ABAP AI - Chapter 3: We Go Agentic!

Summary

SAP Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities will be supported in SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition in all releases as of 2021 with planned start in Q2/2026
SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities will be priced on a consumption basis via AI Units
ABAP Development Tools for VS Code are planned to be GA in Q2/2026
An ABAP MCP Server will be shipped in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse and ABAP Development Tools for VS Code as of Q2/2026 enabling agentic ABAP development experience
An ABAP Custom Code Transformation agent focusing on the migration from SAP ECC towards SAP S/4HANA is planned for Q2/2026

Intro

Since the start of ABAP AI in early 2025 (“Joule speaks ABAP!”), the update in September 2025 (“ABAP AI – Chapter 2”), now it is time to deliver on the promises made at SAP TechEd 2025 (“Introducing the next era of ABAP development”) – time for chapter 3!

We are entering the agentic era of ABAP development: let's get started.

SAP Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities in lower releases

As of June 2026, Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities are offered through a running on SAP BTP. This hub service combines authentication, license check, access to SAP BTP AI Core and use case specific business logic and can be plugged directly to the developer’s IDE. This way, we can offer ABAP AI capabilities mostly independent of the ABAP backend release. This enables us to serve SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition on releases 2021 and higher with Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities.

Planned availability in Q2/26
Supported releases: SAP S/4HANA Cloud Private Edition 2021 and higher
Costs: See below
Configuration guide and further information will follow and will be linked here

New commercial approach for ABAP AI

The free promotion for J4D ABAP AI capabilities comes to an end in September 2026. Accordingly, it is now time to launch the commercial model: Based on AI units, ABAP AI capabilities are now priced purely based on consumption. This approach combines transparency regarding the real costs based on the usage and is well-suited for dynamic and individual agentic AI use cases.

Planned availability in Q2/26
Materials: 8019164 (customers) and 8019670 (partners)
Information on how to purchase and activate will follow soon and will be linked here

ABAP Development Tools for VS Code

14 years after the launch of ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, time has come to support a new IDE. As of May 29th 2026, ABAP Development Tools will be available for VS Code. Building on the ABAP Language Server (see “Behind the Design…”), coupled with an ABAP MCP Server, this is the enabler for a truly agentic ABAP development experience, boosting development efficiency to the next level. It sets the foundation to leverage modern coding agents like GitHub Copilot directly for ABAP development. While we start with a small set of development objects and IDE tools focusing on SAP Fiori App development based on the ABAP RESTful Application Programming Model (RAP), we will very soon enhance the scope of object types to serve high priority development scenarios.

The VS Code extension is

planned to be available as of Q2/26
Supported releases: release 7.31 and higher
Works in the Cloud and OnPrem
Costs: free of charge
Precise info on how to obtain and get started will follow soon and will be linked here

MCP Support for ABAP development

The Language Server provides the required abstraction to gain independence of the IDE sitting on top. A major component of this delivery is the MCP server for ABAP development. It provides powerful tools which help coding agents to perform complex ABAP coding tasks. While the Language Server is currently delivered as part of the ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse and for VS Code, a potential standalone-shipment of the Language and MCP Server is under discussion.

Release planned for Q2/26
Supported in Eclipse and VS Code
Works in the Cloud and OnPrem
Supported for release 7.31 and higher
Precise info on how to use it in the IDE will follow soon and will be linked here

Agentic custom code migration for the SAP S/4HANA transformation

Bringing all pieces together, we are launching the first ABAP custom code agent assisting in the transformation of custom code from ECC towards SAP S/4HANA. The required capabilities are offered through the ABAP Language and MCP Server explained above and can be used leveraging a coding agent, for example Amazon Q or GitHub Copilot. Currently, Eclipse must be used for this agent, until all required ABAP object types are supported in VS Code (see above). This agent boosts our customers on the RISE journey when migrating their classic landscape to the Cloud ERP.

Availability planned for Q2/26.
Supported in Eclipse
Prerequisites: Joule for developers, ABAP AI capabilities via the new commercial approach with AI units (see above) and coding agent on top (e.g. Amazon Q or Github Copilot)
Further information to follow soon and will be linked here

Finally – please have a look at our FAQ document for frequent questions and watch out for the GA releases of these deliverables. We will keep you posted.

Get yourself ready to dive into agentic ABAP development! 😎

Source link