---
schema_version: "1"
id: 7d20856a82c0a3785024182576c5ee53e1ade3464c2613040e55ca901c8b8e62
title: Discovering and Cataloging External Services with Scanners
collection: mulesoft
version: current
locale: en-us
portal_url: https://docs.salesforce.com/mulesoft/current/en-us/exchange/discovering-and-importing-external-agents.md
canonical_url: https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/discovering-and-importing-external-agents
source_site: docs.mulesoft.com
content_type: documentation
content_hash: ca242780b7e8f5867f14ac9c97975648c71c6229b85a8e39e63c821df3d0709a
description: MuleSoft Documentation Site
latest: true
---
---
product: Exchange
---

# Discovering and Cataloging External Services with Scanners

> For the full documentation index, see: https://docs.mulesoft.com/llms.txt

Use scanners to automatically discover, import, and catalog services from outside Anypoint Platform.
Scanners connect to external provider platforms and pull in metadata for agents, APIs, and Model
Context Protocol (MCP) servers your teams rely on. They give enterprise-grade governance and
visibility through MuleSoft Agent Fabric by synchronizing that metadata with the Agent Fabric
registry in Anypoint Exchange.

What each scan imports depends on the provider: some ecosystems expose agents; others also surface
API definitions or MCP endpoints that Exchange can represent as catalog services. Scanners extract
metadata, map it into Exchange-friendly forms (including the canonical Agent-to-Agent (A2A)
representation for agentic services where applicable), and keep the catalog aligned with the source.
The system detects updates and resolves conflicts to maintain a single source of truth.

Create a scanner to connect to a supported external platform and configure how often it runs.
Schedule scans at specific intervals, set up the connection, and opt into email notifications. After
a scan completes, review a summary of imported services and the scan history.

Imported services appear in the Exchange catalog in the views that match their type—for example
**Agents & Tools** for agents, MCP servers, and related agentic services, and the usual API
experiences for API specifications your provider exposes to the scanner. Scanners detect new and
missing services and metadata changes. Later scans overwrite metadata from Exchange with values from
the source and can restore services removed from Exchange while the scanner still sees them
externally. To keep local edits, change the service in the provider’s source of truth.

After you add a scanner to a business group, you can’t move the scanner or its managed services to
another group. Click **Scanners** in the sidebar to see all scanners for the group. The list shows
the scanner status, name, provider, service type,last run status, next run, and counts of added or
updated services.

![Scanners page showing a list of scanners](/mulesoft/current/en-us/exchange/_images/scanner-list.png)

Exchange supports these scanner types:

- Agents

- APIs

- MCP servers

## Find a Scanner

By scanner type

- [Agent Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/agent-scanners)

- [API Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/api-scanners)

- [MCP Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/mcp-scanners)

By provider

- [Amazon Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/aws-scanners)

- [Anthropic Platform Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/anthropic-scanners)

- [Databricks Platform Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/databricks-scanners)

- [GoDaddy Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/godaddy-scanners)

- [Google Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/google-scanners)

- [Kong Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/kong-scanners)

- [LangChain Platform Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/langchain-scanners)

- [Microsoft Platform Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/microsoft-scanners)

- [Salesforce Agentforce Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/agentforce-scanners)

- [ServiceNow Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/servicenow-scanners)

- [Snowflake Platform Scanners](https://docs.mulesoft.com/exchange/snowflake-scanners)

## Security and Data Retention

Sensitive information, such as API keys and tokens, is stored in Anypoint Security secrets manager.
To maintain compliance, create credentials with least privilege.

The system retains scan logs and statuses for at least 90 days and never deletes the most recent
successful run.

Scanners enforce these limits:

- Frequency: Once daily

- Retrieval: 1,200 services per runtime limit

- Capacity: 10,000 services

- Runtime: 6 hours

  If a scan exceeds the runtime limit, the scanner saves the progress and continues the scan the
  next time it runs.

## Before You Begin Adding a Scanner

Make sure you have the permission and access:

- Exchange Administrator permission

- Verify that you are in the business group where you want to add the scanner.