Stitching Knowledge Together: Dynamic Citation Rendering Explained

Intro:

When using the Generative Answer action in Copilot Studio, the output often includes a helpful summary—but the citations? Not so pretty. By default, they appear as raw links or unformatted source references, which can feel disconnected and hard to navigate. This blog block is a conceptual deep dive into how you can beautify citation output using Adaptive Cards and HTML formatting. The goal is to transform scattered source data into a clean, clickable table that builds trust, improves readability for the end user.

Generate the Answer:

Use the SearchAndSummarizeContent action to populate Topic.Answer.Text.Content with a generative response based on the user query and selected persona.

Check for Valid Output:

Ensure the answer is not blank using a condition like =!IsBlank(Topic.Answer) before proceeding.

Create the Citation Sources Reference:

Format the citations into an array of objects like:

[

  {

    "FileName": "File Name.pptx",

    "FileUrl": "https://abcorp.sharepoint.com/.../MEALFramework.pptx"

  },

  {

    "FileName": "File Name.Docx",

    "FileUrl": "https://abcorp.sharepoint.com/.../MEALexpand.docx"

  }

]

Transform Citations into Markdown:

It takes the main answer text generated by Copilot Studio and appends a list of citations in Markdown format.

• 
  Start with the Answer Text: This adds two line breaks after the answer to visually separate it from the citations.
  

Topic.Answer.Text.Content & Char(10) & Char(10)

• 
  Loop Through Citation Sources: This iterates over each citation source (e.g., a file used in the answer).
  

Concat(Topic.Answer.Text.CitationSources, ...)

• 
  Format the Citation in Markdown: This creates a Markdown-style citation:

1. [Id]: URL "File Name"


2. It replaces %20 with spaces for readability.
   

"[" & Id & "]: " & URL & " \"" & Substitute(Name, "%20", " ") & "\""

• 
  Add Line Breaks Between Citations: This ensures each citation appears on its own line for clarity.
  

Char(10) & Char(10)

Final Output:

The result is a combined string that includes:

The original answer

A clean, readable list of citations

Resilient URL handling

Markdown formatting for rendering in Adaptive Cards or rich text blocks

Source Code:

PCAT repo