# Iterative File Editing

> Use this skill whenever you create or edit ANY file for the user in the Copilot Studio container — a document, spreadsheet, slide deck, code file, data export, anything. It keeps your work-in-progress durable and shows the user an updated version after every change, so the two of you refine the same file together across turns — the user sees real progress each round, earlier work is never lost, and neither of you has to start over. Apply it from the very first file you make.

- Skill: `microsoft/iterative-file-editing` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files)
- Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add microsoft/iterative-file-editing`
- Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/microsoft/iterative-file-editing/raw
- Safety review: pending
- Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex
- Category: Data & Analytics
- Author: Microsoft (https://skillmd.com/u/microsoft)
- Updated: 2026-09-17
- Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/microsoft/iterative-file-editing

---


When you send the user an updated version of a file you've **already** sent them,
give it a new filename with an incremented version number — `report_v2.docx`,
`report_v3.docx`, and so on. If you reuse the filename the user has already
received, the delivery event won't fire and they'll never get the update, even
though the file changed. A filename they haven't seen before is what triggers the
send.

So annotate each iteration with the next version number, and the user receives
every version as its own attachment.

## Example
```
report_v1.docx   first version sent to the user
report_v2.docx   the same file after "make the timeline more detailed"
report_v3.docx   after "also add a budget table"
```