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The Future of ABAP is Here: VS Code ADT, Zero-Config MCP, and AI Co-pilots
A walkthrough of ABAP Development Tools for VS CodeABAP Development Tools for VS CodeSAP's ABAP tools in VS Code: editing, debugging, ABAP Unit, ATC and transports for classes, CDS and RAP objects, over RFC to an on-premise or Private Cloud system and HTTP to a cloud one, with Joule's ADT MCP server and code completion behind an AI-unit licence.sap official, abap's general-availability release: connecting to an on-premise or BTP ABAP system, editing classes, CDS and RAP objects, and turning on the extension's built-in ADT MCP ServerADT MCP ServerSAP's own ADT MCP server, and not a package: a preference inside ABAP Development Tools for VS Code that starts a local HTTP MCP server on a port you choose.sap official, abap. Enabled, it lets a co-pilot such as GitHub Copilot or SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilitiesSAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilitiesSAP's AI for ABAP development in ADT for Eclipse and VS Code: chat, code completion, explain, test and CDS generation, RAP logic prediction, and since June 2026 an agentic mode over the ADT MCP Server, metered in AI units through the ABAP AI Hub Service on BTP.sap official, abap read code, trace dependencies, and run ABAP Unit and ATC checks against the real system rather than guessing from training data.
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ABAP Development Tools for VS CodeABAPABAP Development Tools for VS CodeSAP's ABAP tools in VS Code: editing, debugging, ABAP Unit, ATC and transports for classes, CDS and RAP objects, over RFC to an on-premise or Private Cloud system and HTTP to a cloud one, with Joule's [ADT MCP server](artifact:sap-adt-mcp-server) and code completion behind an AI-unit licence.ADT MCP ServerABAPADT MCP ServerSAP's own ADT MCP server, and not a package: a preference inside [ABAP Development Tools for VS Code](artifact:sap-adt-vscode) that starts a local HTTP MCP server on a port you choose.Editor supportABAPEditor supportWorking in source code with the editor helping rather than treating it as text — completion, go-to-definition, inline errors, refactoring and preview.Agent access to your codeABAPAgent access to your codeLetting a coding agent read the project or the system you actually have, reach its model, its objects and its checks, and act on it. In file-based environments that works out of the box; complex systems need dedicated access capabilities. Whatever the environment, the agent also needs project- and framework-specific context, so it understands the thing in front of it rather than guessing from what it remembers of its training data. The transport is incidental: an MCP server, a language server or a CLI answer the same question, and what differs between them is how much of the real thing the agent can see. Distinct from [MCP servers](capability:mcp-servers), which is a protocol adapter on your own running service, and from [agent guidance](capability:agent-guidance), which is knowledge handed over as files rather than read from the thing itself.
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AI-assisted SAP development with MCPAI-assisted SAP development with MCPA Devtoberfest 2026 session (UI-41) that traces AI-assisted SAP development from pasting code into a chat window to coding agents with built-in connectors, and sorts the MCP servers around SAP development into SAP's own, the community's and the hosted ones, where the agent cannot change what the server allows. Four demos follow: GitHub Copilot alone explaining an ABAP report from a Git repository, @ui5/mcp-server reading an OpenUI5 sample app and converting it to TypeScript, mcp-sap-docs grounding Terraform files for a BTP subaccount the presenter had not written before, and arc-1 with Copilot in Eclipse tracing why a title longer than 40 characters is rejected and proposing the DDIC-allowed length instead. It ends on a skill that migrates an SAP Gateway project on an ECC system to RAP on S/4HANA step by step, and on a rule Marian Zeis gives for servers written for internal use: keep them read-only, because what the agent is short of is context.published 2026-10-16
Intelligent App Development at Scale: SAP Fiori Elements + ABAP Development Tools for VS CodeIntelligent App Development at Scale: SAP Fiori Elements + ABAP Development Tools for VS CodeA Devtoberfest 2026 session (UI-33) that builds a RAP service and the SAP Fiori elements app over it from one VS Code workspace, with a coding agent driving two of SAP's MCP servers. The ABAP Development Tools for VS Code edges hold on the demo itself: its virtual file system keeps the ABAP package beside the Fiori project, the ADT MCP Server inside it creates, changes and activates the ABAP objects, and a version not yet released publishes the service binding from the agent instead of by hand. The @sap-ux/fiori-mcp-server edge covers its generators and the three-step workflow it uses for changes — list the functionality available for the application, ask for its JSON schema, then execute it — and the agent guidance edge rests on the skills the Fiori team publishes beside it, on the session's account of what a skill adds that a server does not, and on the analytical chart demo where a skill orchestrates both servers in one task.SAP Developers, published 2026-10-09
