Building Joule Agents with Joule Studio
As of 2026-09-23
A Joule agent is governed software, not a clever prompt: a routing description, an expertise, instructions, two models (base for answers, advanced for planning and tool choice), a cap on thinking steps, a short list of tools (skills, document grounding, calculator, subagents, MCP servers), an output contract and an identity per hop. This module builds one step by step in Joule Studio, classic edition — the GA agent builder in SAP Build since December 2025 — with the documented constraints (MCP destinations must be streamable HTTPS with sap-joule-studio-mcp-server=true; default MCP timeout 200 s), a test method based on the Timeline and request logs, deployment from private to shared environment, and the governance pack a security board signs. It flags what the new Joule Studio (Sapphire 2026, Early Adopter Care in Q2 2026) changes, and the cost frame: custom agents run at no additional cost until end-2026.
What you will learn
- Decide skill versus agent for a given requirement using SAP's documented criteria (atomic deterministic operation versus multi-step adaptive problem solving) and justify the choice in one paragraph
- Configure a Joule agent end to end in Joule Studio: routing description, expertise, instructions, additional context, base/advanced/backup models, maximum thinking steps, pre- and post-processing, tools, subagents, MCP servers and output format
- Connect an MCP server through a compliant BTP destination (streamable HTTPS, sap-joule-studio-mcp-server=true, URL not ending in /mcp, same name in the Joule subaccount) and choose a supported authentication type
- Test an agent with the Timeline, Editor and Chart views and request logs, including an adversarial pass, and deploy it from a private to a shared environment
- Produce the one-page agent register (mandate, owner, tools with read/write and identity per hop, thresholds, test evidence, rollback) that a client security board signs
A Joule agent is not a clever prompt. It is a governed piece of software with a routing description, a role, a mandate, a model configuration, an execution budget, a scoped set of tools, an output contract and an identity chain to the systems it touches. This module walks you through building one in Joule Studio, step by step, the way you would on a client engagement: from a one-sentence mandate to a tested agent running in a shared environment, with the evidence a security reviewer will ask for. It is written against the documented behaviour of the agent builder in Joule Studio, classic edition (the edition that runs inside SAP Build today) and flags what changes with the new Joule Studio announced at SAP Sapphire in May 2026.
1. Where the agent builder sits in 2026
Three names get confused on every project, so fix them first.
Prerequisites
- Hands-on experience with SAP BTP subaccounts, destinations and SAP Build
- Module M052 (Joule skills) completed or equivalent experience
- Review core concepts first: C113, C161, C162
Outcomes
- Write a routing description, expertise and instructions that make Joule call the agent for the right requests and only for them.
- Select base and advanced models, set the thinking-step ceiling and pre/post-processing, and explain each setting's effect on quality, latency and cost.
- Attach skills, document grounding, subagents and an MCP server with the documented destination and authentication constraints.
- Prove behaviour with a test pack read in the Timeline (representative, edge and adversarial prompts) and hand over an agent register a security board can approve.
Full module available to members. The full module adds: the decision framework · the end-to-end scenario walkthrough · the KPI scorecard · the anti-patterns · the code blocks · the knowledge check · the diagrams.