work-search

name	work-search
description	Search and retrieve work information across M365 activity, internal engineering knowledge, and official Microsoft documentation. Use when gathering meeting summaries, email threads, chat messages, calendar events, internal docs, technical support guidance, or Microsoft/Azure product documentation. Covers tool selection, query strategies, and data-quality rules.

Work Search

Search across three work-information domains:

1. Personal activity — meetings, emails, chats, calendar
2. Internal engineering knowledge — EngHub docs, TSGs, internal support knowledge
3. Official Microsoft knowledge — Microsoft Learn docs and code samples

These tool families have different strengths. Pick the source first, then the tool.

Tool Landscape

Personal Activity

WorkIQ (mcp_workiq_ask_work_iq)

Cross-source semantic search. Ask natural language questions spanning meetings, emails, and chats.

Best for: Discovery, cross-source queries ("What happened with X this week?"), transcript-based meeting summaries, broad activity sweeps.

Unique capability: Only tool that can access meeting transcripts and produce grounded summaries of what was discussed.

Limitations: Can truncate long result sets. Break large date ranges into ≤10-day chunks. Results are summarized, not raw — drill into specific items with the targeted tools below.

Calendar (mcp_calendar_*)

Direct calendar API access.

Tool	Use
ListCalendarView	List events in a date range (structured, complete)
ListEvents	List events with filtering
FindMeetingTimes	Find available meeting slots
GetRooms	List meeting rooms
GetUserDateAndTimeZoneSettings	User's timezone

Best for: Complete event lists for a date range (no truncation), confirming attendance, getting organizer/attendee lists, structured data.

Pair with WorkIQ: Use Calendar to get the full event list, then WorkIQ to get transcript-based summaries for specific meetings.

Mail (mcp_mail_*)

Direct email access.

Tool	Use
SearchMessages	Search emails by keyword, sender, date range
GetMessage	Get a specific email by ID
GetAttachments	List attachments on a message
DownloadAttachment	Download a specific attachment

Best for: Finding specific email threads, getting exact recipients (To/CC), retrieving attachments, keyword-based search.

Teams (mcp_teams_*)

Direct Teams chat and channel access.

Tool	Use
ListChats	List all chats
GetChat	Get a specific chat
ListChatMessages	List messages in a chat
GetChatMessage	Get a specific message
SearchTeamsMessages	Search across Teams messages
ListChannels / GetChannel	Channel info
ListChannelMessages	Messages in a channel
ListTeams / GetTeam	Team info
ListChatMembers / ListChannelMembers	Membership

Best for: Getting exact chat messages, monitoring specific channels/chats over time, getting message history for a named chat.

Internal Engineering Knowledge

ES Chat (mcp_es-chat_*)

Internal engineering assistant over engineering systems, knowledge bases, incidents, wikis, and other internal sources.

Best for: Broad technical questions, onboarding questions, internal system troubleshooting, and finding likely threads before drilling into EngHub or ADO.

Use first when: The question is technical and you do not yet know which service, doc set, or system contains the answer.

Pair with EngHub: Use ES Chat to orient quickly, then use EngHub to fetch the underlying docs or TSGs when you need precise grounding.

EngHub (mcp_enghub_*)

Internal documentation search and fetch for eng.ms content.

Tool	Use
mcp_enghub_search	Search docs, TSGs, onboarding guides, team docs
mcp_enghub_fetch	Fetch full content from an eng.ms URL

Best for: Internal docs, technical support guides, service-specific onboarding, and grounded internal references.

Use when: You know the question is about an internal Microsoft engineering service, team doc, or TSG and need the actual source content.

Official Microsoft Knowledge

Microsoft Learn (mcp_msft-learn_*)

Official Microsoft documentation and code samples.

Tool	Use
mcp_msft-learn_microsoft_docs_search	Search official Microsoft docs
mcp_msft-learn_microsoft_docs_fetch	Fetch the full content of a docs page
mcp_msft-learn_microsoft_code_sample_search	Search official code samples

Best for: Azure, M365, Copilot, Foundry, and other Microsoft product documentation; SDK/API guidance; official examples.

Use when: The question is product or platform guidance rather than personal activity or internal team knowledge.

Required pattern: Search first, then fetch the most relevant page when details matter.

Query Strategy: The Funnel

WorkIQ (broad discovery) → Calendar/Mail/Teams (targeted detail)

1. Start broad with WorkIQ — ask cross-source questions to discover what happened
2. Drill down with targeted tools — use Calendar for event lists, Mail for email threads, Teams for chat messages
3. Back to WorkIQ for transcripts — if you need meeting discussion summaries, only WorkIQ has transcript access

Query Strategy: Choose by Domain

Personal Activity

WorkIQ (broad discovery) → Calendar/Mail/Teams (targeted detail)

• Start with work_iq for cross-source discovery
• Use calendar, mail, and teams for exact records
• Return to work_iq for transcript-based meeting summaries

Internal Technical Questions

ES Chat (orient) → EngHub search (find source) → EngHub fetch (read source)

• Start with es-chat when the question is broad or system-oriented
• Use enghub_search when you need the actual doc or TSG
• Use enghub_fetch to read the source before citing or acting on it

Microsoft Product Questions

Microsoft Docs Search → Microsoft Docs Fetch → Code Sample Search

• Start with microsoft_docs_search for official guidance
• Fetch the full page when details or steps matter
• Use microsoft_code_sample_search when writing or reviewing Microsoft-specific code

Example: Weekly Activity Sweep

1. Calendar.ListCalendarView(startDate, endDate)     → complete event list
2. WorkIQ("meetings I attended from X to Y, with summaries")  → transcript summaries
3. WorkIQ("emails I sent from X to Y with decisions")         → email activity
4. Teams.SearchTeamsMessages("keyword")               → specific chat threads
5. WorkIQ("activity with [customer] from X to Y")     → per-customer cross-source

Example: Investigate a Specific Meeting

1. Calendar.ListCalendarView(date, date)  → find the event, get organizer + attendees
2. WorkIQ("summarize the [meeting name] meeting on [date]")  → transcript summary

Example: Find an Email Thread

1. Mail.SearchMessages(query="subject:keyword")  → find the thread
2. Mail.GetMessage(id)                            → full content with recipients

Example: Investigate an Internal Engineering Question

1. ES Chat("How does X service handle Y?")        → orient and identify systems/docs
2. EngHub.search("X service Y")                   → find TSG or team doc
3. EngHub.fetch(url)                              → read the underlying source

Example: Investigate a Microsoft Product Question

1. MicrosoftDocs.search("Azure AI Foundry model packaging")
2. MicrosoftDocs.fetch(url)
3. MicrosoftCodeSamples.search("Azure AI Foundry packaging", language)

Data-Quality Rules

Apply these during and after all queries:

1. WorkIQ truncates — if results seem incomplete, break into smaller date ranges or use targeted tools to fill gaps
2. Resolve relative dates — "yesterday" or "last Thursday" → convert to absolute dates immediately
3. Meeting names must match calendar — don't rename meetings. Add disambiguation in parentheses: **Project Sync** *(Acme)*
4. Flag meeting-name misclassification — WorkIQ sometimes merges or splits meetings incorrectly. Cross-check with Calendar.ListCalendarView
5. Organizer ≠ attendee — being the organizer doesn't confirm attendance. Flag uncertain attendance with ⚠️
6. Request full detail — always include attendees, organizer, recipients (To/CC). Bare topic names are useless
7. Disambiguate colliding abbreviations — when one abbreviation maps to two different entities, never use the bare abbreviation; tag every occurrence so they can't be conflated. E.g. if "GT" could mean Globex Tech or Gamma Therapeutics, always write **GT** *(Globex)* vs **GT** *(Gamma)*.
8. Only WorkIQ has transcript access — Calendar, Mail, Teams, EngHub, ES Chat, and Microsoft Learn do not provide meeting transcript summaries
9. EngHub and Microsoft Learn are source systems — prefer fetching the underlying page before quoting specific guidance
10. ES Chat is an orienting tool — useful for discovery, but fetch the underlying doc when precision matters

Categorization

After collecting items, categorize by project:

Customize this mapping to your own projects. If ~/.copilot/work-search/config.md exists, use the categorization table there instead.

Signal	Project
compliance, security, vulnerability	Compliance
Customer name, partner meeting, workshop, hackathon, eval, engagement	CustomerEngagements
Agent, prompt, skill, eng tooling	AgentTooling
Org meeting, 1:1, general discussion, cross-cutting	Other

For CustomerEngagements, also tag the specific customer: [CUSTOMER: name].

Exclusion Rules

Skip unless user says otherwise:

• Internal 1:1s (manager syncs) — unless a decision was made
• Research reading groups / journal clubs — unless action taken
• All-hands / org broadcasts — unless directly involved in a decision
• Calendar holds / no-shows