How to enable API Management Connector inside VS Code Logic App Standard Workflow Designer

If you’ve been working with Azure Logic Apps Standard in Visual Studio Code and noticed that the API Management connector is conspicuously absent from the list of connectors inside the workflow designer, you’re not alone. This is a typical behavior that many developers encounter, and understanding why it happens—and how to enable it—can save you a lot of headaches.

So, if you create a new Logic App Standard project or open your existing project inside VS Code and if you try to add an action and cannot find the API Management actions/connector from the Add an action panel:

Don’t go mad and start despairing; it’s normal behavior for this connector!

Despite at first glance, this looks like strange behavior or a bug because we are trying to use a built-in connector, and it doesn’t show up as “expected.” We would expect it to be on the list. This is not a bug. This is a feature by design and a custom behavior of this connector.

To enable the API Management connector, we need to:

• Right-click on top of one workflow and select the option Use Connectors from Azure –> We are not really going to work with management Azure connectors, but we need their behavior 🙂

• This will ask you to select a Subscription and Resource group.
  • Choose the subscription and resource group where you will publish this project — it doesn’t need to be the same as API Management.
• After that, it is IMPORTANT to close all the workflow designers you have open inside VSCode.
• Now, we need to open the workflow designer again. It will ask you to authenticate in Azure — use your account.
• After that, if you try to find the API Management connector, it will be present.

This behavior happens because the API Management connector needs to access Azure to load the existing instances of APIM and the correct APIs. So although it is a “built-in” connector, it requires Azure connectivity to run. Once we enable the Use Connectors from Azure step, the connector will appear on the list and behave as expected.

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Author: Sandro Pereira

Sandro Pereira lives in Portugal and works as a consultant at DevScope. In the past years, he has been working on implementing Integration scenarios both on-premises and cloud for various clients, each with different scenarios from a technical point of view, size, and criticality, using Microsoft Azure, Microsoft BizTalk Server and different technologies like AS2, EDI, RosettaNet, SAP, TIBCO etc. He is a regular blogger, international speaker, and technical reviewer of several BizTalk books all focused on Integration. He is also the author of the book “BizTalk Mapping Patterns & Best Practices”. He has been awarded MVP since 2011 for his contributions to the integration community. View all posts by Sandro Pereira