Lesson 1 of 6
Joule Studio 2.0 and the SAP Build lobby
9 min
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Course sap-ai-201 taught Contoso how to evaluate SAP-delivered agents. Now Maria, the order-to-cash key user, has a request no SAP agent covers: fleet customers such as Great Lakes Fleet Services phone in all day asking "where is my order?", and her team spends hours jumping between the sales order, the delivery and the invoice. Elena, a BTP developer on Kenji's team, will build a custom Fleet Order Status agent in Joule Studio, and Priya will decide whether it is fit to release. This course follows them.
Two editions, one name
In October 2026 there are two things called Joule Studio, and you need to know which one your tenant has. Joule Studio, classic edition runs inside SAP Build: you open the SAP Build lobby, create a project of type Joule agent and skill, and use the skill builder and agent builder, with Control Tower for environments and destinations. SAP describes its agent builder as generally available since late 2025. The new Joule Studio, announced at SAP Sapphire on 13 May 2026 and often called Joule Studio 2.0, is intent-based: you describe the outcome, and it generates requirements, a specification, the solution, tests and a deployment to an SAP-managed runtime. On 8 October 2026 SAP described it as "soon to be generally available".
| Aspect | Joule Studio, classic edition | New Joule Studio (2.0) |
|---|---|---|
| Where you start | SAP Build lobby: Create, Joule agent and skill | Describe intent (browser), or the jl CLI with a coding agent |
| How you build | Low-code skill builder and agent builder | Intent, requirements, specification, solution, testing, deployment |
| Where it runs | Joule, via environments managed in Control Tower | SAP-managed Joule Studio runtime, sandboxed per agent |
| Status (Oct 2026) | Generally available; design-time generative AI features until 31 Dec 2026 | Announced; free design-time access under fair use through end of 2026; GA status to check |
| Good for | Skills and agents on SAP APIs today | Larger solutions: agents, workflows, full-stack apps |
This course uses the classic edition for the step-by-step build, because that is what Contoso can put into production today, and explains where the new edition changes the work. The concepts carry over: skills, agents, tools, grounding, environments, evaluation and cost.
Skills, agents and projects
| Object | What it is | Fleet Order Status example |
|---|---|---|
| Joule skill | A deterministic flow: inputs, steps (Call Action, Call Process, Condition, Send Message), outputs | Get sales order status for an order number |
| Joule agent | An LLM-driven worker with expertise, instructions, additional context and a set of tools (skills, grounding, MCP tools) | Fleet Order Status agent that answers and escalates |
| Action project | A connector that wraps an API (for example an OData service) so skills can call it | Actions on the sales order, delivery and billing APIs |
| Joule Studio project | The container that is versioned, released and deployed | Project CMC Fleet Order Status |
| Environment | Where a released version runs: private, test or shared | Private for Elena; shared for production Joule |
The building blocks you will use in this course.
Prerequisites Elena checks first
- An SAP BTP enterprise account with SAP Build and Joule Studio entitlements, and Joule provisioned for production (SAP's architecture guidance lists a Joule entitlement for production deployment).
- Role collections for Joule Studio in the subaccounts: Contoso builds in cmc-ext-dev (paired with CMD client 300) and tests in cmc-ext-test (paired with CMQ client 100).
- Destinations to SAP S/4HANA through the Cloud Connector, such as CMC_S4HANA, with the right authentication (lesson 3).
- For document grounding: SAP AI Core and an object store, each with a destination (lesson 4).
- An agreed owner and process owner for the agent, recorded in Contoso's AI inventory (sap-ai-301).
What would you do?
Grace asks Elena which Joule Studio Contoso should use for a first production agent in Q1 2027. What should Elena recommend?
- Joule Studio, classic edition runs in the SAP Build lobby; the new Joule Studio is intent-based and runs on an SAP-managed runtime.
- Skills are deterministic flows; agents are LLM-driven and use skills and other tools; projects are released and deployed to environments.
- Free design-time access to the new Joule Studio runs through the end of 2026; classic design-time generative AI features end on 31 December 2026.
- Check edition, region and entitlements before the first sprint.
Check your understanding · not graded
Lesson check
1. Where do you create a Joule agent in Joule Studio, classic edition?
2. What is the defining difference between a Joule skill and a Joule agent?
3. What did SAP offer for the new Joule Studio through the end of 2026?
4. What happens to classic edition artifacts after 31 December 2026, according to SAP?