Build a Mission Control App for About $5 To Run Your Workday
See everything that needs you on one page, then act on it with a click. Copy the prompt and build your own in Copilot Cowork.
MICROSOFT 365 COPILOTCOPILOT COWORKPRODUCTIVITY
10/14/20264 min read
One App for Your Whole Workday
Picture starting your day with one page that already knows what needs you. That is Work Mission Control. It reads your own Outlook, Teams, To Do, OneNote, and OneDrive, works out what matters, and puts it in order. Then it helps you act: every component has an Actions tab with ranked suggestions, like accept an invite, block time to focus, or save a reply as a draft.
We built it with the app skill in Copilot Cowork, from a single prompt. Building it cost about $5 in Copilot Credits, roughly 500 credits. Running it has its own cost, which we cover just after the prompt. The prompt is right here in this post, so you can paste it into your own Cowork and get a version that runs on your own data.
Watch the Full Walkthrough First
The video shows the build from the first paste, then uses the finished app on a real workday. It is the quickest way to see what a good result looks like.
What You Get
Nine components, each with a data tab that shows what we found and an Actions tab that suggests what to do about it:
Today: tiles for what is overdue, unread, coming up tomorrow, and waiting in Teams, plus a plan for your day
Quick actions: create an email draft, a meeting invite, a task, a OneNote page, or a Word, Excel, or PDF document
Projects: project health from your Teams posts, with deadlines, meetings, and files
Calendar: your next seven days, a day agenda, and who is away
Email: what needs a reply, unread, flagged, and recent
Teams: chats waiting on you, with a link to the exact message
Files: what you are likely to need now, and what was shared with you
OneNote: recent pages and their open to-dos
Time insights: meetings per day and time by category, with targets you set
Plain rules find what matters, so it stays predictable and you can see why each item is there. The actions are yours to pick: accept an invite, block focus time, flag an email, add a task, prepare a meeting brief, build a weekly status report. Nothing happens until you select the button. It never sends email, posts to Teams, or deletes anything, and every email is saved as a draft for you to review.
Get AI Help in One Click
When you want help writing something, the Draft with Copilot button builds a detailed request from what the app already knows, copies it, and opens Microsoft 365 Copilot chat. You paste it, press Enter, and Copilot creates it for you. It is a simple copy and paste, with no API call and nothing for the app to bill, so it uses the Copilot license you already have. Your Cowork credits stay focused on building the app.
The Prompt
Open Copilot Cowork with your work account, start a new conversation, and paste the whole prompt as one message. You need a Microsoft 365 Copilot license and the App skill, which Microsoft lists in its Frontier program, so ask your IT team if you do not see it. We used Claude Sonnet 5.5 with the effort set to medium, which kept our build to about $5.
One heads-up before you start: building uses Copilot Credits, and running the app needs a Power Apps Premium plan or Copilot Credits, so a quick word with your admin helps. The details are just below the prompt.
Use the Copy prompt button in the box below to copy the whole prompt.
After You Paste It
Approve the sign-ins. Cowork connects Outlook, Teams, To Do, OneNote, OneDrive, and Office 365 Users one at a time, all under your own account
Let it build. It asks no questions and builds in one pass
Open the app and select Connections. All six should say Working, and if one needs a sign-in, the dialog shows how to fix it
Check each component, then publish when it looks right. The prompt does not share the app, so sharing is your call
Make It Yours
AI reads a prompt a little differently every time, so your version may not match ours exactly. That is part of the fun. Go back to the same Cowork task and keep talking to it: fix something, restyle a component, add a rule, or remove a feature you do not want. Each change is more work for Cowork, so it uses more credits, and how much depends on how much you change. Make one clear request at a time, and try actions on a harmless meeting or a test task first.
In the app, Customize lets you move components up or down, remove them, and bring them back, and you can drag them into the order you like. When it works for you, publish it and share it. Microsoft describes sharing an app in Cowork with a link, like a Word document, for anyone in your organization who can use Microsoft 365 Copilot. Each person connects their own accounts, so they see their own email, chats, and files, and any action runs as them. Send the link only to people who should have it.
What It Costs
What it costs to build. Our build used about 500 credits, roughly $5 at $0.01 per credit, the rate in Microsoft's Copilot Credits guide. The number moves a little with the model, the effort setting, and any retries.
What it costs to run. This is separate. Microsoft says each person who runs the app needs a Power Apps Premium plan or Copilot Credits. Its request limits page says running apps built in Cowork is included with Premium, and its pricing page lists Premium at $20 per user per month billed yearly, or $12 with a 2,000 license minimum. On credits, the app is charged at each launch and 0.1 credit per connector call, so refreshing often adds up, and we do not have a measured number yet.
A simple safeguard. Ask your admin for a per-user monthly limit on Copilot Credits. It puts a ceiling on building, tuning, and, if people run on Copilot Credits, running. Microsoft's setup guide shows where it lives: Copilot, Cost management, Configuration, then a spending policy with a monthly limit for users. A limit of 2,000 credits is about $20 a month, which covers a few builds and some tuning. Admins can also set alerts and allocate credits for running apps.
Where to Take It Next
Start with the default layout for a week, notice which components you actually use, and tune the rest. Which part of your workday would you hand to an app first?
Have a question or an idea for a future video? Leave a comment on the full video walkthrough on the Collaboration Simplified YouTube channel.
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