Native SAP HANA artifacts

Using native SAP HANA database objects alongside an application’s generated data model, including objects and database features the modelling layer cannot express. Choosing a database is database connectors; changing an existing schema is schema evolution.

Overview

Using a database object CDS did not generate from the model, an existing table, a view with parameters, a table function, a calculation view or a table in another HDI container, and shipping the design-time files CDS cannot express, an index, a synonym, a native clause, in the same deployment. Distinct from database connectors, which is which database the model runs on, and from schema evolution, which is getting a model change into data that already exists.

SAP SHIPS

Node.js →

cds-federation-synonyms An experimental CAP plugin for CAP-to-CAP data federation over SAP HANA synonyms, so one project reads another's tables without the rows being copied.

@sap/cds-dk The command line client and development toolkit for CAP projects, with the commands cds build, cds deploy, cds watch and cds add among them.

@sap/cds Treats an entity annotated @cds.persistence.exists as a facade for a database object it does not generate, renders a user-defined function or calculation view call from the matching hint, and inserts @sql.prepend and @sql.append snippets into the generated DDL unevaluated.

@sap/hdi-deploy The Node.js deployer for SAP HANA Deployment Infrastructure: it writes a database module's design-time files into an HDI container as a delta, and it is what cds deploy runs for SAP HANA.

Not covered: At the file. A native object is designed in HDI's own formats and deployed by @sap/hdi-deploy; the compiler checks neither a native clause nor a facade's signature against the object it stands for, and a function with table-like parameters is not supported. Cross-container access needs the grantor's service key and the role grants set up outside the model, which the one sample here does by hand. On any database but SAP HANA there is no HDI and none of this applies.

Built into @sap/cds

SourceUsing Native HANA Artifacts — capirechecked 2026-09-27

THE COMMUNITY ADDS

No community artifact is documented here.

Artifacts5

Group by5 of 5 artifacts

ArtifactSignals

CDS plugins1

cds-federation-synonymsCAP-to-CAP data federation over SAP HANA synonyms

Signals

Functional boundary

CLI tools2

@sap/cds-dkCommand line client and development toolkit for CAP

Signals

none

SAP-samples/hana-developer-cli-tool-exampleDeveloper-centric command line for SAP HANA

Signals

none

Packages2

@sap/cdsCAP Node.js runtime

Signals

none

@sap/hdi-deployNode.js deployer for SAP HANA Deployment Infrastructure containers

Signals

none

Content2

Group by

Native SAP HANA artifacts2

Connecting Two SAP CAP Projects Without Duplicating Your Data

SAP Community, Inderpreet, BlogThe reasoning

How to share tables across different CAP projects

SAP Community, Mio Yasutake, BlogThe reasoningA recipeRunnable code

Seen working1

ArtifactSignals

Samples1

cap-cross-containerCAP services reading each other's HANA tables across HDI containers

No license

Details

What changed — and what it makes stale1

@sap/cds 9.0.22025-06-02, CAP, Node.js

CDS associations are no longer reflected as native SAP HANA associations (the WITH ASSOCIATIONS clause) in generated tables and views by default, because CAP does not need them and their validation slowed HDI deployments and introduced indirect dependencies between objects. Dated from the first 9.0 release published on npm, 9.0.2.

Makes stale:

Native HANA code, a calculation view or an SQLScript procedure, that navigated a CDS association on the database through the native association and expects it to still be there after an upgrade.

SourceUsing SAP HANA Cloud for Production — capirechecked 2026-09-27

Coverage

statecore only, CAP

assessed2026-09-27

domainData & Persistence

For your agent

Ref: capability:hana-native-artifacts
JSON: /capabilities/hana-native-artifacts.json
MCP: Connecting an agent