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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 — 10,000+ APIs and agent‑ready workflows; all open‑source and standards‑based.
  • Secure by default — Centralized credentials, credential injection, unified permissions.
  • JITT tooling — Load only what the agent needs, when it needs it.
  • 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

  • Credential Injection — Credentials stored centrally and injected at execution time; they never reach the agent, its 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, driving your self-hosted Jentic One instance via the jentic CLI or MCP

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. Jentic One is self-hosted — you add private APIs and workflows to your own instance and control who/what can access them.

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

Next steps

  • Try it end‑to‑end → Quickstart
  • Use it from IDEs → MCP overview — hosted directory search + your instance as a custom connector
  • Questions? → Contact us

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.