Link and manage projects for cross-project search

This page explains how to link Elastic Cloud Serverless projects for cross-project search (CPS), manage your linked projects, and unlink projects you no longer need to search across.

For more details about CPS configuration, refer to Configure cross-project search. For information about using CPS, refer to Cross-project search.

Before you link projects for cross-project search, review these prerequisites and key concepts:

• Review the architecture patterns to choose the right linking topology for your organization.
• Review the default cross-project search scope for each space and make any necessary adjustments. If you don't set default CPS scopes at the space level, all searches from the origin project will query data from every linked project by default, right after you link projects.
• Review user access and programmatic access for each linked project. Users and API keys need to have the appropriate permissions to access the linked projects.

In cross-project search configurations, project links are unidirectional and independent:

• Searches that run from a linked project do not run against the origin project. If you need bidirectional search, link the projects twice, in both directions.
• Linking projects is not transitive. If Project A links to Project B, and Project B links to Project C, Project A cannot automatically search Project C. Each link is independent.

To link projects, use the cross-project search linking wizard in the Elastic Cloud UI:

1. Make sure you've completed the tasks in the Before you begin section.

2. On the home screen, find the project you want to use as the origin project and click Manage.

   Warning

   At this time, you should not use an Elastic Security project as an origin project for cross-project search in production. Some Elastic Security features are not fully functional when CPS is enabled on an Elastic Security origin project. You can still link Elastic Security projects to an origin project of another type.

3. Use the sidebar to navigate to the Cross-project search page.

4. Click Link projects. Browse or search for projects to link to the origin project. Only compatible projects appear in the project list. You can filter by type, cloud provider, region, and tags.

5. Select the checkbox for each project you want to link. You can link up to 20 projects to each origin project.

   If a project you expected to link to is missing from the list, it might not meet the requirements, or you might not have the necessary permissions on the linked project.

6. Complete the remaining steps in the wizard to review and save your selections. In the last step, you can click View API request to see the equivalent API request for linking to the selected projects.

On the origin project's Cross-project search page, you can reconfigure cross-project search as needed:

• Link additional projects: Click Link projects to add more linked projects, up to the 20-project maximum for the origin project.
• Unlink projects: Remove connections by unlinking projects.
• Open space settings in Kibana: Click Manage spaces to set or adjust the default CPS scope for the space.

To remove a linked project from the current CPS configuration, navigate to the Cross-project search page. Select the checkbox next to the projects you want to disconnect, then click Unlink.

After you confirm, searches from the origin project will no longer include data from the unlinked projects.

You can also link and unlink projects programmatically using the Elastic Cloud API. In the linking wizard, click View API request in the review step to see the equivalent API call for your current selection.