How discovery works
Where device and software data comes from, how it reaches AssetTrove, and how quickly it shows up.
Discovery keeps your inventory up to date without anyone typing. Your existing tools report the devices they know and the software installed on them, and AssetTrove turns that into one clean record per device.
Discovery sources
A source is one place data comes from. You manage sources on the Discovery page.
| Source type | How it works |
|---|---|
| Microsoft Intune | AssetTrove fetches devices and installed apps from Intune on a schedule (every 6 hours by default). See Connecting Microsoft Intune |
| Agent or script (API) | Your own agent, script or another tool sends data to AssetTrove. See Sending discovery data with the API |
| CSV import | A spreadsheet export from another system |
| Jamf, Kandji | Apple device management, on the roadmap |
Each source has a few settings:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Create new assets automatically | When a device doesn't match any existing asset, create one for it. Otherwise it waits in the review queue |
| Priority | When two sources disagree about a detail, such as memory size, the source with the higher priority (lower number) wins. Values you entered by hand always win over discovery |
| Stale after | Days without a report before a device counts as stale. Default 30 |
| Stop counting licences after | Days after which a stale device's software stops counting towards licence use. Default 45 |
Full and partial reports
Each sync is a run:
- A full run is the complete list of devices and software. Software that was there before but is missing now is marked as removed on the date of the run.
- A partial (delta) run contains only what changed.
Removed software is never deleted. AssetTrove keeps every installation's history, so you can answer questions like "Was Visio installed on that laptop on 1 March?" during an audit. Software that's removed and later reinstalled keeps its original first-seen date.
A run that's cancelled or abandoned never marks anything as removed, so a half-finished sync can't make software disappear.
What happens to each device
- AssetTrove cleans up the identifiers it receives: serial number, hardware UUID, network addresses, device management ID and hostname. Placeholder values like "To be filled by O.E.M." are ignored.
- It matches the device to an asset.
- It records the installed software and maps it to known products with title rules.
New data usually appears in your inventory within five minutes.
Where to see it
- The Discovery page lists each source, its runs and any problems.
- The Needs review queue lists devices AssetTrove couldn't match with confidence. See Resolving match conflicts.
- The Software page lists unrecognised software, most widespread first.