build apps with AI and connect them to their organisation's services.

Copilot Managed Runtime: app creation can precede a blocking rule

Microsoft has confirmed a policy gap in Copilot Managed Runtime, its preview service for hosting business apps. A new developer environment, a personal space for building apps, can take time to receive the organisation's settings. During that delay, the command-line tool can still create and publish an app even when the relevant group setting disables app creation through that tool.

This matters to organisations that use the setting to control who can build apps. Microsoft says it is working on the issue and has given no fix date. The confirmation concerns this delay in applying the app-creation setting; it does not establish that every Runtime policy is bypassed.

Microsoft's confirmation · Copilot Managed Runtime governance settings

Microsoft has strengthened how the Model Apps and PCF plugins keep temporary sign-in credentials out of saved files and diagnostic messages. Model Apps helps build Power Apps model-driven apps, which organise work around business records. PCF, the Power Apps component framework, lets developers add custom controls such as a specialist input field.

The changes remove credentials echoed in certain error responses and handle more encoded or split versions of those credentials. The PCF change also covers its saved push receipt. This reduces the chance of sharing a sign-in secret with a log or support report, but the documented protection has limits, including some short fragments and writes outside the protected routines. The PCF plugin remains a preview.

Model Apps security changes · Further Model Apps and PCF protection

Power Apps Code Apps: local testing restored after a service change

Microsoft says it has restored local testing for Power Apps Code Apps by temporarily disabling the service setting responsible for a launch failure. Local testing lets a developer run unfinished app code on their own computer while using the Power Apps player.

Several users reported that this stopped with an app-URL error. Microsoft identified the cause, disabled the setting and said it would enable it again after deploying the underlying fix. A user subsequently confirmed that testing worked again. This is a temporary service mitigation, not confirmation that the permanent fix is complete.

Microsoft's mitigation and the user's confirmation

Model Apps plugin: a different way to create and publish pages

The Model Apps plugin now uses a bundled software development kit, a set of code tools supplied with the plugin, for its generated-page operations. It can also create a new Power Apps model-driven app whose navigation contains only AI-generated pages, without first requiring a standard table page.

For example, a focused app can open on a purpose-built work dashboard. Page code is checked and compiled before it is sent, and related page changes are submitted together. An uncertain write is checked before another attempt, helping avoid duplicate pages.

The sign-in requirements matter: Azure CLI, Microsoft's terminal tool for accessing Azure services, must be installed and signed in with the same identity as the Power Platform command-line tool. The latter is still needed for setup and operations the bundled tools do not cover.

Model Apps publishing workflow · Apps containing only generated pages

Model Apps plugin: downloaded apps retain more detail

The Model Apps plugin now keeps more information when it downloads a Power Apps model-driven app for rebuilding elsewhere. That includes file and image columns, more field settings, translated navigation titles, status reasons and the connections used by generated pages.

This helps a rebuilt app resemble the original and retain the instructions its pages need to reach data or business actions. It is still not a complete copy. Connections and custom business actions must already exist in the destination, and some settings are not carried across. The plugin reports unsupported or unreadable details rather than promising a complete transfer.

Download and language fixes · File and image columns · Page connections and additional field settings

Power Apps Code Apps: China cloud support ruled out for now

Microsoft has confirmed that Power Apps Code Apps do not currently support the China cloud operated by 21Vianet. The response follows a report that an app would not run even with the Code Apps setting enabled.

Enabling that setting therefore does not establish support in this cloud. This is a newly confirmed regional restriction, not evidence that support was removed from a previously supported region.

Microsoft's regional support response

Copilot Managed Runtime: deployments hand off for human approval

Copilot Managed Runtime's updated command-line tool can now stop waiting when a deployment reaches the point where a person must approve it. It returns a deployment identifier, so an automated job can finish its submission step and track the decision separately.

The tool also provides a deployment-status command and returns the correct app link after a successful deployment to a named target, such as a test destination. Several command names and options have changed, so existing scripts can need changes too.

These project and deployment features remain preview capabilities and require the relevant feature settings. Approval actions also require service-side approval support. The project-deploy command still supports one app, not a multi-app project deployment.