ABAP Development Tools for VS CodeABAP Development Tools for VS CodeA Devtoberfest 2026 session on ABAP Development Tools for VS Code: where the extension sits after the ABAP Workbench and ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, the ADT language server both editors share, and what the releases since May 2026 cover. The demo installs the extension, creates a destination, opens, creates and activates objects, runs ATC and ABAP Unit, and names the object types, domains among them, for which a developer still goes to Eclipse or SAP GUI. It also opens the extension's settings to turn on the ADT MCP Server and shows the tools a chat can call, with the object search and source code search tools listed as planned.published 2026-09-28
Agentic Loop with Joule for Developers and ADT MCP ServerAgentic Loop with Joule for Developers and ADT MCP ServerA Devtoberfest 2026 session from SAP's ABAP AI team that generates a RAP issue-tracker application by prompting a coding agent. It covers what SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities now ships as MCP tools and which assistants can reach an ABAP system's virtual filesystem, then does the setup twice: turning on the ADT MCP Server and pasting the Joule side-by-side tenant link in ABAP Development Tools for VS Code, and again in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse, where the custom agent becomes custom instructions. The demo's subject is the guardrails around the loop — an agent.md of phases and human checkpoints, skill files cloned from a GitHub repository for naming, ATC compliance and UI annotations — run through GitHub Copilot until the generated objects are activated, unit-tested and in a transport.SAP Developers, published 2026-09-28
News from Custom Code Migration: ECC to SAP S/4HANA Powered by Agentic AINews from Custom Code Migration: ECC to SAP S/4HANA Powered by Agentic AIA Devtoberfest 2026 session (ABA-23) on what SAP has added to the ECC to SAP S/4HANA custom code migration tools, demonstrated across a live ECC and an S/4HANA system. The first half stays deterministic and explains static analysis in that process: the custom code migration app's scoping over ABAP test cockpit findings, an explain of a legacy report and of an S/4HANA simplification finding, and transferable quick fixes exported from the app and applied on the ECC system through the SAP GUI ATC transaction before conversion. The second half runs the S/4HANA custom code migration agent in ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse: GitHub Copilot drives the ADT MCP Server's ATC and quick-fix tools in a loop, SAP Joule for Developers, ABAP AI capabilities produces the AI code proposals behind it, and only the high-confidence ones are written into the code, the rest left as comments in one transport request.published 2026-09-28
ABAP + MCP: Let AI Do Real Development in Your SAP SystemABAP + MCP: Let AI Do Real Development in Your SAP Systemabap-adt-mcp is an open-source MCP server that gives an AI agent full ABAP development capability over ADT: it searches, reads, edits, activates and unit-tests objects, and runs ATC checks, on a connected S/4HANA Cloud or on-premise system, acting as the signed-in developer. It runs on abap-adt-api, the same REST client Eclipse's own ADT tooling uses, and sits beside SAP's own ADT MCP Server, shipped with ADT for VS Code and Eclipse under a different server key, and marianfoo's abap-docs, a read-only server over the ABAP Keyword Documentation and Clean ABAP. Each destination carries a policy — read-only, allowed packages, denied tables and tools — the server checks before every call, and an optional audit file logs each tool call with its outcome and policy gate.Willian_Saez, published 2026-09-03
SAP's API Policy on AI Agents: What It Prohibits, Allows, and Leaves OpenSAP's API Policy on AI Agents: What It Prohibits, Allows, and Leaves OpenReading SAP's API Policy v.4.2026a and its FAQ against the reference architectures, the piece narrows the widely repeated claim that SAP bans AI to what Section 2.2.2 actually restricts: an agent planning and chaining API calls outside an SAP-endorsed route, closed off further by Section 3's block on bypassing API Controls through custom code. It compares the endorsed and allowed paths — the MCP Gateway on SAP Integration Suite reaching S/4HANA and ECC through RFC-based back ends under a 15-tool, 200,000-token limit, SAP-provided MCP servers through Joule Studio, the A2A protocol, customer-operated MCP servers allowed under FAQ Question 56, and the ADT MCP Server, whose 18 tools work only on development artifacts and are documented as not intended for productive use. It leaves open whether Section 2.2.2 covers ABAP code that calls a model from inside the system, since enforcement is defined at the API-traffic level rather than by a list of tools.published 2026-08-31
ABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code: Version 1.1 releasedABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code: Version 1.1 releasedVersion 1.1 of ABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code adds two tools to the extension's local ADT MCP Server: a unified, git-like diff for a transport request, and a runner for ABAP Test Cockpit checks, both meant for an agent to call rather than a person to click through. Both are new instances of what agent access to your code already covers for ABAP — reading and acting on a real system through ADT — reaching now into a transport's changes and a check run rather than only source and objects.thomasalexander_ritter, published 2026-07-21
How to Connect Claude Code to ABAP with Zero-Config MCPHow to Connect Claude Code to ABAP with Zero-Config MCPWalks through wiring Claude Code, via its VS Code extension, to a live SAP system through an ABAP remote-filesystem extension built by Marcello Urbani and its built-in MCP server — a single toggle rather than a hand-rolled Node.js setup — so the agent searches, reads, writes, activates and assigns transports for ABAP objects over the same ADT REST API Eclipse uses, instead of guessing at tables and function modules it has never seen. The demo carries one plain-English prompt through to a real, activated ABAP program on a live S/4HANA system, including a transport-request dialog Claude worked through on its own.Nibedita, published 2026-07-05
Using Claude for SAP ABAP development on RFC-only / SAProuter systems (even ECC R/3)Using Claude for SAP ABAP development on RFC-only / SAProuter systems (even ECC R/3)vibing-steampunk gives Claude read, search, edit and check access to ABAP source over ADT's REST API, but some SAProuters permit only SAP's native RFC and DIAG routes and block raw HTTP to the ICM, so that link can't reach them even though Eclipse ADT can. Eclipse gets through because it tunnels ADT over RFC through the standard SADT_REST_RFC_ENDPOINT function module instead of HTTP, a path the post traces by capturing a live Eclipse session. adt-rfc-bridge reproduces that tunnel as a local HTTP-to-RFC proxy built on PyRFC, put in front of vsp, and the author reports it working on both S/4HANA and classic ECC/R/3 systems where Eclipse ADT already connects.enrico_andreoli, published 2026-06-09
ABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code is now available on the VS Code marketplace!ABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code is now available on the VS Code marketplace!Announces the marketplace release of ABAP development tools for Visual Studio Code, an extension that works against any ABAP system already reachable from ADT for Eclipse and is focused on RAP UI service development, so the Fiori/SAPUI5 frontend and the ABAP backend can be built in the same tool. It ships a built-in ADT MCP Server, disabled by default and switched on from the extension settings, and points readers to a documentation template for capturing ABAP-specific rules in a project's AGENTS.md file for chat agents such as Microsoft Copilot.thomasalexander_ritter, published 2026-06-01
ARC-1 with Copilot Studio: SAP System Context Beyond DevelopersARC-1 with Copilot Studio: SAP System Context Beyond DevelopersTakes the BTP-deployed ARC-1 endpoint into Microsoft Copilot Studio, added as an existing MCP server with OAuth 2.0 against XSUAA and published to Teams or Microsoft 365 Copilot, so SAP system context reaches project roles that do not work in an IDE. The test agent combines SharePoint specifications, Jira tickets and mcp-sap-docs with ARC-1 in six scenarios: a patch for a Jira bug proposed before it is applied, the impact of widening a domain from CURR 13,2 to CURR 23,2, a two-layer CDS view built from a specification, an ATC and abaplint quality report, a short dump diagnosis, and a clean core check that proposes released successors for direct selects on USR02 and BUT000. The access path and security model are those of the BTP part unchanged; the advice is to start this audience read-only, although the showcase itself enabled the read and write tools.published 2026-05-04
ARC-1 with Copilot Studio: SAP System Context Beyond Developers
arc-1 has been through 3 major lines since this was published: 0.8 (2026-05), 0.9 (2026-05), 1 (2026-07). Affects A recipe, Runnable code.
