Discovering the catalog

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The Discover page is your catalog for finding and evaluating prebuilt agents, MCP servers, tools, and apps that you can use to automate work in IBM watsonx Orchestrate. From here, you can search, filter, and browse available assets, then use the selections directly in Orchestrate Chat to complete tasks. Asset availability might be subject to your organization's usability settings.

Catalog overview

The watsonx Orchestrate catalog helps you quickly find the agents, tools, and apps you can use to get your work done.

Agents

Agents are ready-to-use AI solutions that are designed for specific tasks and domains. They help streamline workflows and can be deployed quickly without custom development. See Prebuilt agents for more details.

MCP servers

MCP servers connect agents to external tools and services. They provide tools that agents use to perform actions beyond their built-in capabilities. The catalog lists MCP servers alongside agents and tools so you can find and evaluate integrations in one place. MCP servers are available as remote integrations and appear as Preview. See Exploring MCP servers for more details.

Tools

Prebuilt tools are ready-made actions that connect watsonx Orchestrate to external applications and services. Use them in agents to automate tasks and system interactions without creating custom integrations. See Prebuilt tools for more details.

Apps

You can access various third-party applications on the watsonx Orchestrate catalog. Each app is supported by corresponding agents and tools that enable intelligent automation across domains. Whether it's customer support, IT operations, or HR services, these apps offer a unified interface for users to interact efficiently. See Apps for more details.

Using the catalog

  1. From the main menu, select Discover to view the catalog.

  2. Use the Search bar at the top to quickly find relevant items. Enter a keyword or a natural language query (for example, "help me with billing") and review the matching results. After viewing search results, you can apply filters to further narrow down the results by type, category, or app.

  3. Select an item from the results to open its details page. Review its description and supported capabilities before deciding to use it.

Narrow results with filters

After performing a search, use filters to narrow down results and find the most relevant resources:

  1. Type: Show agents, tools, MCP servers, or all items.

  2. Categories: Select a domain (for example, HR, procurement, productivity, sales) to focus on relevant agents and tools.

  3. Apps: Limit results to items compatible with a specific application (for example, Salesforce or Workday).

  4. Usability: Filter assets by usability status to quickly identify which assets are available for use and which have been restricted by your tenant admin.

You can use the search bar to find agents, tools or MCP servers by name or description. You can also use the Sort by option to organize the list alphabetically (A–Z or Z–A) or by recently added.

Worked examples

Table 1. Examples

Example

Filter options

Finding an HR onboarding agent

Filter by Type: Agents and Category: HR, then open the agent details to check its required tools and app connections.

Finding Salesforce‑ready automations

Filter by Apps: Salesforce, and if needed, set Type: Tools to view the available Salesforce‑compatible actions.

Finding assets available for use

Filter by Usability: Usable to display only assets that your tenant admin has not restricted, so you can focus on what is available to add to your agents.

Using tags to evaluate

Each agent or tool tile includes tags that help you quickly understand and compare options in the catalog.

  • Source tag (for example, By: IBM) identifies the provider of the agent or tool.
  • Category tags (for example, Productivity, Security, IT) describe the domain or use case.
  • Additional tag count (for example, +2) indicates that more tags are associated with it. Open the agent, or tool to view all tags.

Tags appear consistently across agents and tools. Use them to assess relevance and choose what to explore next.

Evaluate items before use

Before selecting an agent, tool, or MCP server, review the following details to ensure it meets your requirements:

  • Capabilities: Confirm that the item supports the task you want to perform.

  • Dependencies: Check whether the item requires specific tools, apps, or integrations.

  • App compatibility: Verify that it works with the applications you use (for example, Salesforce or Workday).

  • Tags and categories: Use tags to quickly assess relevance and domain alignment.

  • Usability status: Check whether the asset is available for use in your organization. If the tenant admin has restricted Global catalog usability, the asset details page displays a notification and disables all usage actions. Contact your tenant admin to request access if needed. For more information, see Managing access to prebuilt assets .

Using agents and tools

After identifying the right agent or tool, you can run it directly from the Orchestrate Chat interface:

  1. From the main menu, click Chat.

  2. From the Agents dropdown, select the agent you discovered.

  3. Describe your task in natural language and send your message. The agent responds based on its configured capabilities and workflows.

Using prebuilt agents as templates

For prebuilt agents, you can copy them to Agent Builder and customize them for your specific needs:

  1. Open the prebuilt agent details page from the catalog.

  2. Click Use as Template to copy the agent to Agent Builder.

    Note:

    The Use as Template option and other usage actions are disabled if your Tenant Admin has turned off Global catalog asset usability. A notification on the details page explains the restriction. Contact your tenant admin to request access.

    Restriction:

    Global catalog usability is currently an all-or-nothing setting. Tenant admins cannot enable individual assets selectively. If your Tenant admin re-enables usability, all Global catalog assets become available simultaneously.

  3. Customize the agent's configuration, instructions, knowledge, and tools as needed.

  4. Save and deploy your customized agent.

For more guidance, see Using agents in Orchestrate Chat.

What to do next

Explore more about prebuilt resources:

Learn more:

Want to build your own agent? Explore resources for creating custom agents:

Learn more: