Designing and coding agents (preview)

Path: Integration with AI > Designing and coding agents (preview) · tier official · system copilot · narrative reviewed (checked by Opus)

Overview

This section explains how partners prototype and build AI agents in Business Central using the AI development toolkit. The toolkit is sandbox-only and follows an agent lifecycle: create, configure, activate, iterate, graduate and clean up. A transparency note describes the intended use and the Azure OpenAI models behind it.

The pages follow that lifecycle. Start with the overview, then “Create and activate an agent” and “Write effective instructions”, with “Best practices for designing an agent” and “Instruction keywords” as references. Next come permissions and profiles, running tasks, attachment limits, and iterating with the Agent Task Log and instruction version history. The Sales Validation Agent is a preconfigured example.

For developers, “Integrate with the Tasks AL API” shows how to detect agent sessions and read agent information. The subtopic “Coding agents in AL” covers building and registering agents in code, including converting a prototyped agent. Export and import moves configurations between sandboxes, and the FAQ covers common questions.

Key points

• Agents are prototyped in sandbox environments only, using the AI development toolkit (preview, 27.2 for create and activate).
• Effective agent permissions are the intersection of the user’s and the agent’s permissions, so an agent never exceeds the scheduling user’s privileges.
• Profiles and page customization properties such as ClearActions and ClearLayout control what the agent sees and can do in the UI.
• Tasks are the unit of work; trigger them manually from the Agent Tasks page or through the Tasks AL API from UI actions and business events.
• Attachments support PDF, PNG and JPG, with file size limits and a 10-page PDF limit; custom processing can use Azure AI Document Intelligence.
• Iterate using the Agent Task Log, the page accessibility view of what the agent perceives, and instruction version history with comparison and rollback.
• Agent configurations (identity, instructions, permissions, profile) can be exported and imported as XML between sandboxes.
• Agent visibility in the role center depends on app installation, Copilot capability status, permissions and archiving state (28.1).

Subtopics

• Coding agents in AL (8 pages)

More Learn pages

• Attachment capabilities and limitations (preview): Learn about the capabilities and limitations when working with attachments in agent tasks within the AI development toolkit in Business Central. Understand supported file types, size limits, and best practices for document processing.
• Best practices for designing an agent (preview): Explore how to design, test, and refine agents using the AI development toolkit. Follow these best practices to optimize your prototypes.
• Create a Sales Validation Agent: Learn how to create and use a Sales Validation Agent in the agent design experience to automate sales order validation tasks in Business Central.
• Create and activate an agent (preview): Learn how to create and activate an agent in Business Central to automate tasks, integrate AI, and enhance your workflows.
• Designing and coding agents (preview): Discover the AI Development Toolkit for testing AI capabilities in Business Central by building agents. Prototype, validate, and refine AI-powered solutions.
• Export and Import an agent configuration: Learn how to export and import agent configurations in the agent design experience to streamline your development process.
• Frequently asked questions (preview): Get answers to common questions about designing agents in Business Central, including integration, AI development toolkit access, scheduling, instructions, and capabilities.
• Instruction keywords for an agent (preview): Learn about the instruction keywords you can use to guide the behavior of your agent in Business Central.
• Integrate with the Tasks AL API (preview): Learn how to integrate custom agents with common scenarios using the Tasks AL API in Dynamics 365 Business Central.
• Iterate and manage an agent (preview): Learn how to iterate and manage an agent designed in Business Central. Discover tools, logs, and customization options to optimize agent behavior.
• Run an agent (preview): Learn how to trigger an agent in Business Central. Optimize agent behavior with structured guidelines and clear steps.
• Set up agent permissions and profiles (preview): Discover how to configure agent permissions and profiles to control access and customize the user interface for sandbox environments.
• Transparency Note Business Central AI development toolkit (preview): Learn how the Business Central AI development toolkit empowers partners to prototype AI-powered agents, automate workflows, and enhance productivity responsibly.
• Understand agent visibility (preview): Learn what controls agent visibility in Business Central, including permissions, access controls, activation state, and archived agent behavior.
• Write effective instructions for an agent (preview): Learn how to author instructions for an agent in Business Central. Optimize agent behavior with structured guidelines and clear steps.

Videos, posts and code changes

Linked by a Haiku matcher with a grounding quote from the item’s summary (link/topics.ts); machine-generated.

