--- mapped_pages: - https://www.elastic.co/guide/en/elasticsearch/plugins/current/discovery.html --- # Discovery plugins [discovery] Discovery plugins extend Elasticsearch by adding new seed hosts providers that can be used to extend the [cluster formation module](docs-content://deploy-manage/distributed-architecture/discovery-cluster-formation.md). ## Core discovery plugins [_core_discovery_plugins] The core discovery plugins are: [EC2 discovery](/reference/elasticsearch-plugins/discovery-ec2.md) : The EC2 discovery plugin uses the [AWS API](https://github.com/aws/aws-sdk-java) to identify the addresses of seed hosts. [Azure Classic discovery](/reference/elasticsearch-plugins/discovery-azure-classic.md) : The Azure Classic discovery plugin uses the Azure Classic API to identify the addresses of seed hosts. [GCE discovery](/reference/elasticsearch-plugins/discovery-gce.md) : The Google Compute Engine discovery plugin uses the GCE API to identify the addresses of seed hosts.