Unbound actions in AL (via OData V4) provide a flexible way to expose logic not tied to specific entities. However, in the current Business Central development model, they are not treated as first-class citizens:

• No dedicated codeunit type to distinguish them from standard business logic.
• Manual registration is required via the Web Services page.
• No metadata, versioning, or built-in routing structure like API Pages offer.
• No way to clearly define and govern reusable service endpoints.

This makes the experience inconsistent and more difficult for developers building modern integrations or replacing SOAP-based services.

More: https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/dynamics365/business-central/dev-itpro/developer/devenv-creating-and-interacting-with-odatav4-unbound-action

We propose introducing a dedicated API codeunit subtype in AL to give unbound actions first-class citizen status in Business Central development.

codeunit 50110 "CustomerApiOperations"

{

  Subtype = API;

  APIPublisher = 'mycompany';

  APIGroup = 'customerOps';

  APIVersion = 'v2.0';

  procedure Ping(input: Integer): Integer

  begin

    exit(-input);

  end;

  procedure NotifyCustomer(inputJson: Text): Boolean

  var

    payload: JsonObject;

    customerNo: Code[20];

  begin

    payload.ReadFrom(inputJson);

    if payload.Get('customerNo', customerNo) then

      Message('Customer %1 has been notified.', customerNo);

    exit(true);

  end;

}

Automatically exposed as:

POST /api/mycompany/customerOps/v2.0/Ping

POST /api/mycompany/customerOps/v2.0/NotifyCustomer

Making unbound actions first-class citizens in AL would:

• Encourage modern, function-based integration patterns (microservices, headless scenarios, automation).
• Simplify discovery, documentation (OpenAPI), and versioning.
• Align AL development more closely with modern API-first standards.
• Make AL more expressive and efficient for scenarios where no table binding is needed.