Trident for Procurement
Trident for Procurement tridentforprocurement.woodsidesolutions.com/architecture · October 2026

Trident for Procurement Architecture Overview

Trident for Procurement runs on SAP Business Technology Platform (SAP BTP). Agents read SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA data through Model Context Protocol (MCP) servers. All model calls go through the generative AI hub in SAP AI Core. A buyer approves every write-back, and each step is recorded in a signed audit trail.

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Diagram

How the parts connect

Trident for Procurement architecture Buyers, suppliers and administrators use the Trident web app, or optionally Joule. Trident for Procurement runs on SAP BTP in the Cloud Foundry environment. It contains the ten skills, the document library and knowledge base, and the agents: the observer syncs data, the reasoner raises findings and proposes write-backs, a buyer approves, and the actuator writes back. MCP servers connect Trident to SAP Ariba Sourcing and SAP Ariba Contracts, and to SAP S/4HANA purchase orders and business partners. Model calls go to the generative AI hub in SAP AI Core. A signed audit trail records every step. USERS Buyers Suppliers Administrators Trident web app in a browser Joule (optional) SAP BTP · CLOUD FOUNDRY ENVIRONMENT Trident for Procurement Ten skills RFPs, proposals, contracts, SOWs, negotiation, awards Document library Keyword search over documents and synced SAP records sync 01 Observer Syncs and compares 02 Reasoner Applies policies and proposes 03 Buyer approval or rejection 04 Actuator Writes to SAP when approved Signed audit trail Skill runs, AI calls, proposals, approvals, write-backs, settings PostgreSQL on SAP BTP · SAP Authorization and Trust Management service MCP servers SAP ARIBA Sourcing Sourcing events Contracts Contract records SAP S/4HANA Purchase orders Business partners Read through sync. Written only after buyer approval. model calls Generative AI hub in SAP AI Core Model chosen by an administrator from those available

Scroll the diagram sideways to see all of it. Solid arrows are the normal path. The dashed arrow is optional. Write-backs to SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA pass through buyer approval first.

Agents

Observer, reasoner and actuator

The three agents share one job: keep buyers informed about changes in SAP and prepare the next step, without acting on SAP on their own.

01

Observer

Syncs SAP Ariba sourcing events and contracts, and SAP S/4HANA purchase orders and business partners, through the MCP servers. It compares each sync with the last one and records new and changed items, plus events that close soon and contracts that expire soon. It runs on a schedule an administrator sets, or when an administrator starts it.

02

Reasoner

Applies the procurement policies an administrator sets: the purchase order review threshold, contract expiry and event closing windows, the compliance risk threshold and required clauses. It raises findings with a severity and the policy version they came from. When a linked SAP Ariba event is out of step with its project, it proposes a write-back. If turned on, it also runs RFP analysis on new sourcing events and compliance checks on new or changed contracts.

03

Actuator

Writes to SAP only after a buyer approves: it pushes an award or closes an event in SAP Ariba Sourcing, or creates a purchase order in SAP S/4HANA. It writes exactly the values the buyer reviewed. No other part of Trident writes to SAP.

Approval

From proposal to write-back

StepWhat happens
01ProposeThe reasoner, or a buyer on a project, proposes a write-back. Nothing is written yet. The proposal stores the exact values, such as the awarded supplier and award date, or the purchase order amount.
02ReviewA buyer in the buying organization opens the proposal from Agent Activity or the project and sees the values that will be written.
03Approve or rejectApprove writes the values. Reject writes nothing. With four-eyes approval turned on, the person who proposed it can't approve it.
04CheckBefore writing, Trident prepares the values again. If they changed since the proposal, the approval stops and the write-back has to be proposed again. Two people approving at once results in one write.
05Write and recordThe actuator writes to SAP Ariba or SAP S/4HANA through the MCP server. The proposal, approval and write-back are each recorded in the signed audit trail.

Nothing is written to SAP Ariba or SAP S/4HANA until a buyer approves it.

Components

Other components

MCP servers

Built-in MCP servers for SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA give the agents read tools and proposal-only write tools. Administrators can register more MCP servers. The observer then syncs and indexes their data without code changes. Policy rules and write-back actions for a new source are added in code.

Generative AI hub in SAP AI Core

Skills, the reasoner's optional skill runs and Ask AI answers call a model through the generative AI hub in SAP AI Core. An administrator chooses the model for all users from the models available there.

Document library and knowledge base

Uploaded documents and synced SAP records are split into passages and indexed for keyword search. Skills retrieve the most relevant passages and show which sources they used. Documents belong to an organization, and buyers and suppliers search only their own organization's documents.

Signed audit trail

Every skill run, AI call, proposal, approval, rejection, write-back, agent run and settings change creates an audit record. Each record is signed with HMAC-SHA256 over its action, resource, user, outcome and details. Administrators can filter the trail by action and outcome.

Sign-in and roles

Users sign in through SAP BTP with the SAP Authorization and Trust Management service. Buyer, supplier and administrator roles come from role collections. Trident also checks organization membership and which side of a project the user is on.

Data storage

Projects, documents, findings, approvals and the audit trail are stored in PostgreSQL on SAP BTP. Trident reads SAP Ariba and SAP S/4HANA through their APIs and writes to them only through approved write-backs.

Joule is optional: skills can be run from Joule for customers who use it, but it isn't required or the default.

Screens

Agents and connections in the app

The Agent Activity screen, Findings tab. Five open findings with severity, a description, the reason and the policy rule that raised each one: an SAP Ariba event closing soon, a purchase order above the review threshold, a new sourcing event, and two contracts inside the expiry window. Each has Acknowledge and Resolve buttons.
Sample dataFindings raised by the reasoner, each with the policy rule behind it.
The MCP Servers section in Settings, listing the built-in servers for SAP Ariba, SAP S/4HANA, Microsoft OneDrive and Google Drive with their status, and an option to register another MCP server. Below it, the Data Source Integrations cards.
Sample dataBuilt-in MCP servers and the option to register more.