If you’ve logged into the omni.mulesoft.com and wondered whether you’re supposed to stop using Anypoint Platform now, you’re not. They’re two surfaces over the same control plane, each tuned for different work. This isn’t a migration you have to plan; it’s a second tool you reach for when the job fits it.
The short version: keep building, publishing, and running APIs and integrations in Anypoint Platform. Govern, monitor, and optimize your full AI portfolio (agents, MCP servers, LLM proxies, and APIs together) in the enhanced experience. The rest of this post is the task-by-task breakdown so you know which tab to open without guessing.
Is the enhanced experience replacing Anypoint Platform?
The enhanced experience isn’t “the new Anypoint Platform” that deprecates the old one. The official comparison doc is explicit about it: both platforms have robust capabilities, they emphasize different strengths, and a workflow routinely spans both.
What’s actually new is the organizing principle. Classic Anypoint Platform is product-centric: you navigate by tool, with Exchange for assets, API Manager for policies, Runtime Manager for deployments, and API Governance for conformance. The Enhanced Experience is service-centric: you navigate by the thing you’re managing (an agent, an MCP server, an API), and its design, policies, conformance, cost, and monitoring all sit on that one service’s detail page.
That reframing matters most when AI services are in the mix. An agent on Bedrock, an MCP server you stood up, an LLM proxy, and a REST API don’t fit neatly into an API-only mental model. The Enhanced Experience treats them as peers in one portfolio (its name for the top-level catalog of all your services, grouped by type: Agents, MCP Servers, LLM Proxies, APIs, and Gateways) and shows how they connect.
Enhanced Experience vs. Anypoint Platform: What each is best for
Here’s the decision table, drawn straight from MuleSoft’s own task-by-platform guidance:
| Task | Use this | Why? |
|---|---|---|
| API design and documentation | Anypoint Platform | Anypoint Code Builder for crafting APIs in RAML/OAS and publishing docs |
| Integration development | Anypoint Platform | Anypoint Code Builder is purpose-built for flows, connectors, and system integration |
| Runtime application management | Anypoint Platform | Runtime Manager deploys, manages, and monitors Mule apps on CloudHub / Runtime Fabric |
| Policy enforcement and governance | Enhanced Experience | Apply and track governance across agents, APIs, and services with unified conformance reporting |
| Multi-agent ecosystem management | Enhanced Experience | Monitor and optimize how AI agents interact across the portfolio |
| Cost and performance optimization | Enhanced Experience | Token usage, per-instance signals, and cost tooling across agents, APIs, and MCP servers |
The pattern: Anypoint Platform is strongest for building services and for deep, API-centric governance (API Manager policies, API Governance rulesets). The Enhanced Experience is strongest when you need to govern and operate the whole portfolio (agents, MCP servers, and LLM proxies alongside APIs) as one. The next two sections unpack each side.
Stay in Anypoint Platform for design, build, and run
Anypoint Platform owns the creation and runtime lifecycle. Nothing about the Enhanced Experience changes where this work happens.
- API design and documentation: Author specs in RAML or OAS in Anypoint Code Builder, publish to Exchange, and maintain detailed documentation
- Integration development: Building flows, wiring connectors, and designing the actual integration logic is Anypoint Code Builder (and Anypoint Studio) work
- Runtime application management: Deploying and monitoring Mule applications during runtime operations lives in Runtime Manager
- Publishing and deep lifecycle policy: Exchange and API Manager remain the home for publishing assets and the deep, runtime-level policy and lifecycle management that API Manager has always handled
- CI/CD: Your own pipelines (Jenkins, GitHub Actions, and the like) keep deploying Mule apps to Anypoint runtimes through the Mule Maven Plugin or Anypoint CLI. The Enhanced Experience doesn’t touch this path
Rule of thumb: if you’re building an API or integration, or running a Mule app, you’re in Anypoint Platform.
Switch to the Enhanced Experience for portfolio governance and AI operations
The Enhanced Experience is where you manage services after they exist, especially when your portfolio includes agents and MCP servers, not just APIs.
