Category Structure

This page maps the -Category parameter values to Microsoft's official Azure portal category names, the corresponding folder paths in the module tree, and the primary resource types covered.

Category Mapping

-Category Value	Azure Portal Label	Module Folder Path
AI	AI + Machine Learning	manifests/collectors/AI/
Analytics	Analytics	manifests/collectors/Analytics/
Compute	Compute	manifests/collectors/Compute/
Containers	Containers	manifests/collectors/Containers/
Databases	Databases	manifests/collectors/Databases/
DevOps	DevOps	manifests/collectors/DevOps/
General	General	manifests/collectors/General/
Hybrid	Hybrid + multicloud	manifests/collectors/Hybrid/
Identity	Identity	manifests/collectors/Identity/
Integration	Integration	manifests/collectors/Integration/
IoT	Internet of Things	manifests/collectors/IoT/
Management	Management and governance	manifests/collectors/Management/
Migration	Migration	manifests/collectors/Migration/
Monitor	Monitor	manifests/collectors/Monitor/
Networking	Networking	manifests/collectors/Networking/
Security	Security	manifests/collectors/Security/
Storage	Storage	manifests/collectors/Storage/
Web	Web & Mobile	manifests/collectors/Web/

DevOps, General and Migration are canonical categories as of v3.1.0 (AB#6741), each with its own manifest folder, [ValidateSet] entry and report heading. They are not aliases for anything — see the warning below.

Accepted Aliases

The following long-form names (as shown in the Azure portal) are automatically normalized to their short equivalents. Matching is case-insensitive.

Input	Normalized to
AI + machine learning	AI
AI+machine learning	AI
Machine Learning	AI
Internet of Things	IoT
Monitoring	Monitor
Management and governance	Management
Management & governance	Management
Web & Mobile	Web
Web and mobile	Web
Mobile	Web
Hybrid + multicloud	Hybrid
Hybrid+multicloud	Hybrid
Networking + CDN	Networking
Networking+CDN	Networking

DevOps and Migration are not aliases

Both used to be listed here resolving to Management. They are canonical categories as of v3.1.0, each with its own manifest directory, so folding either into Management would silently run the wrong collectors. The old alias entries were also unreachable even before the removal — neither string was in the -Category [ValidateSet], so parameter binding rejected them before the alias map was ever consulted.

See the Category Reference for the full mapping of report section headings to categories, collector folders, and module counts.

Category Selection Logic

When -Category is specified, AzureScout:

1. Normalizes any alias values to canonical short names
2. Loads only the module files inside the matching category folders
3. Restricts Resource Graph and REST API queries to those modules' resource types
4. Generates reports containing only the selected categories

When -Category All is used (the default), all category folders are included.

# Run only Compute and Security modules
Invoke-AzureScout -Category Compute,Security

# Full portal name also works
Invoke-AzureScout -Category 'AI + machine learning'

# Default — all categories
Invoke-AzureScout

Adding a New Category

To add a new category:

1. Create a new folder under manifests/collectors/
2. Add the folder name to [ValidateSet] for -Category in Invoke-AzureScout.ps1
3. Add any alias entries to the $_categoryAliasMap hashtable in Invoke-AzureScout.ps1
4. Update the Coverage Table with the new modules

See Contributing for full guidance on adding modules.