Connect Cowork to a data source

Tool: Cowork
Source status: Liftable from Agent Academy — Cowork Collective

Cowork is already grounded in your Microsoft 365 work through Work IQ. There is no connector to install and no custom auth to build. Cowork can use what the signed-in user can already access: mail, sent mail, calendar, Teams chats and channels, OneDrive and SharePoint files, and people/org chart data.

Why this matters

The hard part is not connecting the data. The hard part is asking for the slice you need in a shape you can reuse.

Steps

1. Open M365 Copilot at m365.cloud.microsoft.
2. In the left rail, select the Cowork tab at the top, next to Chat.
3. Start a New task.
4. Ask for one specific source first. Good starter prompts:
   • Find my last 10 sent emails. Return sender, recipient, date, subject, and the exact body text.
   • Summarize my calendar for the last 30 days. Group time by meeting category, organizer, and attendee count.
   • Find Teams messages where I was @mentioned last week. Return who asked, what they asked, and whether I replied.
5. Ask Cowork to return the data in a structured shape. Use a table when you will inspect it. Use JSON or markdown headings when another skill will consume it.
6. To use a OneDrive or SharePoint file, attach it in the Cowork message or paste the file link. Then say exactly how it should be used, for example: Use this file as the source of truth. Do not infer missing fields.
7. Narrow the range if the answer is too broad. Ask for last 30 days, last 10 sent emails, only meetings I organized, or only messages from my manager.
8. Copy the useful prompt into your notes or skill instructions so you can run the same pull again.

You'll know it worked when... Cowork returns real work data that you recognize, with enough structure that you could paste it into a document, table, or skill input without cleaning it by hand.

Ask for extractable data

Use prompts like this:

Pull [source] for [time window]. Return one row per item with these columns: [columns]. If a field is unknown, write "unknown". Do not summarize before returning the table.

Example:

Find my last 10 sent emails. Return one row per email with: date, recipient, subject, exact greeting, exact signoff, average sentence length, and three verbatim phrases that sound like me.

Keep the boundary clear

Cowork only sees what the signed-in user can see. Do not add credentials, secrets, or personal data that does not belong in the hack.

Apply it to your scenario

For any scenario, start by naming the evidence you need. Ask Cowork to pull that evidence from Work IQ, return it in a stable shape, and keep the raw examples available so your skill can reason from facts instead of vibes.