Copilot Managed Runtime command-line tool documentation

Model Apps plugin: builds recover more safely

The Model Apps plugin now prevents two builds from applying changes to the same Power Apps model-driven app at once in one workspace. This reduces duplicate work, such as two builds each creating an app icon. It also improves recovery when a previous build created a page resource or dashboard but stopped before completing its publication or registration.

The plugin checks saved results and existing resources before continuing. It also fixes a short-lived problem where changing one page could be blocked by a connection check on an unchanged page. The build lock applies within one workspace; it does not coordinate separate computers or every other editing command.

Build recovery changes · Build locking and unchanged-page fix

Model Apps plugin: custom business actions are found by default

The Model Apps plugin now looks for supported public Dataverse Custom APIs by default. These are named business actions or calculations exposed by Dataverse, the service that stores Power Platform business records. A generated Power Apps page could use one to request a calculation rather than reproduce its rules in the page.

This makes existing supported actions easier to connect to an AI-generated page. The capability still depends on compatible host features, the organisation's policies and the user's permissions. Turning off discovery stops new discovery and authoring without clearing existing page connections during unrelated edits.

Default discovery and supported action handling

Power Pages plugin: find likely causes of slow pages

The Power Pages plugin has a new performance-checking skill. It reads a local copy of a website and flags patterns that can make pages slow, such as requesting too many records, repeating a data request for every item, or loading very large files.

The skill produces a report with file locations and suggested improvements. It can offer a limited set of automatic setting fixes, with approval required for each fix. It examines source files, not the running website, so its findings are possible causes rather than measured loading speeds.

It currently supports traditional Power Pages sites. It rejects single-page application projects, where JavaScript largely controls the page in the browser. No sign-in is required for the local analysis.

Power Pages performance-checking skill

Power Apps Code Apps: a diagnosed cause of missing flow connections

Microsoft has explained one cause of Power Automate flow calls failing after a Power Apps Code App moves between environments. In the investigated case, publishing with the older PAC command-line tool omitted information needed to reconnect the flows.

Microsoft's suggested remedy is to push the app with the newer npm-based Power Apps command-line tool and recreate the solution, the package used to move the app and its related components. This is guidance for that diagnosed case, not confirmation that every reported flow-transfer problem is fixed. Supported flows must be stored in a solution, run on demand and use the Power Apps trigger.

Microsoft's diagnosis · Supported Code Apps flow setup

Power Apps Code Apps: a mobile launch fix is being rolled out

Microsoft says it has implemented a fix for a bug affecting Power Apps Code Apps launching in the Power Apps mobile player. Its latest response says the fix is being rolled out and promises a further update when available.

That is progress on the launch problem, not confirmation that every phone has received the fix. Code Apps mobile use still requires an internet connection. This response also does not establish fixes for the separately reported Android data-access or image-handling problems, or support for Power Apps for Windows.

Microsoft's mobile launch update

Mobile Apps plugin: diagnose problems before the app opens

The Mobile Apps plugin can now investigate startup and QR-code opening failures before a Power Apps mobile app is running. It checks installed packages, required software versions and the files that start the app. Previously, its debugging workflow concentrated on an app that had already started.

This can help distinguish a local setup problem from an app-code or package defect. Restoring the same recorded package versions or restarting the development server requires approval; the workflow does not upgrade dependencies. Passing these checks alone does not prove the app works: the original problem must be checked again.

This standalone mobile-app development route remains in private preview and must not be used in production.

Mobile Apps startup diagnostics

Power Apps Mobile Extension plugin: usage reporting is on by default

The Power Apps Mobile Extension plugin now sends skill-usage events by default, subject to its supported cloud and region rules. This plugin helps build custom native controls for wrapped Power Apps canvas apps, which are packaged as mobile apps under an organisation's own branding. This route has limited preview access.

The events can include organisation, tenant and signed-in user identifiers from an existing sign-in. The plugin provides an on, off and status control. Turning transmission off stops sending events, but local diagnostic records continue. These are plugin-workflow events, not usage tracking added to the generated native controls.

The published validation does not establish delivery in every host or region; downstream European ingestion remains unverified.

Mobile Extension usage reporting and controls

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