Off-Neo migration of HTML5 Applications — Now with AI Skills

Migrating HTML5 Applications from Neo to Application Frontend Service — Now with AI Skills

SAP Neo is approaching end of life, and if you have HTML5 applications hosted there, you already know you need to move them to the multi-cloud environment. Application Frontend service is the natural destination — it brings back the simplicity and flexibility that Neo developers valued, now built on the multi-cloud foundation.

While SAP Business Application Studio provides a number of tools to assist with migration, the process is still mostly manual.  It can take a few hours for a simple application and up to days for a large-scale application.

We are happy to share a set of AI skills we built to automate most of this work.

Check out these earlier posts for more background about Application Frontend service:

• Introducing Application Frontend Service
• Simple UI Applications with Application Frontend Service
• Moving HTML5 Applications to Application Frontend Service

What Are These AI Skills?

The skill focuses is migration from SAP Neo, but it can also migrate applications based on HTML5 Repository that use a managed approuter or standalone approuter. It targets Cloud Foundry or Kyma runtimes and supports both XSUAA and IAS authentication.

The package ships with three skills, each covering a different phase of the migration lifecycle:

/appfront:migrate analyses your existing HTML5 project, proposes a migration plan, waits for your approval, and then executes all the configuration changes. It never modifies your original project — it copies your original project to a new folder appfront-migrated/ and all changes are done to this copy.

/appfront:validate validates your migrated project configuration for correctness and deployment readiness. It goes through mta.yaml, xs-app.json, xs-security.json, and service bindings, and reports any issues against a known-good checklist. It can also connect to a live deployed application and validate it at runtime.

/appfront:cleanup is used if you want to completely roll back all changes done with the skill. It un-deploys any deployed applications and any related service instances and removes the local output folder. It always asks before any destructive step and never touches your original source project.

The skills are open source and available on GitHub: https://github.com/SAP-samples/html5-applications-migration-skills-for-sap-btp.

What Does the Skill Actually Do?

When you run /appfront:migrate on a Neo HTML5 project, the skill works through the migration in phases:

First, it reads and analyses your source files — neo-app.json, neo-mta.yaml, and manifest.json — and builds a complete picture of your routing, security constraints, and destinations. It then presents you with a migration plan: exactly which files will be created, which will be modified, and which Neo-specific artifacts will be removed. Nothing changes until you approve.

Once you confirm, the skill generates the full Application Frontend configuration:

• xs-app.json — translated your neo-app.json routes and configurations
• xs-security.json — Neo security constraints mapped to XSUAA scopes, role templates, and role collections
• mta.yaml — with a content deployer module for deploying the application resources to Application Frontend

It also updates manifest.json, fixes the UI5 bootstrap path in index.html, and removes Grunt-based build artifacts that are no longer needed.

After generating the files, a built-in critic reviews the output against a checklist to identify common misconfigurations before you deploy.

Note: some steps still require manual action in the BTP cockpit — destination credentials with secrets are not exported from Neo for security reasons, so you will need to add those manually after import.

How Much Time Does It Save?

The table below provides an estimated comparison of the time needed to migrate applications manually and with the help of the AI skills, highlighting the potential time savings for applications of different sizes:

Note that end-to-end functional testing of your business logic is not included in these estimates. It requires developer or end user involvement and takes the same time regardless of how the technical migration was done.

 Mass Migration

The skills support mass migration of applications. If you have multiple applications with similar characteristics, you can run the skills to migrate all of them in one go. During the process, you can consolidate applications under the same business solution and MTA deployment or keep them completely independent. Simply answer the questions presented by the skill and, if needed, provide instructions in natural language to fine-tune the migration.

 Prerequisites and How to Get It

To use the migration skills, you will need:

• AI Coding tool like Claude Code installed and connected to an LLM service
• An SAP BTP subaccount with subscription to Application Frontend service
• Cloud Foundry CLI  installed and logged in to your target org and space
• MBT (Cloud MTA Build Tool) installed: npm install -g mbt
• [Optional] Application Frontend CLI (afctl) installed and logged in for fetching the application URL after deployment: npm install -g @SAP/appfront-cli

Detailed prerequisite list and installation instructions are available in the README file. The skills were built with Claude Code in mind, but they can be installed and used in other coding tools like GitHub Copilot.

Once the skills are installed navigate to your project directory and run /appfront:migrate to get started.

To sum up

If you still have HTML5 applications running in the SAP Neo environment, now is the time to migrate them to SAP multi-cloud. The good news is that, with AI skills like the ones above, the process has become much easier.
Give it a try and let me know in the comments how it worked for you. If you have suggestions for improvement, the best approach would be to contribute them directly to the project’s Git repository.

