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Engineering Copilot Guardrails

Reference this guardrail card before using Copilot for engineering tasks. Understand the boundaries between assistance and professional responsibility.

The prompt
## When NOT to Use Copilot for Engineering

**NEVER use Copilot for:**
- Engineering calculations or analysis
- Design verification or validation
- Code compliance checking
- Technical approval or certification
- Material selection decisions
- Safety-critical decisions
- Signing or stamping documents
- Final technical approval

**Golden Rule:** Copilot assists — engineers decide.

**What Copilot IS good for:**
- Summarizing technical documents
- Searching project correspondence
- Drafting initial text (for human review)
- Finding historical precedents
- Meeting preparation

**Remember:** Copilot is a search and summarization tool, not an engineering tool. All technical outputs require professional engineering review.

Copy this exactly as it appears, including the # and * characters. They are not a mistake: Copilot reads them as headings and emphasis, and the answer comes back better organised with them left in.

How to use it

  1. 1Select Copy the prompt above.
  2. 2Paste it into Microsoft 365 Copilot.
  3. 3Replace anything in brackets with your own detail, then send it.

Copilot gathers and drafts. You verify and decide. Check every figure, name and date against the system it came from before you act on it.

Written for

EPC Engineer, Engineering Manager, Site Engineer, Design Engineer

More for Engineering & Construction

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From the source collection in awesome-microsoft-copilot-prompts, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.