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Business Agents

Business agents are AI systems that plan and execute real‑world tasks by calling external APIs and workflows—securely, observably, and under your organization’s controls.

TL;DR: The world runs on APIs. Business agents turn API catalogs into capabilities and execute them reliably with proper auth, permissions, and monitoring.

Why now?

  • APIs everywhere → Your business logic already lives behind APIs and SaaS tools.
  • LLMs are planners → Given tool descriptions and guardrails, they can choose the right capability.
  • Standards matured → OpenAPI, Arazzo (workflows), and MCP (tooling transport) enable interoperability.
  • Enterprise needs → Security, audit, observability, and repeatability are non‑negotiable.

Core principles

  • Capabilities, not code — Agents consume descriptions of operations and workflows, not bespoke glue code.
  • Just‑in‑Time Tooling (JITT) — Load tools on demand to reduce hallucination and keep the agent’s context clean.
  • Auth‑aware planning — Agents only plan with what they’re authorized to use (AuthN + AuthZ).
  • Workflows first — Deterministic recipes deliver reliability, speed, and cost efficiency.
  • Open by design — Built on OpenAPI, Arazzo, and MCP for portability and future‑proofing.
  • Governed & observable — Centralized credentials, permissions, and fleet telemetry.

A mental model

[User / System] ── goal ─▶ [Agent Planner] ──(needs tools)──▶ [Capability Catalog]
                               │                                  (OpenAPI + Arazzo)
                               │ plan + steps
                               ▼
                        [Agent Executor] ──calls──▶ [APIs / Workflows]
                               │                          ▲
                               │ telemetry                │ auth
                               ▼                          │
                       [Observability & Policy] ◀── [Central Auth/Perms]

How Jentic fits

Jentic is one platform for business‑agent capabilities:

  • Capability Catalog — 1,500+ APIs and 2k+ agent‑ready workflows; all open‑source and standards‑based.
  • Secure by default — Centralized credentials, managed auth, unified permissions.
  • JITT tooling — Load only what the agent needs, when it needs it.
  • Learned workflows — Agents improve via usage‑derived and curated workflows.
  • Observability — See your agent fleet, calls, and data flows for governance.
  • Everywhere — Use with Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop (via MCP), cloud agent platforms, or your bespoke agents.

Get started

Capabilities vs. Workflows

  • Capabilities (from OpenAPI): atomic, typed operations (e.g., “Send a Discord DM”).
  • Workflows (from Arazzo): deterministic multi‑step recipes with inputs/outputs (e.g., “Create Zendesk ticket, then notify Slack with ticket URL”).

Why workflows win for production:

  • Fewer LLM decisions at runtime → higher reliability
  • Reusable, testable, reviewable → better governance
  • Cached patterns → lower latency and cost

Security & governance

  • Managed Authentication — Credentials stored centrally; never hard‑coded into prompts or client code.
  • Unified Permissions — Scope what each agent can call; enforce org policy across agent fleets.
  • Audit & Observability — End‑to‑end tracing of tools, workflows, and data movement.

See: Credentials & keys

Reliability by design (JITT)

Preloading dozens of tools in context invites confusion. With Just‑in‑Time Tooling, the agent:

  1. Plans with known/authorized capabilities
  2. Loads the specific tools it needs
  3. Executes with validated inputs
  4. Emits telemetry for continuous improvement

Result: Fewer hallucinations, better parameterization, stable outcomes.

Where business agents live

  • Prebuilt agents: Cursor, Windsurf, Claude Desktop (connect via MCP)
  • Cloud stacks: AWS Bedrock, Microsoft Copilot Studio, Google Vertex AI

  • Custom agents: Your own framework with the Jentic SDK

  • Python SDK

  • TypeScript SDK (request)

Example outcomes

  • Support Ops: auto‑triage emails → create Zendesk ticket → summarize to Slack.
  • RevOps: enrich a lead → add to CRM → send intro email via provider.
  • FinOps: pull invoices → detect anomalies → file to data warehouse and alert.
  • IT Ops: rotate a secret → update dependent services → notify on-call channel.

Anti‑patterns to avoid

  • Stuffing secrets into prompts or agent memory
  • Hard‑coding API glue for each tool/vendor
  • Preloading massive tool lists into every LLM call
  • Relying on ad‑hoc, uncontrolled “scripts” without auditability

FAQ

Is Jentic required to build a business agent? No—but Jentic eliminates a ton of undifferentiated heavy lifting (auth, cataloging, workflows, observability) and aligns everything to open standards.

Can I bring my own private APIs? Yes. You can add private APIs and workflows and control who/what can access them (self‑hosted support coming).

Does this lock me in? Jentic is open‑standards–first (OpenAPI, Arazzo, MCP). Your capabilities remain portable.

Next steps

Want to help shape the catalog? See Contributing.

Appendix: term glossary

  • Capability — a typed, documented operation (typically from OpenAPI).
  • Workflow — a deterministic multi‑step recipe (Arazzo).
  • MCP — Model Context Protocol; transports tools to agent clients.
  • JITT — Just‑in‑Time Tooling; load tools only when needed.
  • AuthN/AuthZ — Authentication/Authorization.