Glossary
This glossary defines key terms used throughout the Simple Agent Designer documentation.
A
Ad Hoc Agent
A dedicated full-screen chat page for interacting with your default AI agent, separate from the Role Center. Provides its own navigation with direct access to workloads, tools, skills, and setup.
Agent
An AI-powered worker configured with a specific role, instructions, AI provider, and model. Agents process workloads by communicating with AI services and optionally using tools to interact with Business Central data. Also referred to as a "Worker" in technical contexts.
Agent Cooperation
The ability for multiple agents to work together on a task by passing messages through the orchestration engine. A coordinator agent can delegate subtasks to specialized agents and receive results back.
Agent Work
A tracking record that logs actions performed by AI agents, including reports generated, journal entries created, and workloads processed. Visible on the Role Center in the Agent Work part.
AI Provider
An external AI service that powers agent reasoning. Simple Agent Designer supports twelve providers: Azure Open AI, ChatGPT Open AI, Anthropic (Claude), LM Studio, Google Gemini, xAI Grok, Mistral, DeepSeek, Moonshot Kimi, Alibaba Qwen, Zhipu GLM, and MiniMax. Each agent can be configured with its own provider and model.
Additional AI Providers
Eight providers added in the 2.0 line, joining the original four: Google Gemini, xAI Grok, Mistral, DeepSeek, Moonshot Kimi (Moonshot AI), Alibaba Qwen, Zhipu GLM, and MiniMax. Each connects through its own endpoint and API key on the AI Providers page and can be assigned to any agent.
AL Runner
A specialized worker type (ALAI) that can compile and execute AL code snippets generated by other agents. Requires the AL Compiler and Interpreter extension.
Ask Queue
An internal message queue managed by the orchestration engine that holds pending messages between cooperating agents.
B
Background Processing
The ability to process workloads in a separate Business Central session, allowing the user's session to remain responsive during long-running agent operations.
Blob Field
A Binary Large Object field in Business Central that stores large content such as agent instructions, workload descriptions, and file attachments.
C
Compact Conversation
A tool that summarizes the current conversation history to reduce token usage during long interactive sessions. Preserves essential context while freeing up space in the AI model's context window.
Child Workload
A workload created automatically by a data splitter (Table Splitter or Excel Splitter) as a subset of a parent workload. Each child contains data for one record or row.
Conversation (Saved Conversation)
An auto-saved, resumable record of an interactive chat session. After each completed reply round, the chat is stored to the per-user AI Conversations list (title, provider, model, timestamps). Use the Resume Conversation action to reload a past chat and New Conversation to start fresh while keeping the prior one saved. Available in both the Role Center Interactive Agent and the Ad Hoc Agent.
Context Window
The maximum amount of text (measured in tokens) that an AI model can process in a single request, including system prompts, conversation history, and tool definitions.
D
Data Context
A reference (SystemId) to a specific Business Central record associated with a workload. Set by the Table Splitter when creating child workloads, allowing agents to access the original record.
DataBased Operation
A workload processing mode where the system queries a Business Central table and creates child workloads for each matching record, rather than sending the workload directly to an agent.
Data Modifier
A specialized worker type that updates existing records in Business Central tables based on AI analysis.
Data Splitter
A component that breaks large datasets into individual workloads. Simple Agent Designer includes a Table Splitter (for BC tables) and an Excel Splitter (for Excel files).
E
Email Notification
The ability for an agent to email a workload's configured recipients, via the send_email_notification tool. Requires Email Recipients to be set on the workload and a configured Business Central Email Account.
Excel Output
The ability for an agent to generate an Excel (.xlsx) file using the create_new_sheet, update_cell, and save_sheet tools. The generated file appears on the Agent Work list, where it can be downloaded.
Excel Splitter
A component that reads an uploaded Excel file and creates a child workload for each row. Supports files with or without header rows.
F
File Drag-and-Drop
The ability to drop files (images, PDFs, Excel, CSV) directly into the Ad Hoc Agent chat window. Files are sent to the agent for analysis alongside your message. This is available only in the Ad Hoc Agent page; the Role Center Interactive Agent part does not support file drop.
Function Calling
See "Tool Calling."
G
General Agent
The default agent used by the Interactive Agent chat on the Role Center. Only one agent should have the General Agent flag enabled at a time.
I
Inbound Request
A workload submission received from an external application through the Simple Agent Designer API. Inbound requests appear in the Inbound Request List and can be processed manually or automatically.
Incremental Processing
A Table Splitter feature that filters records by their modification date, processing only records that have changed since the last run. Controlled by the "Add Since Last Filter" setting on the Workload Type.
