The AI agents for CICS Transaction Server, delivered with the latest IBM watsonx Assistant for Z release provide rapid access to expert knowledge and best practice guidance from the CICS development teams, combined with live system data. (View the full announcement here: IBM CICS Transaction Server agents for Z are now generally available!)

In this blog, I’d like to walk you through the problem determination agent, which explains error codes, identifies likely causes, and recommends next steps that are tailored to your environment. Right now, the problem determination agent can be used to help with your queries about DFHAC error codes, which indicate issues related to transactions and their associated programs.

How do I use the problem determination agent?

Open Watsonx Orchestrate and select IBM CICS Transaction Server agents for Z. Then, type your question into the text field to get started. Make sure the questions you ask are direct and include any relevant context to help the agent provide an accurate response.

For this example, we will ask:

“I am seeing DFHAC2016 on transaction TXN1”

Since this question is about a problem on the user’s system, it will be directed to the problem determination agent by our routing agent (for more information about what happens ‘under the covers’ when you submit a question to the agent, see this blog: Demystifying IBM CICS Transaction Server agents for Z – LLMs meet the mainframe).

The problem determination agent will consider the query by extracting any key information and the specific error code mentioned – in this case, error code DFHAC2016 and transaction TXN1. 

The agent combines a mix of error code details from the CICS TS documentation and live system data via the MCP server running in CICS TS (launched with CICS TS 6.3 ) to answer the question, providing tailored explanations and possible actions to be taken. The response is structured like so:

Quick summary of the problem.

Live System Information – What the agent can see from your system that’s relevant to the problem

Resolution – How to resolve the issue based on what the agent can see in your system 

Further information – Where the information has come from, along with any additional context

In our example, we can see from the response that DFHAC2016 gets triggered when the transaction’s associated program isn’t available. It also tells us that Program PROGA1 is currently disabled, so we know the fix is simple – just enable it. 

It’s quick and easy to understand what’s going wrong, and with the MCP server, we can pull in our context system information to help tailor our response to what we need. By comparison, if you are looking to resolve this error code without use of our agent, the Documentation provides eight possible causes, which need to be worked through in order to diagnose the root issue.

What if it's not connected to live system data?

If it’s not connected to live system data, the agent will answer your question with the information that it has available (i.e. the details it retrieves from the CICS TS documentation). So, we will ask the same question: 

“I am seeing DFHAC2016 on transaction TXN1”

From a report of DFHAC, we know that the transaction (TXN1) cannot be executed due to a program not being available. The actions suggested, in this case, are to check that the program is properly installed, enabled, and defined in the CICS region to resolve the error.

Anything else I should be aware of?

Any connection made to your live system information through the agent is read-only. It won’t perform any actions on your system – it’s simply gathering the information relevant to your question.

Also, keep in mind that the agents don’t currently support ongoing conversations. They won’t remember previous messages, so each question you ask will return a standalone, static response. It’s best practice, therefore, to always include all the necessary information (error code and relevant program name) in your query.

Ready to give it a go?

Whether you’re troubleshooting a transaction issue or just exploring what AI can do in CICS, the problem determination agent offers a fast, reliable way to get tailored answers. Try it out and see how it can streamline your support process! 

Learn more about AI agents in CICS from the CICS TS Documentation: CICS and AI

View the installation guide and details of other pre-built IBM Z agents available as part of watsonx Assistant for Z: IBM Z AI Agents on GitHub

Watch this video to learn more about agentic AI in general, and a deeper dive into the MCP server embedded into CICS TS 6.3: AI agent support in CICS TS 6.3