Introducing ARC-1: A Secure ADT MCP Server for Enterprise SAP DevelopmentIntroducing ARC-1: A Secure ADT MCP Server for Enterprise SAP DevelopmentWhy ARC-1 exists beside earlier ADT MCP servers such as vibing-steampunk, fr0ster/mcp-abap-adt and dassian-adt: one centrally deployed instance per SAP system instead of a server on each developer laptop, with the MCP client to ARC-1 hop and the ARC-1 to SAP hop authenticated separately. It sets out the restrictive defaults (read-only, no free SQL or named table preview, writes confined to $TMP), the layering in which ARC-1's configuration, the user's role and SAP's own authorisation must all allow an action, Principal Propagation so SAP sees the real user, and audit events to the SAP Audit Log service; that is tool governance as much as agent access to your code. It leaves the BTP setup to the next part, and places ARC-1 beside SAP's ADT MCP Server, which SAP's configuration guide describes as a local HTTP server hosted by the IDE, and beside SAP API Policy 4.2026a, where ARC-1's stated position is to stay close to documented ADT behaviour and ask SAP before production use.published 2026-04-27
ABAP and Agentic AI: The Hidden Problem in Real ProjectsABAP and Agentic AI: The Hidden Problem in Real ProjectsAI in SAP development splits on three questions, how the model gets context, where writing happens and who controls the setup: UI5 and CAP work in local files where git, reviews, tests and pipelines already gate a change, while on-stack ABAP writes land directly in a shared development system. Six patterns follow, framed after a paper by Lars Hvam, from AI in the IDE to off-stack development with abapGit, and the post settles on a hybrid where the agent reads the system over ADT or MCP and writes through a gated git flow. Read access alone is put at maybe 80 percent of the work, and what agent access to your code still lacks is named as tool governance: read-only defaults, package restrictions, blocking free SQL, per-user identity and auditing.published 2026-04-22
How I Use AI for Development and Why Context MattersHow I Use AI for Development and Why Context MattersPart one of the AI ABAP development series traces a move from pasting ChatGPT output and error messages back and forth to tools that search, read docs and inspect files themselves, and holds that the context around a model decides more in real projects than benchmark results do. In SAP work the grounding comes from mcp-sap-docs, which brings SAP Help, GitHub repositories, style guides and DSAG guidelines into the session, and context for changing a class also means the tables it uses, the classes it calls and similar implementations. Agentic autonomy is a slider set per project, with the time saved on typing moved into planning and review, and the post stops before ABAP: SAP's MCP servers for UI5, CAP and Fiori (@ui5/mcp-server, @cap-js/mcp-server, @sap-ux/fiori-mcp-server) sit in off-stack work that git and pipelines already gate, and the harder ABAP case is left to the next part.published 2026-04-20
Claude ported ABAP functions to new APIClaude ported ABAP functions to new APIA first-person account of using Claude Code, driven through the sapcli command line, to install and repair RFC function modules that let a CI pipeline control abapGit and gCTS remotely, rather than treating git as a way to read ABAP source. Instead of trusting a local checkout, Claude read the abapGit login manager class and queried the target system's own type catalogue through sapcli, then used what it found to update a renamed API method and swap a TABLES parameter's structure for the table type BAPIRET2_T.jakub_filak, published 2026-03-16
Claude Code via MCP: Poor man's Joule, or a practical tool?Claude Code via MCP: Poor man's Joule, or a practical tool?The author drives Claude Code against a live ABAP system through vibing-steampunk, an ADT-to-MCP bridge that locks and unlocks objects on the agent's behalf so the model can concentrate on the change: extending an ALV report, turning its SELECT into a CDS view, and answering ad-hoc questions over the report's own data. Where Claude got it wrong — a RAP scaffold missing the fields RAP's locking mechanism needs, ORDER as a reserved word — the piece asks where that knowledge would go as a Skill, and concludes Skills' filesystem basis has no home in a system reached only through MCP.k1000, published 2026-03-08