 Migrating HTML5 Applications from Neo to Application Frontend Service — Now with AI SkillsSAP Neo is approaching end of life, and if you have HTML5 applications hosted there, you already know you need to move them to the multi-cloud environment. Application Frontend service is the natural destination — it brings back the simplicity and flexibility that Neo developers valued, now built on the multi-cloud foundation.While SAP Business Application Studio provides a number of tools to assist with migration, the process is still mostly manual.  It can take a few hours for a simple application and up to days for a large-scale application.We are happy to share a set of AI skills we built to automate most of this work.Check out these earlier posts for more background about Application Frontend service:Introducing Application Frontend ServiceSimple UI Applications with Application Frontend ServiceMoving HTML5 Applications to Application Frontend ServiceWhat Are These AI Skills?The skill focuses is migration from SAP Neo, but it can also migrate applications based on HTML5 Repository that use a managed approuter or standalone approuter. It targets Cloud Foundry or Kyma runtimes and supports both XSUAA and IAS authentication.The package ships with three skills, each covering a different phase of the migration lifecycle:/appfront:migrate analyses your existing HTML5 project, proposes a migration plan, waits for your approval, and then executes all the configuration changes. It never modifies your original project — it copies your original project to a new folder appfront-migrated/ and all changes are done to this copy./appfront:validate validates your migrated project configuration for correctness and deployment readiness. It goes through mta.yaml, xs-app.json, xs-security.json, and service bindings, and reports any issues against a known-good checklist. It can also connect to a live deployed application and validate it at runtime./appfront:cleanup is used if you want to completely roll back all changes done with the skill. It un-deploys any deployed applications and any related service instances and removes the local output folder. It always asks before any destructive step and never touches your original source project.The skills are open source and available on GitHub: https://github.com/SAP-samples/html5-applications-migration-skills-for-sap-btp.What Does the Skill Actually Do?When you run /appfront:migrate on a Neo HTML5 project, the skill works through the migration in phases:First, it reads and analyses your source files — neo-app.json, neo-mta.yaml, and manifest.json — and builds a complete picture of your routing, security constraints, and destinations. It then presents you with a migration plan: exactly which files will be created, which will be modified, and which Neo-specific artifacts will be removed. Nothing changes until you approve.Once you confirm, the skill generates the full Application Frontend configuration:xs-app.json — translated your neo-app.json routes and configurationsxs-security.json — Neo security constraints mapped to XSUAA scopes, role templates, and role collectionsmta.yaml — with a content deployer module for deploying the application resources to Application FrontendIt also updates manifest.json, fixes the UI5 bootstrap path in index.html, and removes Grunt-based build artifacts that are no longer needed.After generating the files, a built-in critic reviews the output against a checklist to identify common misconfigurations before you deploy.Note: some steps still require manual action in the BTP cockpit — destination credentials with secrets are not exported from Neo for security reasons, so you will need to add those manually after import.How Much Time Does It Save?The table below provides an estimated comparison of the time needed to migrate applications manually and with the help of the AI skills, highlighting the potential time savings for applications of different sizes:App sizeManual effortSkill-assistedTime savedSmall (1–3 routes, simple roles)~3 hours~30 min~85%Medium (4–10 routes, multiple roles)~1 day (8 h)~1.5 hours~82%Large (10+ routes, complex roles, WorkZone)1–2 days~4 hours~75%Note that end-to-end functional testing of your business logic is not included in these estimates. It requires developer or end user involvement and takes the same time regardless of how the technical migration was done. Mass MigrationThe skills support mass migration of applications. If you have multiple applications with similar characteristics, you can run the skills to migrate all of them in one go. During the process, you can consolidate applications under the same business solution and MTA deployment or keep them completely independent. Simply answer the questions presented by the skill and, if needed, provide instructions in natural language to fine-tune the migration. Prerequisites and How to Get ItTo use the migration skills, you will need:AI Coding tool like Claude Code installed and connected to an LLM serviceAn SAP BTP subaccount with subscription to Application Frontend serviceCloud Foundry CLI  installed and logged in to your target org and spaceMBT (Cloud MTA Build Tool) installed: npm install -g mbt[Optional] Application Frontend CLI (afctl) installed and logged in for fetching the application URL after deployment: npm install -g @SAP/appfront-cliDetailed prerequisite list and installation instructions are available in the README file. The skills were built with Claude Code in mind, but they can be installed and used in other coding tools like GitHub Copilot.Once the skills are installed navigate to your project directory and run /appfront:migrate to get started.To sum upIf you still have HTML5 applications running in the SAP Neo environment, now is the time to migrate them to SAP multi-cloud. The good news is that, with AI skills like the ones above, the process has become much easier.Give it a try and let me know in the comments how it worked for you. If you have suggestions for improvement, the best approach would be to contribute them directly to the project’s Git repository.  Read More Technology Blog Posts by SAP articles 

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