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Catalog Auto-Discovery with Harness CD Services

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This document is a detailed guide on how to use the Harness IDP Catalog Auto-Discovery integration to sync Harness CD services into the IDP Catalog. This integration populates your Catalog with CD services so you can sync, view, and manage them directly in Catalog. Services are created as IDP service entities and kept in real-time, uni-directional sync with their corresponding CD services.

Before you begin​

Make sure the following prerequisites are met:

  1. The feature flag IDP_CATALOG_CD_AUTO_DISCOVERY is enabled. Contact Harness Support to enable it.
  2. Harness CD is enabled for your account. This must be the same account you use for Harness IDP.
  3. You have the required RBAC permissions to manage integrations. All operations for CD and Platform integrations require the IDP Integration Edit permission (IDP_INTEGRATION_EDIT) on the IDP Integration resource type (IDP_INTEGRATION).

Catalog Auto-Discovery with Harness CD​

1. Enable the Harness CD Auto-Discovery integration​

  1. In Harness IDP, go to Configure → Integrations.
  2. On the Harness CD services integration card, select Enable.

2. Sync Harness CD services to the IDP Catalog​

After enabling the integration, configure what to sync:

  • IDP entities created: Each CD service appears in Catalog as an IDP entity with:

    • kind: Component
    • type: Service

  • Entity ID mapping:

    • The IDP entity is created with the same entity ID as the CD service ID.
    • Scope restrictions apply: The CD service and IDP entity must be in the same scope (account, organization, or project).
    • If an IDP entity with the same CD service ID already exists (created manually), the system performs a merge operation:
      • The CD service gets linked to the existing IDP entity
      • Ingested metadata from the CD service is added
      • Other existing details in the IDP entity remain unchanged

  • Entity fields populated (read-only in IDP): The following fields are fetched from the CD service and remain synced:

Harness CD FieldIDP Entity FieldEditable in IDP
Service Namemetadata.name❌ No (synced from CD)
Service Identifiermetadata.identifier❌ No (synced from CD)
Service Descriptionmetadata.description❌ No (synced from CD)
Service Tagsmetadata.tags❌ No (synced from CD)
Additional MetadataCustom fields✅ Yes (IDP-specific)

Important notes:

  • Description and Tags from the CD service are synced to the IDP entity and cannot be edited in IDP.
  • Once the link is established, the IDP entity will reflect the CD service's name, description, and tags.
  • If an IDP entity already has description or tags before linking, the CD service values take precedence and overwrite them.
  • To update these fields, make changes in Harness CD; they will automatically sync to IDP.
  • IDP-CD Service Sync: Sync is uni-directional from CD service → IDP entity. Changes made to the IDP entity are not propagated back to the CD service.
  • RBAC: You can view and sync services from the same projects and organizations you have access to in Harness CD.

Configure the sync scope​

  1. On the same integration card, select Edit.

  2. Choose a scope:

    • All Scopes — Sync services across the entire account (all organizations and projects).
    • Particular Organizations & Projects — Sync from selected organizations and/or projects using the dropdown.

  3. Select Save Changes to begin syncing.

Changing Scope Filters

If you remove a project or organization from the sync scope:

  • Existing linked entities from that project/org will remain in the IDP Catalog unchanged.
  • These entities will stop receiving updates from their corresponding CD services.
  • The link between the CD service and IDP entity remains, but sync is paused.
  • To resume sync, add the project/org back to the scope filter.

That’s it; your CD services will appear in the IDP Catalog.

For suspending auto-discovery, see Suspend Auto-Discovery.

3. View & manage CD services in the IDP Catalog​

Once synced, search for any CD service in IDP Catalog:

  • Open the entity to view all data synced from the CD service.
  • The CI/CD plugin is automatically configured for the entity.
  • Use Open in Harness CD on the entity overview to navigate to the service in CD.

Check the IDP entity reference in Harness CD​

  • In Harness CD, open the relevant CD service.
  • Go to the Referenced by section.
  • From there, open the corresponding IDP entity.

4. Suspend Auto-Discovery​

What happens when auto-discovery is suspended:

  • New CD services will not be automatically created as IDP entities.
  • Existing IDP entities that were created through auto-discovery will remain unchanged.
  • The sync between existing CD services and their corresponding IDP entities will stop.

To stop auto-discovery:

  1. Go to Configure → Integrations → Harness CD, then select Edit.
  2. Enable Suspend Auto-discovery and select Save Changes.

Auto-discovery is now suspended.

CD Auto-Discovery with IDP_INTEGRATIONS Feature Flag​

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This enhanced CD Auto-Discovery experience requires the IDP_INTEGRATIONS feature flag to be enabled. Contact Harness Support to enable it.

When the IDP_INTEGRATIONS feature flag is enabled, the CD Auto-Discovery integration transforms into a more powerful workflow with enhanced discovery and management capabilities for CD services.

What changes with the IDP_INTEGRATIONS feature flag?​

The CD Auto-Discovery workflow becomes more comprehensive with new capabilities:

Enhanced discovery and management: Instead of services being automatically imported, you now have a Discovered tab where all CD services appear first. Use the Sync Services button to manually refresh and fetch the latest services within your configured scope. From here, you can review each service (seeing its name, kind, type, scope, and available actions) and decide whether to register it as a new entity or merge it with an existing catalog entity. This gives you complete control over how services are brought into your catalog. Once you import services (individually or in bulk), they move to the Imported tab for easy management.

Sync Services

Entity sync behavior: CD services sync the same fields as before (name, identifier, description, tags), but with the enhanced workflow you get more visibility into the sync process. If an entity with the same CD service ID already exists, the system performs a merge operation automatically. You can view which entities are linked to which CD services in the Imported tab.

Flexible import options: You can import services one at a time or select multiple services for bulk import. There's also an Auto-import toggle that automatically imports all future discovered services, giving you the choice between manual curation and automatic syncing.

Import Toggle

Register vs Merge: For each discovered service, choose how to bring it into your catalog. Register creates a fresh catalog entry, while Merge links the CD service to an existing entity, combining information from both sources. This is particularly useful when you already have catalog entities defined and want to enrich them with CD service data.

Imported services management: The Imported tab shows all services that have been brought into your catalog, displaying the relationship between CD services and IDP entities. You can unlink services at any time using the three-dot menu, which stops sync updates while keeping the IDP entity intact.

Imported Services

Configuration changes: When configuring the sync scope, you'll use the Configuration button instead of Edit, and confirm changes with Confirm instead of Save Changes. The scope selection options remain the same (All Scopes or specific organizations/projects), but you can now also select specific account-level entities.

In addition to scope selection, you can now configure DORA metrics settings:

  • Set the deployment cycle period (in days) to define the time window for calculating DORA metrics
  • Once configured, DORA metrics from CD (deployment frequency, lead time, change failure rate, and mean time to recovery) will be automatically sent to the catalog entity
Configuration
Scope Filter Changes

If you remove a project or organization from the sync scope, existing linked entities from that scope remain in your catalog unchanged but stop receiving updates. The link between the CD service and IDP entity remains active but sync is paused. To resume sync, add the scope back to the filter.

Suspend behavior: When you suspend auto-discovery with the IDP_INTEGRATIONS feature flag enabled, new CD services won't appear in the Discovered tab, and the Discovered tab won't refresh automatically. Existing entities remain unchanged, and you can re-enable auto-discovery at any time.

Additional RBAC requirement: All operations for CD Auto-Discovery with the IDP_INTEGRATIONS feature flag require the IDP Integration Edit permission (IDP_INTEGRATION_EDIT) on the IDP Integration resource type.