btp

name	btp
description	Use when designing, building, or troubleshooting solutions on SAP Business Technology Platform — subaccounts, Cloud Foundry, Kyma, CAP, HANA Cloud, XSUAA, destinations, or any BTP service.

BTP (SAP Business Technology Platform)

Enforces secure, portable, multi-tenant-aware BTP architecture — no hard-coded credentials, no monolithic subaccount designs, no skipped security configurations.

Content Routing

Topic	Section
Subaccount design	Subaccount Architecture
CF vs Kyma choice	Runtime Decision
CAP development	CAP Patterns
Security / XSUAA	Security Patterns
HANA Cloud	HANA Cloud Patterns
Destinations	Destination Service

Iron Laws

1. ALWAYS CONSIDER MULTI-TENANCY FROM DAY ONE. Retrofitting multi-tenancy is 3-5x the effort of designing it in. Every BTP solution must document its tenancy model (single vs. multi) before architecture is approved.
2. NEVER HARD-CODE CREDENTIALS. No passwords, client secrets, or connection strings in code, config files, or environment variables set manually. All credentials live in the Credential Store, Destination Service, or Secret Store (Kyma). Hard-coded credentials will be rotated, and your app will break at 2am.
3. ALWAYS USE THE DESTINATION SERVICE FOR BACKEND CONNECTIVITY. Direct URL construction bypasses certificate management, load balancing, and the principal propagation chain. Destination Service is mandatory for all S/4HANA, on-prem, and external system calls.
4. NEVER SKIP XSUAA SCOPE CHECKS. An application that doesn't enforce scopes grants every authenticated user admin-level access. Define roles, role collections, and scopes in xs-security.json before the first protected endpoint is written.
5. NEVER DEPLOY TO PRODUCTION WITHOUT A SEPARATE SUBACCOUNT. Dev / Test / Prod are separate subaccounts, not separate spaces in the same subaccount. Shared subaccounts share entitlements, quotas, and blast radius.

Rationalization Table

Agent Will Try To...	Why It Seems Reasonable	Why It Fails	Counter
Put credentials in default-env.json	"It's only for local dev, not production"	default-env.json gets committed to git; rotated credentials break local envs for everyone	Use cf env export or .env in .gitignore; use Credential Store for real secrets
Use one subaccount for all landscapes	"Simpler to manage, fewer accounts"	Single subaccount = single quota pool; a runaway dev workload can starve production	Iron Law 5: Separate subaccounts are architecture, not bureaucracy
Skip xs-security.json scope design	"We'll add security after the PoC works"	XSUAA app registration cannot be easily retrofitted; scope names become API contracts	Define scopes on day one; they are cheap to define, expensive to change
Build on CF because it's familiar	"We've always used CF"	Kyma is mandatory for some scenarios (event mesh, complex Kubernetes workloads); choose based on requirements	See Runtime Decision section; document the choice with criteria
Use hdi-shared plan for production	"It's the easy HANA Cloud option"	hdi-shared is for dev/test; production requires dedicated HANA Cloud instance with HA config	Check service plan before provisioning; document the plan choice in architecture

Red Flags

• "I'll add the security config later..." → XSUAA scopes are an architecture decision. Define them now.
• "The credentials are just for the PoC..." → PoCs become production. Hard-code once, regret forever.
• "We can use the same subaccount for dev and prod..." → Iron Law 5 violation. Separate subaccounts are non-negotiable.
• "Let me just call the S/4HANA URL directly..." → Iron Law 3 violation. Use the Destination Service.
• "Multi-tenancy isn't needed for this project..." → Document that decision explicitly and get sign-off; don't assume it.

Before any BTP solution design or code: (1) Confirm subaccount landscape (dev/test/prod separation). (2) Confirm runtime choice (CF or Kyma) with documented rationale. (3) Confirm tenancy model. (4) Confirm all credentials will go through Destination Service or Credential Store. No architecture diagram or code until these four decisions are documented.

Subaccount Architecture

Hierarchy: Global Account → Directories (optional grouping) → Subaccounts → Spaces (CF) / Namespaces (Kyma)

Recommended Landscape:

• dev subaccount — developer sandbox, liberal quotas
• test / staging subaccount — integration testing, mirrors prod entitlements
• prod subaccount — production, restricted access, alerting enabled

Entitlement management: Assign service plans per subaccount. Never share entitlements across landscapes by co-locating in one subaccount.

Runtime Decision: CF vs Kyma

Factor	Choose CF	Choose Kyma
Primary language	Node.js, Java, Python	Any (container-based)
Complexity	Straightforward apps	Microservices, event-driven
Kubernetes needed	No	Yes
Event Mesh integration	Limited	Native
Custom runtime	Not supported	Full control
Operator model	Buildpacks	Helm charts

CAP Patterns

• cds.requires — declare service dependencies, never hard-code in handlers
• @restrict annotations — declarative authorization; supplement with req.user.is() in handlers
• Hybrid testing: cds bind --to <cloud-service> for local dev against real BTP services
• CAP + HANA: Use @sap/hana-client via cds add hana; never write raw HANA SQL in handlers
• Multitenancy: Use @sap/cds-mtxs extension; implement onSubscribe and onUnsubscribe handlers

Security Patterns (XSUAA)

Key xs-security.json elements:

xsappname, tenant-mode (dedicated|shared), scopes, role-templates, role-collections

• Principal propagation: Set forwardAuthToken: true in destination for user context forwarding to S/4HANA
• Service-to-service: Use grant-as-authority-to-apps in scopes; bind both apps to same XSUAA instance
• Token exchange: Use TokenExchange grant type for on-behalf-of flows

HANA Cloud Patterns

Object	Pattern
HDI containers	One container per app; never share across apps
Calculation views	Use sparingly; prefer CDS or SQL views for maintainability
Full-text search	CONTAINS predicate with FUZZY option
Monitoring	HANA Cockpit → Performance → Thread Samples for slow query analysis
Backup	Automatic daily; verify recovery point objective matches SLA

Key BTP Services Reference

Service	Purpose	Key Config
XSUAA	Authentication & authorization	xs-security.json
Destination Service	Backend connectivity	Destination config in BTP Cockpit
Connectivity Service	On-premise via Cloud Connector	OnPremise destination type
SAP Event Mesh	Async messaging	Queue/topic binding in enterprise-messaging.json
Alert Notification	Ops alerting	Conditions + actions in service config
Job Scheduling	Cron / one-time jobs	jobscheduler binding in mta.yaml
Audit Log	Compliance logging	Bind auditlog service; log via SDK

Verification

This skill is complete ONLY when ALL of the following are true:

• Subaccount landscape documented (dev/test/prod as separate subaccounts)
• Runtime choice (CF vs Kyma) documented with rationale
• Tenancy model documented and signed off
• Zero hard-coded credentials in code or mta.yaml — all via Destination Service or Credential Store
• xs-security.json scopes defined and reviewed
• Deployed app responds correctly to authentication + authorization checks (scope enforcement verified)

Evidence required: Architecture diagram showing subaccount structure; xs-security.json with defined scopes; deployment log showing successful bind to XSUAA and Destination Service.

Next Skill

After BTP solution design, invoke: abap-cloud (if ABAP extension) or integration-suite (if integration required) For security review, invoke: security-grc

Related Skills

• abap-cloud — ABAP development on BTP ABAP Environment
• integration-suite — API and integration patterns
• security-grc — Security and authorization review