• #10386 [Agent Archiving] Prevent archived custom agents from being modified (code change): “Prevent archived custom agents from being modified. Archived custom agents”
• #10431 [Agent Archiving] Fix broken reference links to archived agents and their tasks (code change): “Fix broken reference links to archived agents and their tasks”
• #10461 [SOA] Uptake Agent Task Message Failed status for outbound replies (code change): “Sales Order Agent now marks outbound replies as Failed”
• #11040 [Agent Archiving] Payables and Expense agent implementation for IAgentArchiving (code change): “Payables and Expense agents now implement the IAgentArchiving interface”
• #8967 Ability to archive agents (code change): “Agents can now be archived by admins from the Agent List and Card”
• #137 Add community guidance and review support for Business Central agents (code change): “Business Central agent developers gain 20 community-authored guidance rules”
• Creating Low-Code AI Agents with Copilot Studio and Business Central (community post): “Copilot Studio enables low-code creation of AI agents that connect to Business Central”
• Exploring Model Context Protocol (MCP) for Business Automation in Business Central (community post): “demonstrates setting up an MCP server for the sales quote process configuring it in Copilot Studio”
• Step-by-Step Guide to AI Campaigns in Business Central (community post): “building AI-powered marketing campaigns in Business Central using two coordinated AI agents”
• Step-by-Step Guide to Secure Business Central Agent Implementations in AL (community post): “secure AI agents in Business Central by implementing restrictive profiles, page customizations”
• Data agent inside Fabric ask question on your Business Central Data (community post): “Data Agents in Microsoft Fabric enable users to ask natural language questions”
• Agents in Business Central – part 2 – the prompt (community post): “Building effective agents in Business Central requires well-structured prompts”
• Agents in Business Central – part 6 – The conclusion (community post): “Agents in Business Central – part 6 – The conclusion. This post compares agents built directly in Business Central”
• Why Customer’s AI project fail? The gap between hype and reality. (community post): “Successful AI agents need orchestration layers handling multiple integrations”
• Visual Studio Code Agent hook for auditing your AL coding sessions. (community post): “VS Code Agent Hooks (in preview) as deterministic shell commands that run at agent lifecycle events”
• Weekly Review: Business Central AL Development – May 17–23, 2026 (community post): “Near-autonomous AL development pipelines can handle 12 stages with 3 human checkpoints”
• Which Tasks Should You Delegate to AI Agents? (community post): “Which Tasks Should You Delegate to AI Agents”
• What’s new and planned Business Central 2025 Wave 2 – v27🔔 (community post): “deeper generative AI through Copilot and autonomous agents”
• 🧠 Agent Skills + MCPs: check your BC extension health in VS Code 🔍 (community post): “Agent Skills are reusable instruction packages in VS Code that orchestrate external tools”
• Meet Custom Agents in Business Central (community post): “Meet Custom Agents in Business Central”
• Designing Agents for Business Central (community post): “Agent Design Experience in Business Central v27.4 is a sandbox tool for designing, testing, and refining agent instructions”
• Dutch Dynamics Community Event 10 February 2026 (community post): “Creating AI agents in Business Central version 27.4 allows developers to build agents”
• What’s New: Exporting and Importing Agent in Business Central (video): “agent export; agent import; agent definition; xml; agent backup”
• Getting Started With Agent Testing: How to Write Agent Evals in AL (Part 2) (video): “How to Write Agent Evals in AL; agent testing; evals; yaml-driven tests”
• What’s New: Sales Validation Sample Agent for Business Central (video): “Sales Validation Agent; Agent Configuration Card; Agent Dedicated Profile”
• What’s New: How To Create Agents in Business Central (video): “How To Create Agents in Business Central; agent creation; no-code configuration; task execution”
• 20260713 - From Zero to Agent Building agents in Business Central (video): “From Zero to Agent Building agents in Business Central”
• Business Central Under the Hood episode 14: Building Agents in Business Central (video): “Building Agents in Business Central; custom agents; agent instructions; permissions”
• What’s New: Business Central Agent Instruction History (video): “Agent Instruction History Autosave; Download Instructions; View Instruction History”

Source: Microsoft Learn (CC BY 4.0). Descriptions are Learn’s own.