Building an Enterprise-Ready SAP AI Agent with Open SourceBuilding an Enterprise-Ready SAP AI Agent with Open SourceA self-hosted chat agent for SAP systems: LibreChat as UI and orchestrator with Entra ID sign-in and SharePoint connected, a local LLM through Ollama, and two MCP servers, mcp-sap-docs for public documentation and the ADT MCP server vibing-steampunk for the system itself. The ADT server runs in its read-only mode under a technical user with display authorisations only, so the agent can find a function module and pull its source, or locate a RAP business object with its behaviour definition and projection view, but cannot change anything. Two workflows show it, explaining what BAPI_DISPUTE_CREATE does in one system and planning a RAP action from a PDF specification, where the generated ABAP is copied into Eclipse by hand; the full setup is in the marianfoo/llm-client-sap-system-integration-sharepoint repository.published 2026-03-03
S/4HANA公有云版的内部ABAP拓展S/4HANA公有云版的内部ABAP拓展Argues that S/4HANA Cloud public edition's in-app ABAP extensibility is still real ABAP development, just under stricter rules: developer extensions require ABAP Development Tools rather than SAP GUI transactions, data models are defined as CDS views instead of SE11 tables, business logic is a RAP behavior definition instead of a function module, and service exposure is an auto-generated OData service from a Service Definition instead of a hand-built RFC/BAPI. The piece walks a worked example — a Fiori app that triggers the Purchase Requisition API — through CDS, RAP, OData activation on SAP Gateway, and authorization via business catalogues, and frames the whitelist of released APIs and CDS views as upgrade-safety rather than a restriction.ArthurYang, published 2025-11-24
OData to outcomes—Build AI-enabled SAP Fiori apps using SAP Fiori elementsOData to outcomes—Build AI-enabled SAP Fiori apps using SAP Fiori elementsA Fiori elements app built through SAP's MCP servers: the OData V4 service comes from the MCP server for RAP, which the atlas holds as the ADT MCP Server, or from @cap-js/mcp-server for CAP, and the UI from @sap-ux/fiori-mcp-server, with annotations and actions added before the app is tied to SAP's AI features. Agent access to your code on both the service and the UI side; SAP's abstract names the servers and the steps and says nothing about which AI features or which agent host. A TechEd 2026 session (Thursday 29 October, Berlin), presented by Benedikt Schoelch, Sebastian Steinhauer, Sebastian Werner and Stefan Engelhardt, written here from SAP's abstract; the recording is not yet published.
Patterns for using LLMs in ABAP developmentPatterns for using LLMs in ABAP developmentLars Hvam compares eight ABAP development setups: assistance in SE80 or Eclipse, virtual files and MCP over ADT, a centrally managed MCP service, sandboxes, local Git, Git with read-only system context, and temporary ABAP systems for development and CI. The overview describes where source changes, review and system access happen, including abapGit synchronization and abaplint checks. It is dated March 2026; its risk, cost and autonomy ratings are the writer’s assessments.
Spec first: The disciplined way to develop ABAP with agentsSpec first: The disciplined way to develop ABAP with agentsSpec-driven ABAP development with a new AWS Toolkit for Eclipse plug-in powered by Kiro, in SAP's words, working inside ABAP Development Tools for Eclipse: SAP's abstract says it reads the codebase, helps with new features, explains legacy code, refactors and generates tests, for S/4HANA modernisation or a new business feature. It answers agent access to your code from inside Eclipse; the plug-in itself is not yet in the atlas, and the abstract does not say how it reaches the ABAP system. A TechEd 2026 session (Tuesday 27 October, Berlin), presented by Jon Friesen and Stephan Kremer, written here from SAP's abstract; the recording is not yet published.
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