# Business Entities overview
Back to Build AI-ready systems overview.
Each Business Entity maps to one datasource manifest under a Connected System. Enterprise Knowledge, governed capabilities, sync, and certification are declared per entity.
Finishing this phase gets you one or more Business Entities with business vocabulary, policies, data flow, and AI contract exposure modeled — ready to validate and test.
Who this is for
Integrators modeling business vocabulary, policies, data flow (CIP), sync, and AI contract exposure for one datasourceKey.
Prerequisites
- Connected System scaffolded with authentication configured
- Entity basics, types, and resource type understood for your domain
Where it lives
integration/<systemKey>/
<systemKey>-datasource-<name>.json # one Business Entity per file
Dataplane UI: Connected Systems → select system → Business Entities → select entity → tabs (Business Vocabulary, Data Flow, …).
Configure pages (datasource manifest)
| Topic | Configure page | Manifest keys |
|---|---|---|
| Identity | Entity basics | key, displayName, systemKey, entityType, resourceType |
| Business language | Configure business vocabulary | fieldMappings |
| Field-mapping expressions | Configure field-mapping expressions | fieldMappings.attributes.expression |
| Metadata / identity | Configure metadata and identity | metadataSchema, primaryKey, labelKey |
| CIP execution | Configure data flow · step catalog | execution |
| AI contract | Configure AI contract | capabilities, exposed |
| Operations | Configure OpenAPI and MCP operations | openapi |
| Entity config | Configure entity configuration | none (system-level configuration[] only — see page) |
| Sync | Configure sync | sync |
| Webhook change signals and inbound capabilities | Configure webhook change signals | root webhook |
| Sync bridge | Configure sync bridge | root syncBridge |
| Field observers | Configure field observers | metadataSchema observer |
| CIP argument keys | Configure CIP argument keys | foreignKeys, exposed, CIP parameters |
| Governance | Configure business policies | dimensions, accessControl.abac, foreignKeys |
| Quality | Configure data quality | quality |
| Test payload | Configure validation and test payload | validation, testPayload |
Entity-type walkthroughs: Entity type guides.
How to set
- Pick an entity type guide matching your use case (record storage, document storage, vector store, static, records search).
- Set root identity:
key,displayName,systemKey,entityType,resourceType. - Configure business vocabulary and business policies.
- Add CIP operations and test payload before E2E.
- Validate:
aifabrix datasource validate <datasourceKey>andaifabrix validate <systemKey>.
Golden manifest patterns: help topic goldenExample — index on UI terminology map.
Limits
Some entity types and resource types require platform catalog registration before upload. Validation errors name the missing catalog row.
Next: Validate and test.