GitHub Copilot for Office — Atea Edition

Important

This is a preview / proof-of-concept. Things might break, and APIs may change.

An Office Add-in that brings GitHub Copilot directly into Word, Excel and PowerPoint — enhanced with Atea brand design skills and Microsoft Work IQ (calendar, email, Teams, people search via MCP).

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✨ What can it do?

Capability	Example prompt
Create on-brand presentations	"Create a 5-slide customer pitch for Atea's cloud services using our brand guidelines"
Read & edit documents	"Summarise this Word document in three bullet points"
Work with spreadsheets	"Create a chart from the data in A1:D10"
Access your M365 data	"What meetings do I have tomorrow?"
Search people & org	"Find the person responsible for Azure at Atea"
Combine it all	"Check my calendar for next week and create a PowerPoint status update using Atea branding"

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🚀 Getting Started

Prerequisites

Requirement	Notes
Node.js 20+	nodejs.org
GitHub Copilot license	Individual, Business or Enterprise
Microsoft 365	Office on the web or desktop (with add-in support)
Git	To clone the repo

1. Clone & install

git clone https://github.com/atea/github-copilot-office.git
cd github-copilot-office
npm install

2. Register the add-in manifest

macOS / Linux:

./register.sh

Windows (PowerShell):

.\register.ps1

This tells Office where to find the add-in and trusts the local SSL certificate.

3. Start the server

npm run start:tray

The server starts on https://localhost:52390. Keep this terminal open.

4. Load the add-in in Office

1. Open PowerPoint, Word or Excel (desktop or web)
2. Go to Insert → Add-ins → My Add-ins
3. Under Shared Folder (desktop) or My Organization (web), select GitHub Copilot
4. The Copilot chat panel appears on the right side

5. Sign in

The first time you open the add-in you'll be prompted to sign in with your GitHub account. This authenticates you against your Copilot license.

📖 For more detailed setup instructions, see GETTING_STARTED.md.

🔧 For the full list of Office tools, see TOOLS_CATALOG.md.

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🐳 Docker Deployment (Alternative)

You can run the backend server in Docker for easier deployment and isolation. This uses a hybrid architecture where the main server runs in Docker, but Work IQ (M365 integration) runs on the host to access macOS Keychain for authentication.

Prerequisites

• Docker and Docker Compose
• GitHub CLI (gh) authenticated with gh auth login
• Work IQ for M365 features (optional)

Quick Start

Terminal 1 — Start the Work IQ host relay (for M365 features):

node scripts/workiq-host-relay.js

Terminal 2 — Start the Docker container:

GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token) docker compose up --build

The add-in is now available at https://localhost:52390.

Architecture

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Office Add-in (Browser)                                        │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Docker Container (port 52390)                                  │
│  ┌───────────────┐  ┌─────────────────┐  ┌──────────────────┐  │
│  │ Express Server│  │ GitHub Copilot  │  │ Work IQ Bridge   │  │
│  │ + React UI    │  │ CLI (native bin)│  │ (MCP → HTTP)     │  │
│  └───────────────┘  └─────────────────┘  └──────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
                              │
                              ▼ HTTP (host.docker.internal:52391)
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│  Host Machine                                                   │
│  ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐  │
│  │ Work IQ Host Relay (port 52391)                           │  │
│  │ - Runs @microsoft/workiq natively                         │  │
│  │ - Has access to macOS Keychain (M365 auth)                │  │
│  └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘  │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

Why the hybrid approach?

• GitHub Copilot CLI runs fine in Docker with a GITHUB_TOKEN environment variable
• Work IQ requires interactive Microsoft authentication stored in macOS Keychain, which isn't accessible from Docker
• The host relay bridges this gap — it runs Work IQ natively on the host where Keychain is available

Running without Work IQ

If you don't need M365 integration (calendar, email, Teams, people search), you can skip the host relay:

GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token) docker compose up --build

Office tools (creating slides, reading documents, editing spreadsheets) will work normally.

Docker Compose Configuration

The docker-compose.yml includes:

• Port 52390 for the main server
• Volume mounts for SSL certs and design skills
• GITHUB_TOKEN passed from the host
• WORKIQ_RELAY_URL pointing to the host relay

Troubleshooting Docker

"Session was not created with authentication info":

• Make sure you're passing GITHUB_TOKEN: GITHUB_TOKEN=$(gh auth token) docker compose up
• Verify your GitHub CLI is authenticated: gh auth status

Work IQ queries timeout or fail:

• Check the host relay is running: curl http://localhost:52391/health
• View relay logs: tail -f /tmp/workiq-relay.log
• First M365 query may prompt for sign-in in the host terminal

Container can't reach host relay:

• Docker Compose adds host.docker.internal automatically
• Check WORKIQ_RELAY_URL in container: docker compose exec copilot-office env | grep WORKIQ

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🎨 Prompting with the Atea Design Skill

The add-in includes the Atea Corporate design skill, which teaches Copilot the full Atea brand guidelines — colors, typography, layout rules, and do's & don'ts. Every slide it generates follows the Atea visual identity automatically.

