Makers at a manufacturer edit the production Copilot Studio agent directly, and last week's working version can no longer be restored. Connectors in the agent point at production systems even when someone experiments. What ALM change should the architect make?

Copilot Studio agents, their connectors, and their actions belong in Power Platform ALM: promote the agent in a solution from development through test before production. This gives you a package you can redeploy instead of an edited production agent with no prior version. Connection references and environment variables belong in the solution, so experiments use non-production systems and only the production deployment binds to production connectors. Pasting instructions into a shared mailbox captures neither topics, actions, nor connector bindings, so it cannot restore last week’s working agent. Exporting trigger phrases to a spreadsheet and rebuilding by hand loses flows, knowledge bindings, and connection references. Giving every maker system-customizer rights in production invites more direct edits and increases the risk of another outage. Exam caveat: the managed solution in production is what you deploy; makers should not keep editing a second copy of the agent in place. Practical check: confirm makers cannot edit the production agent and that the test environment uses its own connection references before the solution is promoted.