- Governance across agents and APIs: Define and apply policies across domains (access and security, performance and cost, data privacy and integrity, compliance and observability), then read rule-level conformance reports on each service’s Conformance Report tab. The governance model isn’t API-only; it’s framed for AI services, too
- Multi-agent ecosystem management: When workflows involve several interacting agents, this is the surface that monitors and optimizes those interactions as a cohesive system
- Cost and token optimization: Governance → Cost Management surfaces token usage and per-instance spend signals, with optimization strategies (like tool mapping and tool sanitization) aimed at MCP servers and AI paths. This is genuinely new ground that classic API-centric tooling didn’t cover
- Instance-level policy control: For instances backed by Omni Gateway, the Enhanced Experience elevates instance-level governance, including tuning policy order from a named policy catalog
- Multi-vendor / multi-cloud breadth: Under Platform → Providers, connect and scan services across vendors like AWS Bedrock and Google Vertex AI alongside your MuleSoft footprint, so a multi-vendor AI stack doesn’t force each vendor’s console to be your only view
Rule of thumb: if you’re governing or optimizing across the portfolio (or the service is an agent, MCP server, or LLM proxy), you’re in the Enhanced Experience. Deep, single-API policy work still has a home in API Manager.
When to use both together
The two surfaces aren’t a wall; they’re a handoff. The comparison doc’s dual-use examples make the seam concrete:
- Launching a new API: Do the initial policy setup in Anypoint Platform when you launch, then use the Enhanced Experience for ongoing monitoring and adjustment so policies stay effective
- Cross-referencing design with governance: Design and document the API in Anypoint Code Builder, then add it to your Enhanced Experience Portfolio to review its compliance details alongside the design
- Agent-driven integrations: Start an integration in Anypoint Platform, then use the Enhanced Experience to confirm each participating agent complies with your standards
- Performance under load → cost in production: Monitor API performance during development in Anypoint Platform; switch to the Enhanced Experience for ongoing cost optimization once it’s in full production
A typical lifecycle reads as: design and build in Anypoint Platform → publish to Exchange → register/scan into the Enhanced Experience Portfolio → govern, monitor, and optimize there → feed findings back into the next change window.
How to access the Enhanced Experience
The Enhanced Experience uses the same Anypoint Access Management identity you already have; it isn’t a separate account. Common entry points:
- From Anypoint Platform: Look for the new-experience banner and choose Go to the new experience; your admin can also pin a direct link in the nav
- From a coding assistant: If your org connects it to a supported assistant like Claude Code, you reach Enhanced Experience features from your IDE. For headless, conversational access to the same capabilities, see the MuleSoft Platform MCP Server
- Direct URL: Your org can hand out a standalone sign-in URL
Permissions map to the Anypoint Access Management roles you already know: Exchange Viewer/Contributor to view or create services, API Manager roles for instances and policies, Monitoring Viewer for the Monitoring tab, and API Governance roles for strategies and reports. Exact names vary by org; if a page shows an authorization error, that’s a missing role, not a missing feature. The full mapping lives in the Get Started permissions table.
When to use which
Don’t think “old platform vs. new platform.” Think build-time vs. portfolio-time. Anypoint Platform is where services get designed, implemented, deployed, and run. The Enhanced Experience is where your whole portfolio (agents, MCP servers, LLM proxies, and APIs) gets governed, monitored, and cost-optimized as one connected system. You’ll use both, often in the same week, and the handoff between them is the point, not a rough edge.
If AI services are becoming central to what you ship, the Enhanced Experience is the surface that finally treats them as first-class citizens instead of bolting them onto an API-shaped console.
Where to go next
- Enhanced Experience vs. Anypoint Platform: The full task-by-platform table with dual-use examples
- Enhanced Experience overview: The end-to-end 10-step portfolio workflow: onboard → register → instances → policies → conformance → monitor → cost → tune
- Get Started with the Enhanced Experience: Access paths, prerequisites, and the full permissions-to-roles mapping