Good prompts

Prompt	What happens
"Create a title slide for a presentation about cloud migration"	Creates a slide with Atea Green (#008A00), Arial Bold title, proper 16:9 layout
"Add a slide with three key benefits in the green-box pattern"	Uses the signature Atea green box motif with white text
"Build a 5-slide deck: title, agenda, three content slides about our managed services offering"	Full branded deck with consistent styling
"Make a slide comparing on-prem vs cloud costs with a chart"	Chart using Atea's color sequence (Green, Grey, Bright Green, Light Grey…)

Tips for best results

• Be specific about content — give Copilot the actual text/data, not just the topic
• Mention the number of slides — "Create 5 slides about…" works better than "Create a presentation about…"
• Ask for specific layouts — "Use a two-column layout" or "Add a full-width image slide"
• Iterate — after generating, say "Make the title shorter" or "Change the subtitle to…"
• Reference the brand — "Use Atea branding" or "Follow our brand guidelines" reinforces the design skill

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🔌 Prompting with Work IQ (M365 Integration)

Work IQ connects Copilot to your Microsoft 365 data via MCP — emails, calendar, Teams messages, documents and people.

Good prompts

Prompt	What it does
"What meetings do I have this week?"	Queries your Outlook calendar
"Summarise my unread emails"	Reads your inbox via Microsoft Graph
"Find Teams messages about the Azure migration project"	Searches your Teams conversations
"Who in Atea works on Kubernetes?"	People search across the organization
"Check my calendar for Monday and create a PowerPoint agenda slide"	Combines Work IQ + Office tools + design skill

First-time setup

When you first ask a Work IQ question, you'll be prompted to sign in with your Microsoft account. This is a one-time consent per session.

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💡 Why this instead of regular M365 Copilot?

	M365 Copilot	This Add-in
Model	GPT-4o (Microsoft-hosted)	GitHub Copilot models (GPT-4o, Claude, etc.) — you choose
Brand awareness	Generic styling	Atea brand guidelines baked in via skills
Extensibility	Limited to Microsoft's built-in capabilities	MCP servers, custom skills, custom tools
Presentation quality	Basic slide generation	Code-level PowerPoint control (shapes, charts, formatting)
M365 data access	Built-in	Via Work IQ MCP (calendar, email, Teams, people)
Cost	$30/user/month M365 Copilot license	GitHub Copilot license (included if you already have one)
Customisation	None	Add your own skills, MCP servers and tools
Transparency	Black box	Open source — inspect and modify everything

Key advantages

1. On-brand by default — every slide follows Atea's design system without manual fixing
2. Model choice — switch between GPT-4o, Claude Sonnet, and other models
3. Composable — combine Office tools + M365 data + custom skills in a single prompt
4. Extensible — add new MCP servers (e.g. Jira, ServiceNow) or custom tools
5. Cost-effective — no additional M365 Copilot license needed if you already have GitHub Copilot

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🛠 Available Design Skills

Skill	Description
atea-corporate	Full Atea brand — colors, typography, layouts, green-box pattern
github-brand	GitHub brand guidelines
microsoft-default	Microsoft presentation defaults
minimal-light	Clean minimal design

Skills are loaded from the skills/ directory. Each skill contains a SKILL.md file with design guidelines that Copilot follows when creating presentations.

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Office Videos

PowerPoint

PowerPoint-spedup.mp4

Excel

Excel-GitHubCopilot.mov

Word

Word-GitHubCopilot.mov

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Scripts

Command	Description
npm run dev	Start development server with hot reload
npm run build	Build frontend for production
npm run start:tray	Run production server (native)
docker compose up --build	Run production server in Docker
node scripts/workiq-host-relay.js	Start Work IQ host relay for Docker mode

Troubleshooting

Add-in doesn't appear in Office:

• Make sure you ran ./register.sh (or .\register.ps1)
• Restart Office after registering
• Check that the dev server is running (npm run dev)

Stuck on "Connecting…":

• Make sure npm run start:tray is running and showing Server running on https://localhost:52390
• Try refreshing the add-in panel (close and reopen)

Work IQ not responding:

• Ensure you have internet access and npx is available in your PATH
• Run workiq accept-eula once to accept End User License Agreement from Microsoft
• Sign in when prompted — Work IQ requires Microsoft account consent

SSL Certificate errors:

• Re-run the register script (./register.sh)
• Or manually trust certs/localhost.pem