Create an Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector

  • Release version: Xanadu
  • Updated June 25, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read

    • Create an external content connector to retrieve searchable content and security principals from your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system.

    Before you begin

    A source system administrator must have already configured your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system to allow access by the Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector. For details on configuring these settings in the source system, see Configure Atlassian Confluence Cloud for external content indexing.

    Role required: admin

    Procedure

    1. Navigate to All > External Content Connectors > External Content Admin Home.
    2. If prompted, select Switch scope to switch to the External Content Connectors Admin scope.
      You need to be in this scope to create or edit external content connectors.
    3. In the Connectors section, select New.
    4. On the Choose source page, select the Confluence Cloud tile, then select Next.
    5. On the Connector details page, fill in the required connection settings.
      Connection setting Description
      Connector name Unique name for this Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector.
      URL URL for your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system, in this format: https://<your-instance-name>.atlassian.net.
      Instance ID

      Confluence Server ID for your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system. This should be the hostname from the source system URL, so if your instance URL is https://example.atlassian.net, your Confluence Server ID is example.

      If you're not sure how to find the Confluence Server ID for your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system, contact your Atlassian administrator.
      Client ID

      Client identifier for the OAuth 2.0 Atlassian developer application that grants Confluence API access to your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system.

      If you don't have this client identifier, ask your Atlassian administrator for it.
      Client Secret

      OAuth 2.0 client secret for the OAuth 2.0 Atlassian developer application that grants Confluence API access to your Atlassian Confluence Cloud source system.

      If you don't have this client secret, ask your Atlassian administrator for it.
      API Key

      API key from your Atlassian Administration console.

      If you don't have this API key, ask your Atlassian administrator for it.
    6. Select Save and validate.
      Note:
      If validation fails, an error message appears. Double-check your connection settings to ensure they're correct.

    Result

    Your new Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector appears in the Connectors section.

    What to do next

    You can optionally define crawl settings for your new Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector. Using these settings, you can limit the set of spaces you want the connector to crawl, or define the file extensions for documents you want the connector's crawls to include or exclude. To learn how to configure the connector's crawl settings, see Configure crawl settings for the Atlassian Confluence Cloud external content connector.

    If you want the connector to crawl everything in the source system, and don't want to apply file-extension inclusion or exclusion filters, you can skip definition of crawl settings and go straight on to define a crawl schedule for your new connector or run one-time crawls for it. For details on defining a crawl schedule, see Define a crawl schedule for an external content connector. To learn about running one-time crawls, see Run a one-time full or partial document crawl for an external content connector and Run a one-time user mapping crawl for an external content connector.

    You can create search sources for the connector's indexed source and link them to your search profiles. To view the connector's indexed source, navigate to All > AI Search > AI Search Index > Indexed Sources. For information about creating search sources and linking them to search profiles, see Search sources in AI Search.