Technologies are generally described to develop and implement a searchable knowledge source to identify distributed user interface (DUI) elements. In some examples, a DUI identification system may receive a control record of an application and populate one or more searchable knowledge sources based on an application description retrieved. The application description may include keywords, input elements, and output elements, and the searchable knowledge sources may be generated from control records of a multitude of applications. The DUI identification system may execute a query on the searchable knowledge sources based on the received keywords, input elements, and output elements associated with a target workflow from a requesting client. A query result that includes one or more DUI elements may be provided to the requesting client. The DUI elements may connect the input elements to corresponding output elements and match the keywords associated with the target workflow.