Building Joule Agents with Joule Studio

What you will learn

• Decide skill versus agent for a requirement using SAP's criteria and justify the choice in one paragraph
• Verify the setup prerequisites (private environment, AI Agent Builder Activation toggle, data centre, destinations, published action projects) before the first click
• Configure a Joule agent end to end: description as routing rule, expertise, instructions, additional context, base/advanced/backup models, maximum thinking steps, tools, output format
• Connect an MCP server through a compliant 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
• Test with the Timeline, Editor and Chart views, run an adversarial pass, and prove that a write skill enforces the user's limit itself
• Deploy from the private to a shared environment and hand over a one-page agent register that a client security board can sign

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 every system it touches. This module takes you from a one-sentence mandate to a tested agent running in a shared environment, with the evidence a client security board asks for. It follows the documented behaviour of the agent builder in Joule Studio, classic edition (SAP Build today) and says plainly where the new Joule Studio announced at SAP Sapphire in May 2026 differs. Budget about 4 hours with a tenant: 45 minutes of reading, 2 hours for the build, 1 hour for tests and the register. The prerequisite module is M052 (skills); the server side of MCP is M327.

Source: SAP Developer Center — Use Joule Studio, Classic Edition to Create an Agent

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.