Integration Event
An AL extensibility mechanism that allows code to subscribe to events raised by other codeunits. Simple Agent Designer uses integration events for tool registration and execution.
Interactive Agent
The chat interface on the Agent Role Center that allows users to converse directly with the default AI agent in real time. Also available as a standalone page via the Ad Hoc Agent.
Interrupt
The ability to send a new message while the agent is executing tool calls, stopping the current tool processing and redirecting the agent to respond to the new message instead.
L
LLM (Large Language Model)
The AI model that powers an agent's reasoning. Examples include GPT-4, Claude Opus, and locally hosted models via LM Studio.
LM Studio
A desktop application for running open-source AI models locally. Simple Agent Designer supports LM Studio as an AI provider for privacy-sensitive or offline deployments.
M
Mobile App
A companion application for phones and tablets that connects to Business Central via QR code and allows users to submit workloads (photos, files, descriptions) from mobile devices.
Model
See "LLM."
N
New Work Wizard
A guided multi-step interface for creating workloads. Walks you through choosing an input type (file or text description), providing content, selecting a workload type, and choosing foreground or background processing.
O
Orchestration Engine
A singleton codeunit that coordinates workload processing, manages the worker chain, handles message passing between agents, and tracks processing progress. The core runtime component of Simple Agent Designer.
P
Parent Workload
The original workload from which child workloads are created by a data splitter. The parent workload is marked as Success when splitting completes; child workloads are then processed individually.
PayloadBased Operation
A workload processing mode where the workload description and attached file are sent directly to the assigned agent for processing, without data splitting.
Permission Set
A Business Central security object that grants access to specific tables, pages, and codeunits. Simple Agent Designer provides the "AI Accountant Hgd" permission set.
Process Activity
A log record created for each AI interaction during workload processing. Contains the agent ID, timestamp, AI response text, and tool usage. Provides a complete audit trail.
R
Rate Limiting
A restriction imposed by AI providers on the number of API requests per time period. Simple Agent Designer handles rate limits with automatic retry — a fixed 10-second wait between attempts, for up to 10 retries (not exponential backoff).
Role Center
A Business Central landing page tailored for a specific user role. Simple Agent Designer provides the "Agent Based Accounting" role center with workload management, agent chat, and work tracking.
S
Skill
A reusable knowledge entry consisting of a code, name, summary, and detailed instructions. Agents can retrieve skills at runtime using the get_skill tool to learn how to perform specific tasks. Skills can be created manually or imported from web articles.
SingleInstance
An AL codeunit attribute that maintains a single instance across the session. The Orchestration Engine uses this pattern to maintain state during workload processing.
SQL Query (run_sql_query)
A read-only SQL SELECT engine that agents use to query Business Central tables through the run_sql_query tool. It supports JOINs, GROUP BY, aggregates, and UNION, and caps results at 1000 rows. Companion schema-discovery tools find_table and get_fields_in_table help the agent locate tables and columns. Only SELECT statements are permitted — no data is modified.
System Prompt
A predefined message template used by the orchestration engine for standard communications with agents (starting work, checking completion, identifying agents, etc.). Configurable in Setup → System Prompts.
T
Table Splitter
A component that queries a Business Central table with configured filters and creates a child workload for each matching record. Used with DataBased workload types.
Token
The basic unit of text processing for AI models. One token is approximately 4 characters of English text. Token counts affect both cost (most providers charge per token) and context window limits.
Tool
A predefined function that an AI agent can call during processing to interact with Business Central data. Tools include data lookups, record creation, document creation, report execution, and more.
Tool Calling
The mechanism by which an AI model requests the execution of a tool during a conversation. The model provides the tool name and parameters; Simple Agent Designer executes the tool and returns the result.
Tool Designer
A feature that allows users to create custom tools with defined names, descriptions, and parameter schemas, extending the built-in tool catalog.
W
Worker
The technical term for an agent. Each worker has an Agent ID, type, title, instructions, and AI provider configuration. See "Agent."
Worker Interface
The AL interface that defines the contract all worker types implement: Init (initialization), Ask (processing), and AddFile (file attachment).
Worker Type
The specialization of an agent, determining what kind of operations it can perform. Types include AI (general), DataAI (data query), EntryAI (journal entries), SalesEntryAI (sales documents), PurchaseEntryAI (purchase documents), ALAI (AL code execution), and DataModifier (record updates).
Workload
A task definition that includes a description, optional file attachment, and processing status. The fundamental unit of work in Simple Agent Designer.
Workload Link
A tracking record that connects a workload to Business Central documents created during its processing (journal entries, sales documents, purchase documents, etc.).
Workload Type
A reusable template that defines how a category of workloads should be processed, including the assigned agent, processing mode, data splitting configuration, and document creation settings.