How tests are provisioned in Drata
Tests in Drata can appear in your environment in two ways:
Automatically provisioned when a framework is enabled
Manually imported from the Test Library
Drata-owned tests (framework-driven)
Most of the tests visible in Compliance → Monitoring are Drata-owned tests. These tests are automatically provisioned when you enable a framework, such as SOC 2 or any ISO framework.
Frameworks contain controls, and Drata provisions the monitoring tests mapped to those controls when the framework is enabled.
If the required connection for a test (for example AWS, Azure, or GCP) does not exist yet, the test remains inactive. The test activates automatically once the required connection is established. Because of this behavior, it is expected to see tests become enabled after creating a new connection.
Test Library (manually imported tests)
The Test Library is the broader catalog of tests supported by Drata. It includes:
All Drata-owned tests
Approximately 1,000+ AI-generated Infrastructure tests
Tests in the Test Library are not automatically added to your environment unless they are provisioned through framework enablement. New AI-generated Infrastructure tests must always be manually imported from the Test Library.
Prerequisite: The required connection must already exist in the workspace before a test can be imported from the Test Library.
Drata-owned tests can also be manually imported from the Test Library if you want to:
Create an additional copy that you can fully customize
Access additional tests associated with frameworks that are not currently enabled in your environment
Use them for custom frameworks. After importing a test, you can map it to custom controls within your custom framework to support your compliance monitoring requirements.
Summary
Drata-owned tests are automatically provisioned when a framework is enabled. Subsequent copies of these tests can be imported from the Test Library.
If the required connection does not exist, the test remains inactive until the connection is added.
AI-generated tests are never automatically provisioned and must be manually imported from the Test Library.
The following diagram visualizes how this workflow determines which tests are added to your monitoring:
