Teams Reply Drafting

Teams Reply Drafting

Use this skill to identify Teams messages that likely need a reply and produce draft responses grounded in the available conversation context.

Related Skills

Start Here

• If the user provided channels, threads, chats, people, or a time window, use that scope instead of the default fallback.
• If no source scope was provided, treat this as best-effort reply drafting from available Teams signals rather than an exact "messages needing reply" detector.
• Use draft replies when the user asked for drafting or review, and send when the requested action is to post or reply now.

Workflow

1. If the user gave explicit scope, use the cheapest matching path first:
   • specific message or thread path: fetch, then reply_to_message only if the user wants to send
   • named channel: resolve_team, resolve_channel, then list_channel_messages
   • named chat or DM: resolve_chat, then list_chat_messages
2. If no explicit scope was provided, start with:
   • list_chats(unread_only=True) for unread direct conversations and group chats
   • list_recent_threads for recent channel or chat activity
3. Expand only the conversations needed to answer accurately:
   • unread chats first
   • then recent messages containing direct questions or clear asks
   • then recent mentions detected from message-history reads
4. To detect recent mentions, get the caller profile and match TeamsMessageResult.mentions against the caller's user ID from direct message-history reads. Do not rely on Teams search hits for mention detection.
5. If the context is incomplete, write the smallest useful clarifying reply instead of guessing.
6. If a message contains a follow-up but no reply is needed, say that directly. If the user wants it tracked, route the follow-up to the Planner skill instead of drafting a performative Teams reply.

Drafting Rules

• Answer the question first, then add clarification or next steps only when the context supports it.
• Keep in-thread replies short unless the thread clearly requires a longer answer.
• Preserve thread-specific facts, dates, links, and owners.
• If there are multiple plausible reply targets, stop and ask which conversation the user means before drafting anything send-ready.

Formatting

Format multiple drafts as:

*Teams Reply Drafts — <scope>*

*<chat / channel / thread info>*
Draft:
<draft text>

*<chat / channel / thread info>*
Draft:
<draft text>

• Keep each item minimal: a short header plus the draft text.
• If the user asked for a single reply, return only that item.
• If nothing likely needing a reply is found, say so directly and explain the scope checked.