Business Central Under the Hood Special Edition: The Future of AL with Vibe Coding

Overview

The session explains vibe coding as using AI, through agent mode in VS Code, to generate AL code from natural language requests and written specifications. It starts with a small demo that adds a shoe size field to the Customer table, where the agent reads app.json to pick the right ID range, then moves to a property rental example. There the agent asks clarifying questions, writes a specification and generates tables, pages, codeunits and permissions.

The presenters cover how to give the agent context (file references, symbols, readme files, chat instructions), how to pick among models such as GPT-5 preview, and how compiler diagnostics feed into generation. They also describe MCP servers, including a Business Central documentation server, and say that compile, publish and test tools and an environment metadata MCP server are still being worked on.

Key points

• Agent mode in VS Code reads app.json to resolve ID ranges and creates table extensions, page extensions and other scaffolding from a natural language request.
• The agent can be asked to produce 10 or more clarifying questions and then a specification before it writes code; specs can be saved in files.
• Context can be narrowed with file references, symbols, documentation and readme files, and chat instructions or prompt files can hold company coding rules and naming conventions.
• Generated code can contain errors and may not follow guidelines perfectly. The agent has no compile method to call and relies on diagnostics produced while it builds, so error messages sometimes have to be fed back by hand.
• Checkpoints let you review each stage and restore an earlier one if the agent goes off track.
• A Business Central documentation MCP server was shown, and you can add your own MCP servers. An environment metadata MCP server, a compile tool, and publish and test tools were described as planned or in development.
• The presenters recommend it for production-grade coding as a productivity tool for scaffolding and tedious tasks. It is harder to use on complex existing applications with many years of development.

Features

AL objects mentioned

As heard in the captions. A name that matches one object page by exact type and name links to it; the others stay as named.

• table 18 “Customer” at 2:24
• other “app JSON” at 3:16
• table “Customer table” at 14:03
• other “properties leases” at 15:38
• page “pages” at 17:28
• codeunit “code units” at 17:28

Not found in BC28-30: table “Customer table”, page “pages”, codeunit “code units”.

Quotes

• 0:57 “basically it’s just uh using AI to help you code, right? So help you get started with your coding and get get things going.”
• 1:26 “we’re taking it one step further using the agent mode in in VS code here or in other tools and we are letting the”
• 2:46 “I like the GT5 preview right now uh because that’s one of the newest models you can choose from a lot of other models”
• 8:30 “going in and manipulating small details that are in your existing application that maybe has a lot of years on it or complex design,”
• 10:47 “that’s where you get to the true vibe coding where you don’t need to look at the actual code. You talk about the spec.”
• 25:19 “compile is one of them. We also are thinking maybe we should add the ability to publish it and we’re looking into test execution.”
• 25:43 “We are actually working on that right now. So that’s in the scope right now.”
• 26:06 “So what we are working alo on also is adding MCP servers. So the model context protocol for giving the agents more context to”
• 26:23 “It’s basically a standard um it’s an open source standard right uh and it’s um it’s it’s mostly a discovery mechanism that allows agents”
• 28:18 “we are thinking about adding even more like the one we have for business central is more about getting access to the customer data”
• 30:45 “Is that something that uh you you would recommend people use also for production uh production grade coding? Yes. Yeah, absolutely.”
• 31:07 “This is a productivity tool. It will help you do all the tedious, the scaffolding, all the the things that you have to do”
• 31:56 “different tools you should try you should try which one actually works for you there’s a bit of a of you know a taste”
• 33:42 “if if you’re just working on creating permission sets this might replace that but i think we as developers are”

Disclaimers in the video

• 2:46 preview: I like the GT5 preview right now uh because that’s one of the newest models
• 24:13 other: there is no compile method for the agent to call it relies on the diagnostics to be produced while it’s building
• 25:08 coming-later: We need to give the agent more tools compile is one of them We also are thinking maybe we should add the ability to publish
• 28:18 coming-later: we are thinking about adding even more like the one we have for business central is more about getting access to the customer data right but we need to add an MCP server that gives you access to the the environment metadata
• 28:39 coming-later: we want to broaden that out so you can actually develop even more with this metadata MCP server

Presenters (as heard): Stefan, unknown speaker 1, unknown speaker 2.