At Sapphire, SAP made one theme impossible to miss: the future is agentic, the ERP is autonomous, and the SAP Business AI platform is turning into the foundation for how this intelligence gets delivered across the portfolio. Joule for Developers is part of that bigger story.
While some technology announcements feel like feature updates, this one feels more like a launch moment — the point where the plot twist. Over the past year, ABAP AI has been proving its value in the practical trenches: explaining old code, accelerating test work, helping with findings, and making cloud development easier. Useful? Absolutely. But still mostly assistive. What Sapphire makes clear is that the next chapter is far more ambitious: ABAP AI is evolving from a set of smart skills into an agent-led development model — one built around choice: your choice of your preferred IDE between ABAP Development Tools on Eclipse or on VSCode, your partner of choice with your preferred AI assistant and orchestration, your choice of ABAP system from BTP till any S/4HANA version from 2021 up and your choice of consumption. And on top a much more serious strategy for RISE custom code migration.
That is the real shift here. Not just “more AI,” but AI that starts behaving like a coordinated system.
So this blog is not about one more feature. This one is about a full shift of thinking, with the upcoming general availability of the ABAP MCP server, open support for partner assistants and orchestrators, the general availability of ABAP Development Tools for Visual Studio Code, a new consumption-based commercial model, and major progress in custom code migration, SAP Joule for Developers is turning into a developer platform built around one central idea: your choice.
Agentic Joule for Developers arrives with the upcoming general availability of the ABAP MCP server and an open partner strategy built around your choice of assistants and orchestrators
The most exciting signal in this story is the ABAP MCP server as of this quarter: Q2 2026. It opens ABAP development to a wider agentic universe by exposing ABAP capabilities in a way that assistants and orchestrators can truly work with. This is where the story becomes more than assistance and starts to feel like momentum. Instead of one closed experience, SAP is shaping a future in which customers and partners can bring their preferred AI assistant, their preferred orchestration layer, and their preferred model strategy into the flow. The result is a far more elegant promise for ABAP teams: SAP provides the ABAP intelligence, the MCP layer becomes the bridge, and you decide how the full agentic experience comes together.
ABAP Development Tools for Visual Studio Code completes the promise of real IDE choice for ABAP developers
Choice becomes real the moment it reaches the daily developer experience, and that is exactly why ABAP Development Tools for Visual Studio Code matters so much. It turns SAP’s commitment to IDE freedom into something tangible. Teams can stay in the environment that feels natural to them while still tapping into the full power of agentic ABAP. In this new model, Visual Studio Code becomes the creative workspace, the MCP layer becomes the action engine, and partner orchestration brings the journey together from first intent to finished Fiori application. It is a smoother, more modern, more natural way to build. For the first release the new Visual Studio Code is focused on ABAP Cloud but by the end of the year with the promise of the roadmap, the entire ABAP Classic support will be extended from Eclipse to VSCode IDE also.
Meeting you where you are with ABAP AI across private cloud, public cloud, on premise, and BTP
One of the most expected announcement for Joule for developer was not on the features but on the reach: the customers stretch across private cloud, public cloud, BTP and either on premise systems and starting June, Joule for Developers is being positioned to meet our customers where they are, across SAP S/4HANA Cloud Public Edition, SAP BTP ABAP Environment, SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition releases from 2021 onward. More than that for the RISE customers who fulfill the conditions, Joule for Developer will be available also on their On-Premise systems from 2021 onward. This changes the tone of adoption completely. Instead of waiting for every landscape decision to be perfect, teams can begin from the reality they already have and move forward from there.
Custom code migration steps into a new era with an agent-led toolchain for SAP S/4HANA transformation
If there is one place where agentic AI has to prove it can deliver more than clever assistance, it is custom code migration. And the CCM story now reads much more clearly as an end-to-end journey. It starts upstream with Cloud ALM, where project analysis helps teams understand the migration scope, structure the backlog, and identify where effort and risk are concentrated. That early project view matters because migration is never just a developer task. It is a transformation program. But once the scope is understood, the story shifts decisively into developer execution, and that is where the three CCM execution agents provided by Joule for developer come in.
1. Mass S/4 Custom Code Conversion Agent
This first agent planned for Q2 2026 is about scale. It helps developers take large volumes of custom code findings and move from assessment into executable remediation. Its role is to accelerate the mass conversion work that would otherwise remain trapped in analysis reports and manual follow-up.
2. Clean Core Adoption Agent
This second agent is about clean core transformation. It helps teams to move from technical correction to clean-core through recommendation and automatic fixes. This is planned for Q3 and Q4 2026.
3. Redesign and Modernization Agent (i.e. Dynpro-to-RAP)
This third and most complex agent is about application modernization and redesign. It focuses on the deeper transformation work, helping classic Dynpro-based patterns evolve toward a RAP-based future and turning modernization into a guided execution flow rather than a one-off rebuild effort. This agent is planned on the roadmap for late this year and early next year.
Together, these three agents create a much more structured CCM storyline: analyze the program in Cloud ALM, then execute the migration through conversion, clean-core adoption, and modernization. The timeline reinforces that progression. The first execution step begins in Q2 2026, broader execution capabilities expand through the second half of 2026, and the larger modernization promise continues to mature into 2027. What emerges is not just a better migration tool, but a much more credible migration motion from project analysis to developer delivery.
A new commercial model that lets you choose what you use, when you use it, and how far you scale it
Agentic Joule for developer is built as a choice-driven ecosystem also at the commercial layer. The model is designed for flexibility with consumption-based pricing, clear J4D activation, and differentiated paths for customers and partners, including the striking entry point of 1 AI Unit = 7 € for customers and 1 AI Unit = 0,65 € for partners. While the free promotion will end on 30th September the teams can work through ABAP Development Tools in Eclipse or VS Code, connect through the ABAP MCP Server and local ABAP MCP tools, at no extra cost, while taping into an agent pipeline powered by an open partner strategy at your choice that includes Microsoft, Amazon, Google, IBM, Anthropic and more. The commercial message is bold and unmistakable: Agentic Joule for developer is not just offering AI capabilities — it is giving customers and partners the freedom to build their own path, with their own tools, their own partners, and their own pace, paying only for the AI features which truly bring value to them. It feels far better suited to the rhythm of real AI adoption, where teams experiment, learn, expand, and refine over time rather than locking themselves into a single path on day one.
Bottom line: the future of ABAP looks less like a chatbot and more like an ecosystem
Put it all together and one message shines through powerfully: Agentic Joule for Developers is becoming a platform shaped around your choice. Your assistant. Your orchestrator. Your IDE. Your landscape. Your migration path. Your pace. And that is exactly what makes this new chapter feel so powerful: ABAP AI is growing up — from answering questions to orchestrating work, from isolated skills to partner-powered ecosystems, and from code assistance to full custom code migration strategy.
