Datadog Software Catalog provides a centralized registry to track and manage your software components, such as services, datastores, queues, frontend applications, APIs, and more. Component attributes like teams, on-call, runbooks, and source code links are managed through the Entity Definitions, which are Kubernetes-style YAML configuration files.

The automatic discovery feature in the Software Catalog means that if you are an existing Datadog user of Datadog’s APM, USM, or RUM products, the Software Catalog comes pre-populated with monitored components. You can extend the auto-populated Software Catalog by adding other components by creating Entity Definitions to represent any unmonitored components.

Depending on whether you are an existing APM, USM, or RUM user, you can follow one of the following setup paths.

New to Datadog

Existing Datadog user

Role based access and permissions

For general information, see Role Based Access Control and [Role Permissions][3].

Read permission

The Software Catalog read permission allows a user to read Software Catalog data, which enables the following features:

• Software Catalog list
• Discover UI
• Service Definition endpoint: /api/v2/services/definition/<service_name>

The permission is enabled by default in the Datadog Read Only Role and Datadog Standard Role.

Write permission

The Software Catalog write permission allows a user to modify Software Catalog data. The write permission is required for the following features:

• Inserting or Updating a Service Definition with the POST /api/v2/services/definitions endpoint
• Deleting a Service Definition with the DELETE /api/v2/services/definition/<service_name> endpoint
• Completing the onboarding process in the Discover Services UI
• Updating service metadata in the UI

The permission is enabled by default in the Datadog Admin Role and Datadog Standard Role.