SharePoint across Glean
Connecting SharePoint makes its content available in search, Glean Assistant answers, agent workflows, and tools. This page explains where that content appears and how existing SharePoint permissions apply in each experience.
Access is always scoped to each user's existing SharePoint permissions. A user only ever sees the sites, pages, and files they could already open in SharePoint, whether the content reaches them through search, an Assistant answer, or an agent. Connecting SharePoint never widens who can see what. For the full model, see permission design.
What SharePoint powers in Glean
Once connected, SharePoint content powers experiences across Glean:
Search
SharePoint pages, Office documents, PDFs, and list items become first-class search results, ranked alongside every other source you connect. Because Glean understands activity signals (who authored, edited, and engaged with a document), the most relevant and authoritative SharePoint content rises to the top instead of relying on keyword matching alone.
Users can narrow to SharePoint with the app:sharepoint filter, and results respect site and library structure so a result links back to its original location in SharePoint.
Assistant
Glean Assistant uses your SharePoint content as grounding for its answers. When someone asks a question that your SharePoint pages or documents can answer, Assistant retrieves the relevant passages, synthesizes a response, and cites the underlying documents so the user can verify the source.
Assistant draws on both indexed content and, when real-time search is enabled, content fetched live at query time, so answers can reflect documents created moments ago.
Agents
Agents read and summarize SharePoint documents as steps in automated workflows. An agent might pull the latest version of a policy page, identify the sections that changed, and route a summary to the right team, all while honoring the permissions of the user the agent runs on behalf of. See Glean Agents for how to build these workflows.
Analyze all rows in a SharePoint List
You can ask Glean to filter, count, sum, or compare values across all rows in a SharePoint List. Glean reads the list when you submit the request, including results that span multiple pages.
Glean doesn't add the complete list as a separate document to its index. You don't need to enable real-time search for this analysis.
Before you begin
Your Glean admin must configure SharePoint and enable Microsoft SharePoint Extension Tools. If your organization uses New setup, Glean configures these tools during SharePoint setup. If your connector uses Previous setup, your admin must add the tools from Admin console → Platform → Tools.
The first time a user runs a SharePoint tool, Glean prompts them to connect Microsoft 365. The tools use that user's existing SharePoint permissions. See Microsoft 365 tools and extension tools setup for configuration and OAuth instructions.
Ask a question in Glean
- Open the SharePoint List.
- Copy the web address from your browser. The address usually ends in
/Lists/<list-name>/AllItems.aspx. - Paste the web address into Glean and ask a question. For example:
How many open items are assigned to each owner?Sum the story points by sprint.Show items due this month, grouped by status.
Use a list in an Auto mode agent
Confirm that your admin enabled Microsoft SharePoint Extension Tools for Agents.
- In Agent builder, go to Skills, select the add button, and then select Use existing skill.
- In Add existing skill, search for
sharepoint_analyze_listsand add it to the agent. - In the agent instructions or input, include the SharePoint List web address and describe the analysis.
See Create agents with Auto mode for more agent setup instructions.
SharePoint List analysis can read, filter, and summarize list items, but it can't create or update them. Use other SharePoint tools to create or update list items, manage document library files, or read SharePoint site pages.
Use SharePoint tools
SharePoint tools let Glean Assistant and agents read list rows and site pages, manage document library files, and create or update list items. The tools use the signed-in user's SharePoint permissions. See Microsoft 365 tools for the available tools.